Review: Enoteca Roma, Chigaco

Sandra

Enoteca Roma RistoranteHave you ever had a restaurant meal that was so amazing that you dream about the food? I had such an experience a couple of years ago at Chicago’s Enoteca Roma Ristorante. My favourite recollection of that dinner was of the waiter pouring steaming polenta on to a gleaming green and black marble tile and quickly covering it with a blend of four cheeses. The resulting flavor was unforgettable. In fact, for 3 years I’ve dreamt of this simple but amazing dish and tried re-creating it (unsuccessfully) in my own kitchen.

When the Compusense team went to Chicago this past July for IFT, we knew we wanted to go back to Enoteca Roma. I was hopeful that it would be as good as I’d remembered, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The owners, Letizia & Fabio Sorano (self-described Head Foodie and Cork Dork), endeavor to serve traditional Italian dishes, similar to what would be served in Roman homes. The dinner menu delightfully lists a number of “Picolli” and “Grandi” (“little” and “big” ones), including assorted antipasti, bruschetteria, pastas, pizza rustica, and meat dishes. We made it easy on ourselves (and our wallets) by having the very highly recommended Mangia, Mangia, a communal dining experience served family-style – and without a bowl of mashed potatoes in sight!

Mangia Mangia, a fixed price offering of $29 per person, is designed to be shared amongst 6 or more guests. The actual items vary depending upon the season and availability of ingredients (and the prerogative of the chef!).

Our dinner this night began with antipasti (marinated olives, cured meats and Italian cheeses) beautifully presented on platters and boards. Next up were flights of bruschetta; my favorites were caramelized onion and gorgonzola, and pear, honey and shaved parmigiano. After that we were served salads, mussels, house-made garlic sausage and the much-anticipated polenta. We had three kinds of polenta, including Corvara (venison Bolognese), but alas, no Quattro Formaggi. That turned out to be just fine, as the other polenta (polentas?) were just as good.

The meal concluded with several pasta dishes, my favourite being spicy orecchiette pasta with broccolini, roasted garlic, chili pepper flake and sausage.

Of course no Italian meal would be complete without wine, and Enoteca Roma boasts an impressive wine list, including many by the glass.

We finished with coffee, and although tempted by the wonderful dessert menu, none of us had room for anything more. If you are still hungry (although that is hard to imagine given the quantities) you can pick up delicious cakes, pies, and tarts as you pass through Letizia’s Natural Bakery on your way out.

The ambiance of the patio out back only added to the enjoyment of the meal. As the dusk sky faded to black, candles illuminated the dozen or so tables. A canopy of market umbrellas shielded the view of the upper stories of the building, which blocked any noise from the street. It was easy to think we really were in an enoteca in the Italian countryside, rather than the Wicker neighborhood of Chicago. During our meal, the soft laughter and chatter of the other diners was interrupted by quiete applause as a couple at a near-by table got engaged. Being a Saturday night the place was packed, but as a bonus, we managed to get an on-street parking spot directly across from the restaurant. And the servers were attentive and informative, without being intrusive.

My second visit to Enoteca Roma was as enjoyable as the first; but now I have more delicious foods to dream of! If you are looking for great food in a charming setting, and at an affordable price, then I highly recommend Enoteca Roma Ristorante.

Enoteca Roma Ristorante is located at 2416 West Division Street, Chicago. Telephone 773-772-7700. Reservations are recommended.


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Temporal Sensory Measurement

Chris

One of the most exciting and dynamic areas of sensory research is into methodology to determine perceptual changes that happen over time.

These can be as different as the fleeting changes that take place in the bouquet of a fine wine or the tedium faced by hospital patients as they eat another institutional meal. There is no doubt that the changes that take place over time are important, but they also represent a challenge.

In the 1980’s the interest in Time Intensity measurement of high-intensity sweeteners lead to a flurry of publications and the development of computerized methods for conducting single-attribute data collection. For sweetness, this was possible and a lot of information was gathered and a whole range of analyses were applied. The biggest challenge was that although we could get reasonable data collected on model systems, real products with complexity presented a much bigger problem. Trained descriptive panellists were being asked to respond to a complex stimulus using a single attribute. This leads to the classic bias of “dumping” or attribute restriction.

In response to the need to extend Time Intensity measurement, we developed Dual-Attribute Time Intensity. DATI panellists move a mouse to record two attributes simultaneously on two axes on the screen. The publications on sweetness and flavour measurement in chewing gum and on tenderness and juiciness in cooked meat proved the technique to be useful. (See the Research section for article summaries and downloadable PDFs about Temporal Methods)  But the training required to get the panellists to a comfortable and reproducible state was extensive and more than most sensory labs wanted to take on.

