Leftward biases in poke bowl plating aesthetics

Abstract

Chefs attempt to plate food in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Current plating practices demonstrate spatial biases, and these biases will aid researchers in learning what plating style creates the most appetizing appearance to the average diner. Previous literature in artwork and laterality suggests that a leftward bias is commonly the most pleasing arrangement. This implies that plating the largest, most caloric heavy component of the meal on the left-side of the dishware would be the most aesthetically pleasing organization. Canadian participants were presented photographs of asymmetrically plated poke bowls and their mirror image concurrently and asked to select the preferred arrangement. Participants favoured poke bowls which had the highlighted elements of the meal plated on the left side of the bowl. This finding of a leftward bias in food plating aesthetics helps with optimizing plating techniques, which can benefit a variety of professions such as chefs, photographers, social media users, advertisers, and marketers in promoting ideal food images.