Ambiance of Eating: What Is Its Role?

By MOIRA HODGSONFEB. 3, 1982 This is a digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to . THERE seems to be no limit to the number of ways and places in which Americans take their meals: in bed, at coffee-shop counters, while sandwiched between other passengers on commuter trains, from brown bags at their desk. They eat chili to the twang of country and Western music and hamburgers that are served by waitresses on roller skates. They dine at drive-ins where plastic trays are fixed to their car windows and in restaurants where the lights are so dim that flashlights are needed to read the menu. At home, meals often turn into a sort of relay race, the freezer's treasures being consumed in front of the television set by one family member at a time.Considering that diversity of setting, one might ask, just how much does ambiance affect th e enjoyment of food? D oes the atmosphere of anelegant restaurant enhance the pleasure of wh at is eaten there? Does it really matter if we are watching the news, reading a book, having an argument or listening to classical music w hile we dine?An inspector for Guide Michelin once said that if the food was good enough he would give three stars to a restaurant that had Formica tables, neon lighting and blaring music in the background. ''But,'' he added, ''in actual fact the kind of place that goes to the trouble to make that sort of food naturally takes a great deal of trouble with the ambiance.''Great chefs and good home cooks understand that eating is both a physiological and a psychological act. Where one eats can be as important as what is eaten. The body responds in the most subtle of ways to surroundings - to harsh colors, bad lighting, noise or tension. It is no co incidence that some of the highest-rated restaurants arealso among th e most beautiful. ''Food is very important but many other things come into account,'' said Charles Masson Jr. of La Grenouille, o ne of the leading French restaurants in Manhattan. ''There must be a warm, festive ambiance, a simple decor that gives the feeling o f freshness, crispness and cleanliness. We want the dining room t o sparkle.'' Indeed it does at La Grenouille, with soft lighting, pas tel colors, silk lampshades, velvet banquettes and elaborate spr inglike flower arrangements.AdvertisementThe perfect ambiance for eating is more than beautiful surroundings, according to Andre Soltner, chef and owner of Lutece. ''Everything depends on the first contact between the restaurant and the customer,'' he said. ''We try to keep the atmosphere relaxed, not stiff or snobbish. From then on the ambiance carries from one table to another. A feeling builds, and each evening it is slightly different.''AdvertisementParticular foods seem to demand certain contexts, so that the wrong decor is often unsettling. A dark saloon is not the place for breakfast. Dinner in an empty restaurant is depressing, no matter how good the food. Pizza does not seem to go with candelight, nor Chinese food with Puccini. Sawdust on the floor seems appropriate for a steak dinner but not for nouvelle cuisine. Psychologists who were interviewed said that the environment in which people dine has a marked influence on their well-being.To get the most out of meals, said Paul Chance, a psychologist and former asssistant managing editor of Psychology Today, they should be eaten only in a place designed for the consumption of food. Forget dining in the bedroom (a sleep-inducing environment), on the run, while listening to rock music or, above all, while watching the evening news.''The negative effects as the body battles against influences of the environment may be subtle enough to go unnoticed at the time,'' he explained. ''But there is constriction of the muscles, adrenalin and increased heartbeat. Nothing could be less compatible with good digestion. Adrenalin and acids are flowing into the stomach and there is an increased arousal, a general stress reaction. This can be followed by headache, stomach cramps - and a crummy mood.'' That could explain why there seem to be so many advertisements for digestive tablets on prime time.Nonetheless, many families watch television over dinner as a matter of course. ''There was a terrible period when families would watch news of the war in Vietnam,'' said Dr. Robert Sommer, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California. ''That they were able to watch it without flinching is spooky. It reflected how eating was something that was incidental. You wouldn't watch programs and eat a gourmet meal. Eating in front of TV would induce a Pavlovian response. You'd end up associating TV dinners with violent Westerns or news of disasters just as you link beer with the Super Bowl.''''If you habitually eat in bed, in front of TV or at your desk, these environments will supply you with food cues,'' Dr. Chance said. ''So as soon as you turn on the television or sit down to study you will feel hungry.''For many people mealtimes summon up unpleasant associations going back to childhood, Dr. Chance said, so they eat as quickly as possible. ''If you have grown up feeling that sooner or later your parents are going to jump on you for something, you minimize contact,'' he continued. ''You eat as fast as you can and go out.''These days, when both parents may be working, some families rarely eat together. ''My daughter told me that her friends in college were amazed to hear that our family sat down to dinner together,'' said Mildred Hall, a writer on the behavorial sciences. ''One or the other was always out and the children just helped themselves. For many families it is very difficult these days with parents out working. And as a result nutrition has gone to hell.''AdvertisementAs living space diminishes in apartments and houses, the first room to be transformed is usually the dining room. Though houses built before World War II had large