In South Korea, a popular street food offers a unique twist on the corndog – featuring a hot dog or mozzarella cheese coated in thick, crispy batter, deep-fried and topped with pieces of French fries, ketchup and a sprinkle of sugar.

For Daniel Schoonbrood, a Ph.D. student studying food science at UC Davis, his first taste of this savory snack left a lasting impression.

“The first time I tried it, I thought, ‘This is a futuristic food,’” he said. “It was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life.”

Schoonbrood is exploring how the setting in which food is experienced can influence people’s preferences, and in this case, when tasting unfamiliar foods from different cultural backgrounds.

The study is taking place in the sensory immersive room on campus, a high-tech space designed to simulate real-world environments with 360-degree videos, sounds and even adjustable temperature and air settings. Schoonbrood and Julien Delarue, associate professor with the Department of Food Science and Technology, set up two contrasting contexts to explore how surroundings influence food preferences. 

One context is a bustling market in Busan, South Korea, with the room displaying video of the city taken earlier this year. The other context immerses participants in a familiar setting – outside the Silo, a popular spot on campus where food trucks line up at lunchtime. In the sensory room, researchers can switch from one scene to another to gather people’s reactions.

By comparing these settings, researchers aim to understand how familiarity and environment shape people's perceptions of food.

“The context is a very important part of behaviors and decision making,” Delarue said. “Some people get to experience the Korean context and others experience the Silo, so that we can compare the different groups and see if it changes their preferences, their liking, their expectations, their sense of novelty and their willingness to try, or even buy, this kind of food. The idea is we can better understand the motivations and drivers of preferences.”

Authenticity in every bite

The researchers recruited two groups of participants for the study: people familiar with Korean food and culture, and those who are not.

Minkyu Kim, a visiting graduate student from Pusan National University in South Korea, played a key role in bringing authenticity to the study. He captured the video footage of the street food scene in Busan, and helped prepare the Korean-style corndog samples served to participants.

The participants sampled two variations of the dish: one with mozzarella cheese and the other made with fish cake instead of the pork typically used in U.S. corndogs. Kim said these corndogs are a popular snack in his hometown and he was happy to see some empty plates during the study.

“We just tell them to eat as much as you want for the study, but when I see an empty plate, it's kind of a joy to see that people liked it,” Kim said.

Reactions beyond the booth

Participants filled out a survey after sampling the street food, sharing their feedback, preferences and opinions.

“Maybe one of the most important things is just understanding how familiarity with a culture and with a product, shapes your perception of how this food fits in a particular environment,” Schoonbrood said.

Delarue and Schoonbrood have used the sensory immersive room for other experiments with sports drinks, energy bars and hop waters, all to gather real, genuine reactions from people. With so many new products coming out, including plant-based foods or alternative meat options, Delarue thinks this technology is great for understanding how people actually respond to new fare.

“Traditionally when we test foods or drinks, we do that in sensory booths that are very standardized, very artificial in a sense,” Delarue said. “So, the idea is to bring a little bit of real life into the lab to better observe behavior, to have a more authentic reaction and see more natural behaviors and responses. All the studies that are done so far have shown that the results you get in the immersive context are closer to real life than the lab.”