If the photos, for some reason, aren't enough and you still need more proof that the way a chef plates and presents their food has a big impact on the guest's experience, consider this experiment from Oxford psychologist, Professor Charles Spence.

Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's 'Painting Number 201', the Franco-Columbian chef and fellow co-author of the study Charles Michel designed a salad resembling the abstract artwork.

"A number of chefs now are realising that they are being judged by how their foods photograph – be it in the fancy cookbooks [or], more often than not, when diners Instagram their friends," Professor Spence explained.

Thirty men and thirty women were each presented with one of three salads containing identical ingredients, arranged either to resemble the Kandinsky painting, a regular tossed salad, or a "neat" formation where each component was spaced away from the others.

Seated alone at a table mimicking a restaurant setting, and unaware that other versions of the salad were on offer, each participant was given two questionnaires asking them to rate various aspects of the meal on a scale of 1 to 10, both before and after digging in.

Before the participants of the study sampled their plateful, the Kandinsky-inspired dish was rated higher for complexity, artistic presentation and general liking. Participants were prepared to pay twice as much for the meal as for either the regular or "neat arrangements."

After finishing off their portion, participants also rated the Kandinsky-esque salad higher for "tastiness," despite it receiving similar ratings to the other salads for the four basic components of taste: salty, bitter, sweet, and sour.

Of course, teasing apart exactly which aspect of the salads' presentation affected how much participants were willing to pay for a dish, and their perception of its "tastiness," is a tricky endeavor.

But the authors of the study suggest that the perceived effort involved in preparing the plate and its aesthetic appeal could be among the factors influencing participants.

To put it simply, expectations were raised [with the Kandinsky-eque salad] and that led to the willingness to spend more and to an increased experience during consumption. The presentation of a dish can excite us and make us more present during the course.

If you want to continue with testing this theory, fire up our older publication 169 Oddly Satisfying Food Photos That We Can’t Stop Looking At.