Can Food Taste Better When It Is Made With Love? What science actually says about emotion, care, and the taste of a meal

There is a phrase almost every Indian has heard:

“Maa ke haath ka khaana alag hi hota hai.”

It is usually said as if the explanation is simple: the food was made with love.

But is there anything scientific behind that feeling?

Surprisingly, yes — although not in the literal sense that love is a secret ingredient.

Science suggests something more interesting: what we feel, what we expect, what we remember, and the emotional environment surrounding a meal can influence how we experience its taste and how much we enjoy it.

So when someone says, “This food tastes better because it was made with love,” they may be describing a real psychological and sensory phenomenon — just not quite in the way we traditionally explain it.

Taste doesn't happen only on the tongue

We tend to imagine taste as a straightforward process:

Food → tongue → brain → taste.

But eating is considerably more complicated.

The experience of flavour involves taste, smell, texture, temperature, visual cues, memory, expectations, and emotional state. Researchers studying food perception have found that our emotional state can alter how we perceive and evaluate food.

A 2015 study published in Appetite looked at approximately 550 people after real-life emotional experiences associated with hockey-game outcomes. The researchers found that positive emotional states were associated with stronger perceived sweetness and lower perceived sourness, while negative emotional states were associated with the opposite pattern. Positive emotion also increased liking for some less-liked foods.

In other words:

The same food doesn't necessarily produce exactly the same sensory experience every time.

Your brain is part of the tasting process.

So where does “love” come into it?

This is where we need to be careful.

There is no good scientific evidence that a cook's feeling of love physically changes the chemical composition of a curry and makes it objectively tastier.

If someone makes dal while feeling happy, the dal doesn't magically acquire additional flavour molecules because they love the person eating it.

But that doesn't mean the idea is meaningless.

There are several mechanisms through which care, familiarity, expectations and emotional context can change the experience of eating.

1. Your emotional state can change taste perception

One of the clearest pieces of evidence comes from research directly examining emotion and taste.

In the 2015 study mentioned above, researchers found that positive and negative emotional states were associated with different perceptions of basic tastes.

Positive emotion was associated with:

increased perceived sweetness decreased perceived sourness greater liking of some foods

Negative emotion showed the opposite pattern.

That matters because flavour isn't simply an objective measurement being read by your tongue.

Your brain interprets the sensory information.

So two people can eat the same dish and genuinely experience it differently.

2. Familiar food can become emotionally comforting

Think about what happens when you're having a terrible day.

You don't necessarily want something exotic.

Sometimes you want:

dal. Rice. Roti. Sabzi. Khichdi.

Something familiar.

Research has found evidence for exactly this relationship between emotional state and familiarity.

In a 2020 study, researchers induced positive and negative emotional states in participants and then had them taste both a familiar vegetable soup and an unfamiliar soup.

The negative-emotion group experienced the unfamiliar soup as relatively unpleasant while continuing to find the familiar soup pleasant.

The researchers interpreted this as consistent with a comforting effect of familiar food during stressful situations.

This is particularly relevant to the idea of ghar ka khaana.

The food isn't only providing nutrients.

It can carry memory and familiarity.

3. Memory can become part of flavour

This is one of the most fascinating parts.

Suppose your grandmother used to make a particular rasam.

Years later, you smell something similar.

Before you've even taken a bite, your brain may already be doing something:

“I know this.”

Food is strongly connected with memory and emotion. Researchers studying food emotions have identified not only sensory characteristics but also personal and cultural meanings, expectations, and associations with people and experiences as sources of emotional responses to food.

That's why a particular smell can suddenly transport someone to:

childhood a family kitchen a festival a Sunday lunch a particular person a particular home

The flavour isn't being experienced in isolation.

It is being experienced with everything the brain associates with it.

4. The environment around food can change its taste

This isn't merely a laboratory curiosity.

A 2025 study conducted in an actual restaurant environment examined whether emotional surroundings could alter taste perception.

Researchers had 231 participants taste the same beverages while experiencing immersive positive or negative visual environments.

The same beverages were perceived differently depending on the emotional environment.

When participants experienced an unpleasant emotional scene, the drinks were perceived as less sweet and more bitter and sour.

That is important.

The researchers weren't changing the drink.

