Author: Isabel Gauthier, David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University

The seventh season of Julia Child’s “The French Chef,” the first of the television series to air in color, revealed how color can change the experience of food. While Child had charmed audiences in black and white, seeing “Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise” in color helped elevate the experience from merely entertaining to mouthwatering. I am a psychologist who studies visual abilities. My work, through a serendipitous research journey into individual differences in food recognition, uncovered a unique role for color in emotional responses to food. Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise, in gray scale, color, and simulating the most common form of…