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KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW • NOVEMBER 2019 • www.kitchenwarenews.com 4 PUBLISHER Kimberly Oser SR. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jules Denton-Card jules_d@oser.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lorrie Baumann lorrie_b@oser.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Anthony Socci anthony_s@oser.com ART DIRECTOR Yasmine Brown GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Schieffer CUSTOMER SERVICE Susan Stein MANAGER customerservice@oser.com CUSTOMER SERVICE Spencer Fisher ASSOCIATE CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tara Neal CIRCULATION MANAGER Jamie Green jamie_g@oser.com OSER COMMUNICATIONS GROUP KITCHENWARE NEWS & Housewares Review Kitchenware News & Housewares Review is a publication of Oser Communications Group Inc. 1877 N. Kolb Road • Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300 www.kitchenwarenews.com www.oser.com FOUNDER Lee M. Oser Periodicals postage paid at Tucson, AZ and additional mailing office. Kitchenware News & Housewares Review (USPS012-625) is published 7 times per year (Jan., March, May, July, Sept., Nov., and Dec.) by Oser Communications Group, 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ, 85715 520.721.1300. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material or prices quoted in newspaper. Contributors are responsible for proper release of proprietary classified information. ©2019 by Oser Communications Group. All rights reserved Reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is expressly prohibited. Back issues, when available, cost $8 each within the past 12 months. Back issue orders must be paid in advance by check. Kitchenware News & Housewares Review is distributed without charge in North America to qualified professionals in the retail and distribution channels of the upscale kitchenware and tabletop trade. For subscriber services, including subscription information, call 520.721.1300. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kitchenware News & Housewares Review, 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715. Greetings! I've been thinking a lot lately about the nexus between the two magazines in which you're reading this letter. One of them is about retailing kitchenware, and the other is about retailing specialty food. There was a time when I thought of these as two very different and completely separate kinds of enterprises, but over the past few months, I've come to think differently. For Gourmet News, I cover the food system, from how it's grown on the farm through to how it's sold in stores. I have now come to see Kitchenware News as the other end of that food chain; it's about what happens to food between the store and the consumer's bodies. It has taken me a few months to think this through and to be able to articulate what led me to think of these two pub- lications as existing at both ends of the same spectrum, but I'm now ready to tell you about that. Professional chefs are already accustomed to thinking about this, which is why they pay attention to the technology they use to prepare a meal and to the dishware on which they serve it. Next time you watch a television cooking show, watch the glee with which chefs introduce their techniques to their fellows and the care with which they plate their food. They do this because they know that we eat first with our eyes, and the cues that people get when their meal is delivered to them helps them decide how they feel about the food. Psychologists have discovered that the weight and color of our eating utensils can affect how sweet or salty the eater thinks the food is. Round, white plates make food taste sweeter, and angular, black plates bring out savory flavors. People eat less when the food is served on a red plate, and seeing a red color also reduces soft drink intake. According to psychologist Charles Spence, who has studied this matter in depth, "The visual appearance of a dish is just as important as, if not more important than, the taste/flavor itself." Mondelez found in 2013 that a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar tasted sweeter and creamier to consumers if the bar was made with rounded rather than square corners, even though the formulation of the chocolate had remained the same. Scientists have also found that hot chocolate tastes more chocolatey if it's served in an orange cup than it does if it's served in a white cup. You can learn more about all this in the book, "Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating" by Charles Spence, published in 2017 by Viking. As you guide customers through their selection of tabletop items as well as their kitchenware and, of course, their ingredients, you're not just supplying them with "stuff," you're helping them create experiences for their friends and family. The quality of those experiences depends very much on what they take home from your store, whether you're selling them their turkey or the platter on which they'll serve it. I wish all of you a memorable and joyous Thanksgiving season as you gather around your tables with the people that you care about. And as you all lift your glasses to the holiday, I hope those are glasses that you truly love. KN Lorrie Baumann, Editorial Director editor from the

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