Gastronomic identities: exploring cross-cultural plating's influence on consumer implicit and explicit responses

Visual presentation is a key component of gastronomy reflecting cultural identity. Understanding how visual presentation influences consumer responses can help draw conclusions about the construction of gastronomic identity within a specific culture. This study investigated the effects of dish familiarity (three levels) and plating style (home-like vs. chef-like) on Dutch young adults' responses, and examined how explicit self-reports align with implicit emotional and psychophysiological indices. Fifty-three Dutch young adults evaluated images of three dishes from different gastronomic cultures: Dutch Hachee (familiar), Mexican Tacos (familiar non-native) and Vietnamese Bo Kho (unfamiliar), each presented in both plating styles. Data collection included physiological (electrodermal activity, heart rate), expressive (facial expressions), and self-reported measurements (liking, familiarity, and an EmojiGrid to capture valence and arousal). ANOVA was used to identify differences on the dish, presentation style and their interaction, and a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine how self-reported, physiological and expressive measures predicted liking. Results showed that consumers preferred foreign dishes over the Dutch dish in terms of liking, valence, and arousal, with chef-like presentations receiving the highest scores in these variables. However, the most liked dish (Tacos) scored lower in physiological and expressive measures, while the most unfamiliar dish (Bo Kho) scored the highest mostly in physiological measures. Regression analysis indicated that physiological and expressive measurements had limited predictive value for liking compared to self-reported measures. Aesthetic presentation and dish type enhanced consumer response, whereas familiarity did not. Self-reported measures remained the most reliable predictors of liking compared to implicit responses.