kitchens and separate dining rooms, many of those built since then have no more t han dining alcoves or eat-in kitchens. In apartments, too, the dini ng room is often the first space to be converted to an extra bedro om. The result is that even when families do get together, the space to make the most of the experience is lacking.For a good many people mealtimes are still a break in the day and an important means of communication -and eating in an amiable atmosphere should certainly enhance the experience. Although home dining may be a lost art in many American families, hostesses who take enormous trouble to create the right ambiance for entertaining have not vanished.''I like a warm, glittery atmosphere,'' said Marilyn Evins, the wife of David Evins, the shoe designer. Mrs. Evins, who frequently gives large dinner parties in Manhattan, decorates her duplex in seasonal themes, with plants in spring, log fires scented with cinnamon stic ks in winter and plenty of flowers year round. ''I neverseat more tha n 10,'' she said. ''Otherwise people lose the chance to talk across t he table. How you place guests is very important to the ambiance and so is the lighting. I always have lots of candles because they are very flattering.''Americans seem to be dining out more these days. By the end of this century, according to Waverley Root and Richard de Rochment, authors of ''Eating in America,'' we will be eating one out of every two meals away from home - many of them, of course, in fast-food establishments. Last year restaurants took in $75 billion, according to the National Restaurant Association. The number of American franchise fast-food restaurants has doubled in less than 10 years to over 60,000 and the number of all restaurants is increasing. Naturally, such statistics are not lost on restaurant owners, who realize that ambiance is an important attraction to customers and spend millions a year to create an inviting atmosphere.What is the effect they strive for? ''A restaurant should give a person a feeling of privacy and yet allow them to be a little exhibitionist at the same time, to be seen,'' said Joseph Baum, who created the Four Seasons and Windows on the World. ''The proportions of furniture are very important too. Tables should be a little bit lower than normal to give a sense of security as you lean on them with your elbows. They should not be too big and should have soft tops under the cloth to cushion the elbows. The sound level should be low since you don't want to have to strain to hear.''''We had thought the Four Seasons space would be all wrong for a restaurant,'' said Philip Johnson, the architect who designed the Seagram Building on Park Avenue at 52d Street, where the restaurant is situated. ''It was leftover space and we could as well have put a Chrysler showroom there. It has no entrance, no toilets, no crossover from private to public dining rooms. It has no color - just the color of wood - a very neutral background. We were lucky to get a kickoff from Picasso with the mural. But what I like about the place is the height -which is what you don't want in a restaurant because it isn't intimate. But it works because the tables are so far apart you feel as intimate as you do in Lutece, where the ceilings are low and the tables closer together. If you build a good room, then you can eat in it. You could eat very comfortably in Chartres Cathedral.''Charles Boxenbaum, designer of the Woods, a restaurant on West 37th Street, feels that calm is the essential element for restaurant dining. ''Otherwise you're just in a place to feed,'' he said. ''The source of light is very important. In a restaurant the table is first and foremost. All the light in the restaurant should be focused on the table top.''To make food look its most appetizing, lighting should be as close to daylight as possible so that all the food colors are sharp. Dr. George Schwartz, a physician and owner of One Fifth Avenue, a restaurant decorated with fittings from the Art Deco-style firstclass dining room of the Cunard liner the Caronia, once tried softening the lighting with a red filter. ''But the food looked ghoulish,'' he said. ''The spinach and broccoli turned black.'AdvertisementMany designers say that harsh colors should be avoided in restaurants; mauve, peach, soft pink, deep grays and browns are more conducive to relaxed dining, they contend. White is neutral, a good lunch color because it is light and suggests daytime. Some psychologists have theorized that colors may affect the endocrine system, which is connected to the nervous system and thus to mood. ''It's all psychological,'' said Eric Jacobs, associate design director of the Walker Group, a design concern. ''In a very black and neon restaurant, for example, people tend to be distracted by the decor and concentrate less on the food.''More than lighting or the color of the walls, noise can ruin a meal. Plates rattled fiercely into piles and banging kitchen doors are bad enough, and not much better are restaurants where the meal is accompanied by music, whether it be the Rolling Stones, Muzak or strolling violinists who transfix women with their eyes and play ''Fascination.'' Classical music is no more appropriate for dining, yet it seems to be especially popular in vegetarian restaurants, where owners are under the misapprehension that tofu goes with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or tha t bean sprou ts are improved by Ravel's ''Bolero.''The ambiance in which we eat should be as unobtrusive and relaxed as possible. Since eating is something most of us do two or three times a day, we might as well enjoy it. ''Take the phone off the hook.'' Dr. Sommer suggested. ''Turn off the radio. Food should be the high point of the day.''A version of this article appears in print on February 3, 1982, on Page C00001 of the National edition with the headline: . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe