The Art and Science of Taste: A lecture by Christophe Lavelle

We know today that taste is the result of a complex synthesis: appearance, color, smell, flavor, and texture all contribute to the appreciation of food, which is itself conditioned by our culture, our habits... and our mood! Understanding the prowess of chefs or everyday recipes requires physics and chemistry, neuroscience, and the humanities. All these components remind us that providing tasty, healthy, sustainable, ethical, and economically accessible food every day is one of the greatest challenges of our societies... which must be met, for "the destiny of nations depends on how they feed themselves," warns Brillat-Savarin.

Speaker:

Christophe Lavelle is a researcher at the CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. A food specialist, he teaches at numerous universities and schools and regularly gives lectures to the general public and professionals. He is also deputy director of the Sorbonne University FOOD Initiative and a trainer at the INSPE for cooking teachers. He has co-authored around twenty books, most recently Plaidoyer pour le gras (Hachette Pratique, 2026), L’Alimentation. Une infographie (CNRS Editions, 2026), and L’Art et la Science du Goût (Albin Michel). He also answers questions from the general public at https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/l-alimentation-en-questions.

L'Éternel Retour bookstore (77 rue Lamarck, Paris 18th) will be present for a book signing session at the end of the lecture.