It just hit us that our favorite meals have something interesting in common. Chipotle’s burrito bowl, poke bowls, breakfast acai bowls — bowls, bowls, bowls. “Bowl food” has earned a special spot in our hearts, and that makes it seem like food always tastes better when it’s in a bowl. But, does eating from a bowl actually make a dish taste better?
Before we dive in, let’s talk about the history of bowls and dinnerware in general, because Americans didn’t always show an affinity for bowls. Once upon a time, dinnerware said something about your status in society.
Annaliese Griffin investigated the history of bowl-eating in an April 2018 piece for Quartzy. She found that for most of the twentieth century, bowls were strictly delegated to wet meals like soups and cereals.
For Americans in the 1900s, mixing foods in a single bowl was literally a foreign concept and was therefore frowned upon. Food historian Helen Zoe Veit told Griffin that the use of many plates, bowls, and serving utensils at a single meal showed Americans’ interest in keeping foods separate, therefore distinguishing themselves from those with a lesser societal status like immigrants and the poor.
The popularity of the bowl and the introduction of “bowl food” (layered grains, veggies, herbs, etc.) is most likely a response to modern-day Americans’ desire to eat healthier meals on the go. This want has led to the creation of fast food chains like Sweetgreen, Chipotle, and Tender Greens, which offer quick meals made with wholesome ingredients. Ultimately, our obsession with bowls shows that we’re throwing away the notion that someone needs several types of dinnerware to enjoy one meal.
But as much as we appreciate the convenience of the bowl meal, we are likely being sucked into this craze because our brains are being tricked into believing food tastes better when coming from a bowl than a plate.
So, does eating food from a bowl versus a plate make food taste better?
An expert in the psychology of taste at the University of Oxford, Charles Spence, told BBC Future in 2016 that everything from the temperature to the texture of platewear can influence our tastebuds.
For example, Spence noted that when we hold a bowl in our hands while eating, the weight of the food positively impacts our sense of satisfaction with our meal. Feeling the physical weight of what we’re consuming can even make the dish taste “more rich or intense,” Spence told BBC Future.
The mix of colors within a bowl can make the contents more appetizing, as can the temperature of the contents. Spence later noted to Griffen that research shows holding something warm in our hands helps us see the surrounding world as a warmer place.
So although bowls don’t necessarily make food taste any different than if a meal was served on a plate, the experience of eating from a bowl subconsciously puts us in a positive headspace that we therefore connect to bowl foods and their flavors.
Honestly, we’re okay with being bamboozled by the bowl. In fact, all this talk about bowl foods has given us a hankering for Chipotle — or maybe poke. Perhaps a Buddha bowl? Ooh! Sweetgreen.
