A word of warning. You might think that Gastrophysics: the New Science of Eating will be a book about “molecular gastronomy”, in which scientists create novel concoctions using our understanding of how food materials transform when cooked. The term was coined in the late 1980s by the University of Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti, who famously created a reverse baked Alaska – a pudding that’s hot inside but cold outside – using a microwave oven. In fact, “gastrophysics” is a concatenation of gastronomy and “psychophysics” – a long-established branch of psychology that examines the link between physical stimuli and the sensations they produce. Gastrophysics, in other words, is a book all about the psychology of eating: how sight, smell, taste and dining environment influence our perception of the food we eat. Written by Oxford psychologist Charles Spence, the book nevertheless has some appeal for physicists, who will be intrigued, for example, by his description of why food and drink taste weird in the low-pressure environment of an aeroplane and why an unfeasibly large number of passengers pick tomato juice from the trolley (tomatoes are rich in umami taste, which we respond more strongly to on planes). The book, which over-eggs the anecdotes about famous chefs, suffers from presenting far more ideas than can be easily digested. Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, it leaves the reader full but not particularly satisfied.

• 2017 Viking 464pp £16.99hb

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