Food taste experiences and gastrophysics: Gender matters?

Authors

Sangkyun Kim, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Min Xu
Eerang Park, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Handbook on Food Tourism

First Page

259

Last Page

271

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd

School

School of Business and Law

RAS ID

65014

Comments

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of: Kim, S., Xu, M., & Park, E. (2024). "Chapter 18: Food taste experiences and gastrophysics: gender matters?". In Handbook on Food Tourism. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803924175.00028

Abstract

This chapter aims to compare factors determining food taste experiences of male and female food tourists in the context of food tourism destinations. Adopting a gastrophysics approach, this exploratory qualitative study researched domestic Chinese food tourists visiting the Hangzhou Cuisine Museum and its associated dining experience restaurants in China. The results demonstrated that gender differences in food taste experiences of food tourists manifested during three phases: food selection; expectation and imagined food taste; and food taste appraisal. At the phase of food selection, male food tourists were more obsessed with their personal food and taste preferences, whereas female tourists prioritised the novelty and authenticity of certain dishes over others. Despite some similarities, at the phase of expectation and imagined food taste, female food tourists were inclined to hold more complex nuanced ideas regarding composition of food taste experiences and a higher expectation for the multisensory nature of food taste evaluation.

DOI

10.4337/9781803924175.00028

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.