Just as everything is music in one sense or another, everyone is a synesthete – to a larger or lesser extent. You do not need an advanced degree in psychology to figure it out: how music impacts your perception of food, for instance, how it influences your menu choices, how it modifies your mood and guides your thinking, how it induces or demotivates interactivity at the table.

It takes a bit of extra curiosity to realize how various auditory stimuli affect the quality of your gustatory experiences – the specific genre of music, volume, tempo, instrumentation, the balance of low and high frequencies, its lyrical component… Music is a sonic seasoning, they say: higher notes, flutes, and tinkling piano sweeten food, while deeper, more resonant notes make it taste more bitter than it actually is. Loud and upbeat music, groovy music, music with vocals, familiar pieces of music – the types of music that increase heart and blood pressure rates – suppresses the appetite. Too much excitement around the table makes food bland; an exquisite delicacy may taste like sand.

From the synesthetic point of view, it is not only music that defines your dining experience as an intricate interplay of the senses. In equal measure, it is about a visual impact (interior design, food presentation), tactile impressions (room temperature, the texture of food), vestibular sensations (physical comfort afforded by the furniture), and so on down to the color of napkins.