The brain plays a huge role in the rich sensory experience when we eat.

To create a rich dining experience, all of the basic senses should be engaged.

• Taste and smell play the largest role. Both senses identify and react to chemicals in food. This is known as flovour.
• Flavour is a sensation that uses many senses at once: an amalgam of taste, texture, temperature, and smell.
• Taste buds can differentiate between five basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (a savoury taste found in mushrooms or steak.)
• Humans have 450 different types of smell receptors, each of which can notice slightly different smell molecules.