Blind faith

I see the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh is introducing blindfold dining next month. Guests at the Grill Room are being offered a mystery five-course menu. They will neither know nor see what they are eating.

I can think of a few meals I?ve had where a blindfold might have been a blessing. Think pale globby stew, watery mash, greasy batter, soggy greens, doughy desserts.

Sheraton chef Malcolm Webster wants his customers ?to fall in love with the food's true taste, letting the aromas, textures and varying combinations of flavours do all the work by taking away the sense which we rely on the most ? sight."

Well, I?d be happy to try it once. But frankly, I think the sight of a beautifully arranged dish really takes a dining experience to another level. I like to study the arrangement, identify the component parts, admire the ingenuity used by the chef in composing the visual aspect of the meal. The look of a good dish does as much to whet my appetite as its aroma.

A blindfold meal will certainly condense the experience to the senses of smell, taste and probably touch but the idea of stabbing round a plate and ending up with a forkful of lemon wedge, groping through the foliage, gaily dripping sauce down the silk blouse or propelling a mini beetroot at the white shirt across the table makes me a little nervous.

Will chefs be forced to select meat that doesn?t require precise surgery, ingredients that won?t stain? Imagine trying to deal with quail!

Will the diner be given an orientation course ? ?The meat is at 12 o?clock, the sauce at 3, vegetables between 4.30 and 9.?

Can one bring a seeing-eye friend to provide navigation hints ? ?A little to the left and you?ll find the six peas? oops, missed again!?

Then there?s the whole fraught business of maintaining water glasses and wine glasses in an upright position.

And how on earth does one summon the waiter when you can?t see him pretending he can?t see you?

Vision is one of a number of factors influencing the amount of food consumed during a meal. The better it looks, the more inclined we are to eat it. For some, that can be food?s downfall. The importance of vision in regulating eating behaviour was demonstrated in a study conducted at the Obesity Unit, Huddinge University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. The obese subjects observed ate 24 percent less food blindfolded without feeling less full. They probably just got tired of trying to capture it and get it into their mouths ? a bit like eating with chopsticks.

I wonder how long it will be before Celebrity Chef X introduces his new miracle weight-loss recipe book Eating in the Dark (based on the TV programme of the same name)...