Time Intensity Plot

Time Intensity Plot

Concurrently, we were performing Descriptive Analysis on commercial beer. The trained panellists used a structured ballot that was derived from a set of Canadian and US domestic liquids. When the scope was expanded to include European and International beer, I noticed that panellists were picking their attributes in a different sequence in response to a different order of perception. We were also able to observe the paradox of beers with profiles that were not significantly different, but easy to discriminate due to temporal attribute release differences. This led to a project called Temporal Attribute Difference (TAD). Products were evaluated for intensity of a series of attributes and the time to select and score each attribute was recorded using experimental software. The research was performed on a salad dressing model system which allowed us to measure salt, sweet, sour and bitter taste and the flavour of garlic. Viscosity and oil proportion were modified to create products that demonstrated difference in the time of perception of attributes for the case of shuffle (a change in perceived order of attributes) and shift (a temporal delay of all attributes). I gave a paper at the IFT meeting in Dallas in 2000 (see “Temporal attribute discrimination” in the Compusense Research Library) with the sub-title “Why this method does not work”. Although we were able to measure both “shift” and “shuffle” in the model system, when the method was applied to real products the variance became very large. The noise in the data came from the complexity of the task. The time measured included three components; (i) the time required for sensory identification, (ii) cognitive processing to find the correct attribute on the screen and (iii) the coordination required to mark the intensity on the line scale. The method was neither accurate nor precise. The work was not published for a number of reasons. Mostly because it was a disappointment, but it was not part of a student’s thesis, so it was allowed to fade away. In retrospect, even research failures should be published to help future researchers.

The pursuit of complex temporal measurement has continued and Pascal Schlich and his students at the Centre Européen des Sciences et du Goût at the University of the Bourgogne in Dijon have been leading the charge. They have developed a method called Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). TDS followed in the footsteps of TAD and attempted to measure time of selection and scale value, but only for the dominant attribute. There has been some ambiguity around the working definition of dominance. It may be the strongest attribute at a particular time or it may be the attribute that comes to the attention of the assessor. The data that has been collected using the line scale intensity have been very noisy, which we saw with TAD. So it is only the temporal information that has been gathered that is used to simulate a TDS curve based upon frequency of perception. At any time point, the attribute that is being selected by the largest number of assessors is called “dominant”. If it passes a frequency threshold it is then called significant. So the TDS curve is a mathematical construct that uses frequency to simulate intensity. This provides some qualitative data that may help product developers understand product performance. In practice, quite large numbers of assessors, over 30, are used. The numbers of attributes that can be measured are also limited, with best results obtained from five at a time. Ultimately, the TDS method is not very repeatable. (Meyners, Sensometrics 2010)

A more promising approach to temporal intensity measurement is Progressive Profiling as applied by Lisa Methven at Reading University in the UK. She uses a descriptive profiling screen that appears at predetermined time intervals. All attributes (usually 5) are seen and scored at each interval. The curves that are produced are real time curves. Not only can you determine the strongest attribute, but you can follow every attribute over the course of the experiment.  The assessor does not have to judge dominance.

It would be desirable to follow multiple attributes easily and reliably, but we are not there yet. As progress is made in measurement techniques and in statistical methods that help us handle noise, there will be many opportunities to move sensory temporal research forward. It is a noble and worthy goal; after all these dynamic measurements reflect the sensory realities of consumers.

Thoughts on Sensometrics 2010

John

Erasmus Bridge, Rotterdam

The inaugural Sensometrics meeting was held in Leiden in 1992. This year the odometer on the meeting count rolled over for the first time – the 10th Sensometrics – and in recognition of the meeting’s origins it was returned in late July to the Netherlands.

Pieter Punter, still mourning the Dutch near miss in the recent final of the FIFA World Cup, gave his retrospective of previous meetings’ content. At times his comments were rich with irony. In Nantes he learned that he could do a PCA on almost anything. (And of course, you’ll always get output, even if it sheds more heat than light.) The fuzzy numbers people seem to be grazing other pastures. And where has conjoint analysis gone in recent meetings?

