Eating With Your Ears

Though you may be eating at a restaurant for the refined flavors, you may also be unwittingly gorging on noise. Research has shown that sound informs your experience as much as food, often in subliminal ways. One study, for example, discovered that the tempo of background music affects how quickly you eat. When it was 72 beats per minute or less, subjects ate at a slower pace — and spent more money and drank more. Plenty of chefs understand that their restaurants are essentially performance spaces and want to control the cacophony like a conductor would an orchestra.