Can we measure food craveability?

In this episode of The Mess Hall, Mike and Maeve check in on their 100 Recipe Challenge, a year-long project to cook 100 new recipes from cookbooks they've collected. They compare progress, debate the merits of following recipes to the letter versus trusting your gut, share their favorite and least favorite dishes so far, and go down a rabbit hole on the quest for the perfect pancake. Then they sit down with Beth Kimmerle, founder and CEO of Attribute Analytics, to explore the science of sensory evaluation and how her trained taste panels help food companies translate aroma, texture, taste, and emotion into actionable data. Beth digs into why texture has emerged as the new strategic focus in food innovation, why consumers can tell when their favorite products have quietly changed, and how the explosion of data and AI is reshaping -- and sometimes paralyzing -- product development. The conversation ranges from the National Restaurant Association Show floor to the future of underleveraged senses like sound and smell, the rise of ASMR-driven food discovery, and whether we'll eventually evolve a sixth sense (or grow an antenna) to keep up with a world where almost everything else can be faked.