Prof. Willem Heiser, alumnus from Sensometrics One, found the vantage from the 16th-floor meeting room in the conference hotel, cantilevered outward as it was towards the Erasmus Bridge, ideal for pointing out special places from his childhood in Rotterdam. Almost as an aside in his keynote address, which focused mainly on merits of the unfolding model for prediction of liking, he mentioned the parallels he saw between the state of affairs in sensometrics and sensory science today and personality research in the 1950s and 1960s. Then disparate theories prevailed, experiments emphasized emotions and moods, and researchers had no common language to discuss their work. Then came a concerted effort to change the status quo. The big five factors emerged as the dominant framework for personality inquiry in the intervening years.

Deserving of mention was Jay Magidson’s presentation on latent class cluster analysis dealing with scale effects in real world consumer hedonic data. But for me it was the discussions, both public and private, that were the real highlight. Pascal Schlich in particular facilitated wonderful and lively discussions on Tuesday afternoon. Session chairs had some things working in their favour. Presentation rooms were small enough to involve participants. The sound quality in the meeting rooms was exceptional. (In one room at last year’s Pangborn symposium the speaker’s podium was set at an acoustic dead spot, making Q&A difficult.) Sometimes conference schedules are full, time scarce, and presentations get passed over in silence. In many sessions at this meeting glorious time was available for public discussion. Speakers were sometimes challenged, particularly if they crossed the big thick line that separates reasonableness from wild-eyed boosterism that sweeps all limitations of methods under the rug. And with just shy of 130 delegates and ample break times, it was possible to connect with people and discuss shared interests. All in all I had my own thinking expanded, provoked, challenged, and sharpened.

The biennial meeting of the Sensometric Society is arguably the most important conference on mathematical and statistical methods for quantitative data gathered in sensory and consumer tests. The next one will be held in Rennes in 2012. Hope to see you there!

5 Steps in Using Social Media As Part of Your Panels

Michael

This post is part of a series on the use of social media in sensory and consumer panel management.

In my last post, I talked about the growth of social media and how it can play a key role in your sensory and consumer panels.

Here are some key points in using social media as part of your panel management.

  1. Find out where your panelists are
    If you’re in an urban area, where your target population has high internet access, it’s likely that you’ll find people participating in some form of social media. On the other hand, if you’re targeting an older, rural population, use more traditional methods of recruitment.Find out which networks they’re using. Are they on Twitter? Do they join groups or become fans of pages on Facebook?
  2. Give your panelists a reason to want to engage with you through social media
    Participation in social media is all about give and take. If you want to engage your panelists, you’ve got to give them a reason to want to connect with you. Are you offering payment? Product? Are you motivating them by doing something that benefits the community?Inboxes are filling up constantly with requests, invitations, sales offers and notifications, so consider what makes your organization or panel exceptional enough for a panelist to click.
  3. Maintain engagement…
    Once you connect with your panelist, you need to set their expectations and keep them interested. Consider the panelist’s perspective – initially, they’re excited about the prospect of testing your product. Maybe they’re already a regular consumer and love your brands; maybe they’re just in it for the compensation; or maybe they’re just curious.Regardless of the panelist’s motivation, you need to keep them interested if you want to maintain their connection with you. If you’re not keeping them informed and aware of you, you run the risk of losing their interest and their likelihood to participate in your panels. Keep talking with them – even if it just means posting short updates letting them know about upcoming panels, they’ll remember you and remain interested.
  4. … but beware saturation
    Constant reminders about panels they’re ineligible for, or the latest news from around your lab may work against you when it comes to engagement. Remember that just as annoying as it is for you to receive unwanted or irrelevant communication, it’s annoying for panelists to get an inbox full of emails from you that aren’t specifically directed at them. Be judicious about your postings, tweets or updates. Consider who will see them and whether or not they care.
  5. Be ready to respond to your panelists
    Social media isn’t just a one-way broadcast – the conversation now goes both ways. Users will ask questions, make comments and attempt to engage you in many forms on social media. Be prepared to respond to your panelists. While you do run the risk of public criticism, you also have the great opportunity of turning around negative impressions in a very public way, thereby affording you another way to acquire more panelists and grow your brand. Consider your options ahead of time and decide how you want to handle this kind of contact. Don’t leave them hanging – some users will only contact you by social media and will expect a response using the same communication channel.

Much as we encourage you to engage with your panelists, we encourage you to engage with us. Have any experiences with using social networks in your panels? Tell us about them.

Mad Batters Mid-Season Report

Brandon

Starting out at four years old with T-ball, I’ve played baseball in some form every year since. Until last year. Last summer I really missed it. So this summer I, together with Jacqueline, decided to put together a Slo-Pitch team. For those unfamiliar with Slo-Pitch, it’s played with a big mat at home plate and the pitcher has to lob the ball in and have it land on the mat for a strike. Besides that, with a few minor rule changes and the bases 30 feet closer together, it’s played pretty much the same as baseball.