They were changing the experience surrounding the drink.

And people's perception changed.

5. Even our expectations matter

Imagine someone tells you:

“This was cooked especially for you.”

Before you've tasted anything, you've already received information.

Your brain now has an expectation about the experience.

Food research has repeatedly shown that food judgments depend not only on sensory qualities but also on emotional state, social-emotional context, familiarity and existing associations between food and emotion.

That doesn't mean expectations can turn terrible food into excellent food indefinitely.

If something is burnt, undercooked or badly seasoned, your senses will eventually expose it.

But when the underlying food is already good, context can influence how pleasurable the experience becomes.

6. “Made with care” can actually change the way we experience a meal

This is where the phrase made with love becomes useful.

Consider two meals.

Meal A

You know nothing about it.

It's placed in front of you.

You eat it quickly while looking at your phone.

Meal B

Someone you trust tells you:

“I made this especially for you. I remembered that you like it this way.”

The ingredients could be identical.

The recipe could be identical.

The cooking time could be identical.

Yet the experience can be different.

Not because love entered the food as a measurable ingredient.

Because the human brain doesn't evaluate eating purely as chemistry.

It evaluates the entire experience.

And there is another side to this

The relationship between emotion and food isn't always positive.

Research shows that stress and emotional states can influence eating behaviour in complicated ways.

A 10-day ecological momentary assessment study found that higher stress was associated with decreased taste-driven eating, while stronger positive emotions were associated with increased taste-eating.

A large meta-analysis of 56 experimental studies involving 3,670 participants also found that emotions can influence eating behaviour, although the effects vary considerably between individuals and experimental conditions.

So the science doesn't support a simplistic statement like:

“Happy cooks make objectively better food.”

That's too strong.

The evidence supports something more nuanced:

Emotions can influence how food is perceived, remembered, evaluated and consumed.

Then what does “cooked with love” really mean?

Maybe it means something less magical — and more human.

It means someone cared enough to:

choose the ingredients carefully.

pay attention while cooking.

notice when the dal needs another tempering.

remember how much spice someone likes.

serve the food while it is still fresh.

care whether the person eating it enjoys it.

And all of those things can influence the actual quality of the meal.

The love may not be a chemical ingredient.

But care changes behaviour.

And behaviour changes food.

And the emotional context surrounding food can change how the brain experiences it.

That's where the science and the sentiment meet.

Perhaps that's why home food feels different

The difference between restaurant food and home food isn't always about ingredients.

Sometimes it's about meaning.

A familiar meal can carry memories.

A particular smell can trigger nostalgia.

A familiar recipe can feel comforting during stress.

A positive emotional environment can influence taste perception.

And the person eating the food brings their own memories, expectations and emotions to the table.

Science doesn't tell us that love literally changes the chemistry of food.

It tells us something arguably more interesting:

The experience of food is partly constructed by the brain.

And the brain doesn't leave emotions at the door.

At The Daily Thali, we think that's worth remembering.

We make everyday food for people who may be eating between meetings, after college, during a long workday, or simply because they want a proper meal without having to cook it themselves.

We can't promise that science will measure the amount of love in a bowl of dal.

But we can promise something more practical:

Food made with attention. Food made to feel familiar. Food made like a proper meal.

Because perhaps the best everyday meal isn't the one trying hardest to impress you.

It's the one that makes you think:

“This tastes like someone cared.”

What the science supports — and what it doesn't

Supported by research:

Emotional state can alter aspects of taste perception. Emotional context can influence the perceived taste of the same beverage in realistic dining environments. Familiar foods can be experienced as more comforting during negative emotional states. Memory, expectations, personal meaning and cultural associations contribute to emotional responses to food. Emotions can influence eating behaviour, although the effects differ between people and situations.

Not established by these studies:

That a cook's love literally changes the chemical composition of food. That food prepared by a loving person is objectively more nutritious. That positive emotion always makes every food taste better. That “cooked with love” is a scientifically measurable ingredient.

And that's actually a better story for The Daily Thali: we don't need to make an unscientific claim to explain why food can feel better when there is care behind it.

Research: The effect of emotional state on taste perception — PubMed Research: Emotional State During Tasting Affects Food Pleasantness — PubMed Research: Emotions shape taste perception in a real restaurant environment