What’s Your Dining DNA?

September 3, 2009

Frank Bruni’s recent look back on his five years as a New York Times food critic highlights the different kinds of eating personalities and quirky dining behaviors he noticed at the dinner table. “Hoarders” (the voracious ones who dig in with abandon) and “sharers” (the timid ones who prefer to split plates with others) were the two most common eating archetypes, according to Bruni.

But his observations got us thinking: What other kinds of eating personalities are there? When the civil nature of fine dining interacts with people’s basic, animalistic need to eat, what sorts of puzzling, surprising, and — above all — entertaining behaviors result?

We pondered this question and came up with a few archetypes of our own. We propose the creation of a new social scientific field that fuses anthropology, behavioral economics, culinary studies, and genetics to explain eating preferences and their corresponding behaviors. A person’s dining traits are like DNA: coded in every cell of their body, impossible to suppress, and possessing more complexity than first meets the eye. For that reason, let’s call this field “Dining DNA.” We’ve come across many fascinating types of Dining DNA in our research. Here’s just a sampling of strands from our index:

The Comfortable American: She’ll forgo the coq au vin for coq au Louisiana hot sauce any day. She’d much rather her fish be deep-fried or dry-rubbed than pan-seared or parmesan-encrusted. Some might call her finicky, picky, or narrow-minded, but her tastes can be just as varied as those of the more international diner — it just so happens all those tastes come from the American South or off the grill. For her, biting into a slice of savory meatloaf is the ultimate frontier; and she’ll gladly opt out of anything that reads “molecular something-or-other.” She’s far more impressed with preparation by loving hands than with scientific maneuvering. And for the last time, please don’t suggest that she try a piece of your spicy tuna roll….

The Crowd-Pleaser: This generous heart needs more nourishment than just the dish in front of him — he needs to make sure others are fed, too. In fact, meals are merely a means to feed his deep-seated need for social engagement. He’s usually the leader of the pack — the one who makes the waiter an instant conspirator to a fine evening, the one who keeps the wine flowing, or the one who magically orchestrates ordering for a group that includes a vegan, a carnivore, and a baby. But he also could be the “behind-the-scenes” guy — the one who makes sure tapas are getting passed to everyone, who points out the last samosa that got nudged under a piece of naan, who starts stacking dishes to make way for the next course. In fact, he’s sometimes so concerned with keeping everyone happy that he forgets to feed himself.

The Sweet Tooth: You might mistake this strategist for a light eater during the main course, but then you realize she’s just saving room for the final act. After scrutinizing the entire dessert menu, she may just pass it back to the waiter and say “Yes.” It doesn’t matter if it’s chocolate mousse, dulce de leche, baklava cigars, mochi, or gulab jamun — if it’s high in sucrose, she’s on board. Naysayers might call her habits irrepressibly indulgent or even unhealthy. But she also seeks saccharine flourishes outside of dessert. A salad with Mandarin oranges or some honey-glazed ham are perfect for sneaking a sugary dessert preview into her obligatory entrees.

So, what’s your Dining DNA? Have you discovered your own strand? Let us know in the comments!

Source: “What They Brought to the Table”, The New York Times;
Photo courtesy of: www.linesandcolors.com.