Once we decided to put together a team, we had to pick a coed league and find enough players. We decided on the Guelph Coed Slo-Pitch league which is in its very first year.  We have five people from Compusense on the team with a couple more that have filled in when we were short players and several of our friends and family as well. Compusense sponsored our team jerseys and we decided on the team name Mad Batters. Taylor Dekking did an excellent job creating the logo for the jerseys.

I really wasn’t expecting much from our team at the beginning.  I would have been happy with a win here and there throughout the season. We have some people on the team that have never played baseball and others that haven’t played in years.  So I was especially shocked when on the opening weekend we won both exhibition games with relative ease and Taylor claimed the home run derby trophy.  James Castura (a developer here at Compusense) opened the scoring with a grand slam in his first game following it up with a ground rule double. He’s been swinging a hot bat all season and has 5 doubles up to this point. Kendra and Melissa have filled in when we’ve been short players and they’ve done a great job each with a bunch of RBIs and runs scored.  Alexandra who has never played baseball in her life prior to this year has figured it out quickly and has reached base safely in every game she’s played in.  Jacqueline is constantly being underestimated by the defense on the other teams and consistently hits the ball over the outfielders heads and has more doubles than any of the other females on the team.  Sharing the duties at second base with Stephen Given (developer at Compusense), Jacqueline has made some spectacular catches and great plays. Stephen is playing for the first time in over 20 years and just discovered that he is a switch hitter. Consistently getting on base and making great plays at second base despite an injury plagued season he’s been a major asset to the team.

Now, 12 games into the season, the Compusense Mad Batters are sitting atop the standings with an amazing 11-1 record, 221 runs for, 107 runs against, a combined 33 home runs, one tournament championship and the home run derby trophy.  The playoffs are coming up quickly on September 24-25 and we’re looking forward to a possible championship!

Easier, more flexible, more engaging:
Compusense five Release 5.2

Jacqueline

Compusense five Release 5.2 Now Available!

Compusense is pleased to announce a new release of the sensory and consumer data collection software used every day by hundreds of companies, universities and research organizations worldwide: Compusense five Release 5.2!

Drawing on feedback from some of the most demanding labs and testing locations, including our own sensory and consumer testing and research facility, Compusense has refined features and added new functionality to this already world-class software package.

Due for release August 3, the updates to Compusense five Release 5.2 include:

  • Larger default panelist display lets you get more on screen. Include more attributes, more text, larger fonts and larger images. Make the most of the screen space available on your panelist stations!
  • Create and edit category questions with ease. Format category scales using new options that provide flexibility in display and streamline results interpretation.
  • Understand sensory changes over time by collecting temporal descriptive sensory data with line scales – use the optional on-screen timer and autoforward to make temporal data collection easy for your panelists.
  • Printing labels is more convenient with new sample blinding code printing options.
  • Enhanced support for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
  • Viewing and editing raw results is easier than ever.
  • International support keeps getting better. Release 5.2 includes more options for southeast Asian characters and other languages.
  • Take advantage of the improved panelist result summary.

Existing clients are eligible for upgrades immediately. Please contact Compusense Support for more details about this exciting update!

IFT 2010: Photos

Chris

IFT 2010 From an Attendee’s Perspective

Sandra

IFT 2010 Annual Meeting & Food Expo

IFT 2010 has just wrapped up with a reported 21,000 attendees, and from my perspective, there was a lot of emphasis on five “C”s: Collaboration, Cross-functional, Consumer-focused, Congratulations and of course, Chicago!

Much of the scientific program was developed by collaborations between two or more divisions; in addition to symposia sponsored by the Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division, I attended sensory-related sessions presented by the Marketing & Management, Product Development, Food Engineering, and/or International divisions.

During his presentation “Marketing and its role in the innovation process”, Hamsa Thota told an amusing anecdote about training in China where he had to explain that a cross-functional team is not supposed to be confrontational (perhaps “cross” was translated literally!). However, Lori Rothman’s presentation “Making the most of the sensory/ marketing relationship” demonstrated the too-often reality of multi-functional teams with conflicting goals, and not enough time or money to do what everyone wants. The solution for working collaboratively was to clarify project objectives upfront, be flexible in trying to meet the others’ needs – and convince Marketing to pay for the research!

Compusense Word CloudAs an aside, Lori used Wordle to create very cool graphics for her presentation. You can see the Compusense word cloud I made in just a few minutes.

