Designing the Dietary Journey: Translating Personalised Nutrition Science and Culinary Engineering into User Experience

Author: Rishi Khiroya

Reviewed by: Sarah Armes, Sarah Anderson

Based on the IANE webinar presented by Jaroslav Guzanic

Culinary education is often reduced to recipes and technique, yet a recent IANE webinar presented by research chef and culinary educator, Jaroslav Guzanic, suggested there is far more to the story. The session explored how sensory science, design thinking, and precision cooking can reshape the way culinary skills are taught and understood.

Rather than treating cooking as a purely technical skill, the webinar framed it as an interconnected system, drawing on fields ranging from neurogastronomy to nutrition education to explore the deep links among what we eat, how we experience it, and its effect on our health.

Exploring the Space Between Taste, Flavour, Experience and Health

The webinar's key objective was to examine this space, recognising that these elements are far more interconnected than commonly assumed. It can be approached from several angles, including the neurological (brain chemistry), the philosophical (how we define reality), and the user experience (how designers shape our experiences).

A synthesis of existing literature, empirical findings, and educational frameworks was presented, drawing together neurogastronomy, culinary arts and science, nutrition and public health, and nutrition education into a redesigned framework, positioning the teaching kitchen not simply as a place to learn recipes, but as a product and service capable of shaping knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and engagement.

Theoretical and Practical Gaps in Nutrition Education

Using an iceberg model, Jaroslav illustrated how nutrition education typically focuses on what is visible above the surface: understanding nutrients, food groups, and basic cooking demonstrations, often delivered through a "predominantly one-size-fits-all" approach.

Beneath the surface lie less visible but equally important gaps, including a limited understanding of the space among taste, flavour, experience, and health; a lack of design thinking; low levels of cultural and agroecological education; and minimal focus on the experiential user journey and its barriers.

Methodology and Key Findings

The research used a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative data gathered from structured taste testing and participants' own personal reflections on their food experiences. A total of 24 participants took part in exploratory pilot culinary sessions conducted in Switzerland between May 2024 and June 2025, with 58% participating in more than three sessions.

The results highlighted just how personal and inconsistent perceptions of taste and diet can be. 75% of participants expressed a subjective view of what constitutes a traditional diet and of taste, and 61% were not thinking about or aware of nutritional guidelines when preparing meals. 51% reported facing barriers when understanding recipes and recipe design, and 57% made food choices largely based on learned preferences, family habits, and trends rather than nutritional reasoning.

Perhaps most strikingly, 82% of participants reported a personalised sense of taste and used specific descriptions that did not correlate with the actual taste, underscoring how subjective and socially shaped taste perception is.

From Regular Eating to Conscious Eating

The webinar distinguished between different levels of eating experience. "Regular experience" centres on pleasure and socialising in curated dining settings. "Self-awareness," through mindful eating, shifts focus inward to hunger and fullness cues.

Beyond this sits "conscious eating," which considers the origin, ethical impact, and nutritional quality of food, aligning habits with personal values such as sustainability.

Real participant reflections, such as why lentils turned mushy despite following the recipe exactly, illustrated the gap between reproducing a recipe and truly understanding why food behaves as it does.

Biological and Cultural Dimensions of Taste

The webinar unpacked the "anatomy of a flavour profile", noting that taste accounts for only a small fraction of flavour perception, with aroma contributing up to 80%, alongside texture and temperature. Beyond biology, taste was also framed by cultural identity and by economic, cultural, symbolic, and social forms of capital.

Cooking Techniques, Food Pairing and Practical Outcomes

A breakdown compared cooking techniques, including steaming, boiling, and microwaving, against their impact on food bioactives and their best culinary uses, noting that boiling causes severe nutrient loss while steaming does not. A food pairing table further linked ingredients like balsamic vinegar and fish sauce to their flavour contributions and scientific rationales, such as balancing acidity with bitterness.

Before-and-after comparisons showed visible improvements in participants' plating and technique following coaching, while kitchen layout comparisons demonstrated how spatial design can reduce wasted steps. Reported gains included plating, food pairing, and design thinking skills, though barriers remain, including low standardisation across programmes and a persistent gap between AI-driven tools and human creativity.

Final Reflections

Overall, the webinar demonstrated that culinary education is evolving into a more interdisciplinary field, blending sensory science, cultural identity, and design thinking rather than relying solely on recipes. The findings reinforce the idea that meaningful culinary education must account for the full "food architecture", recognising that food is not only perceived but also felt, and that closing the gap between scientific findings and lived experience will be central to its future.