I noticed that a number of sessions focused on how the emotional state and needs of consumers impact consumer liking and product choices; as sensory scientists, perhaps we’re not so comfortable with this social science research approach currently in favor with our marketing colleagues. However, Mark Garratt’s presentation provided some scientific grounding as he discussed a statistical model which incorporates the concepts of Mood and Occasion to measure how these transform product selection. This model essentially segments consumers on the basis of their emotions and motivations within a particular context.

And speaking of transform, with the recently announced recommendations by the IFT Divisions Task Force it was ironic that filming for the movie “Transformers 3” occurred while I was in Chicago. If you are an IFT member then you login to read the Final Report of the Task Force. If you’re a Transformer fan then you’ll have to wait until July 2011 to see the movie – after IFT 2011 in New Orleans!

Finally, congratulations are in order for Anne Goldman, who was named an IFT Fellow for her international leadership in the integration of consumer sensory science to the product development process working with cross-functional business teams. Very appropriate for the themes I observed at IFT 2010!

Leveraging Social Media For Your Panels

Michael

This post is part of a series on the use of social media in sensory and consumer panel management.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely aware of social media and its explosive growth in the last five years. Lately, it seems almost everyone’s posting to their blog, tweeting, updating their status, posting photos or checking in to their favourite coffee shop. And social media is just getting bigger.

Facebook currently claims 400 million active users (Feb. 2010), with a growth of 50 million new users between December 2009 and February 2010. The greatest growth demographic in the US for 2009 was the 55+ segment, which grew by 922.7% (from 954,680 users in 2009 to 9,763,900 users in 2010). In other words, social media isn’t just for kids. It’s proving to be a means of communicating with just about everyone.

That growth isn’t just happening on Facebook, which is in greatest use in North America  and Europe. Other social networks (Orkut, Bebo, Hi5, to name a few) are growing in use in other regions worldwide, and their demographics are reflecting the same sorts of growth that Facebook is reporting. Rumour has it that Google is working on another social network to rival Facebook’s. Twitter’s newfound ubiquity was recently displayed here in Ontario when a very rare magnitude 5.0 earthquake was reported by thousands of tweets prior to reaching any conventional news outlets. Social networking use on mobile devices is also on a huge upswing right now, offering a cheaper means for online access than PCs, laptops, or netbooks.

So what does social media have to do with running sensory and consumer panels? Getting in touch with panelists and potential panelists has suddenly become a lot easier, less expensive, and more flexible. Gone are the days of having to build a panel by phone, advertising or by mail – all time-consuming and costly methods of communication. Now you can build your panel and your brand online at the same time for potentially a fraction of the price.

Compusense at-hand also fits into your panelist management plan, as you can easily contact and recruit panelists for your panels all within a single platform, that integrates with your social media strategy. Not only that, but you can easily link your panelists to your tests through posts to any of your social media properties (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc.).

In the next post, I’ll be looking at some of the ways that social media can be used to build and manage your panels.

Are you using social media as part of your testing? Please tell us about it!

IFT 2010 Preview: Compusense at-hand on the iPad and more!

Jacqueline
Compusense at-hand running on the iPad

See Compusense at-hand on the iPad at this year's IFT Food Expo in Chicago. Visit us at Booth 3806!

It is conference time again and Compusense is happy to announce that we will be attending IFT in Chicago. We will be exhibiting at Booth 3806, so please come by and see us. One of my favourite parts of IFT is being able to meet a large number of our clients in person. We look forward to seeing you and members of the Compusense Support Team. We will show you our latest Compusense five release or give you a tour of our web-based Compusense at-hand software. Do you have a question about Compusense? Bring it by the booth.

There is another fun reason to come visit us at the Compusense Booth.  Check out our newest software, Compusense at-hand on an iPad! We have all heard about the release of the iPad. When it was released I wondered if this would be something useful. For personal use I am still not sure an electronic device that can’t multitask would be helpful. However, as soon as the iPad was released I did know that this could be a product that could be ground-breaking for our clients. When have you ever been able to buy a lightweight tablet for under $1000? Please come to our booth and see for yourself.

Compusense is excited about being an active participant at IFT. Below are a couple of events that you will not want to miss!

  • The SCSD Social Event at the Art Institute of Chicago on Monday.
  • Dr. Chris Findlay will be chairing the Sensory Oral Session on Sunday where the Pangborn Competition student presentations will be made.

Compusense will be holding two pre-IFT courses and we are thrilled to report that the course registrations are full.

Compusense will be at Booth 3806.

We hope to see you there!