Quick Take
- Narration: Katie Schorr’s warm, conversational delivery suits the breezy science-journalism format perfectly.
- Themes: food psychology and sensory science, environmental influences on taste, the hidden mechanics of dining experience
- Mood: Light and curious, designed for pleasant listening alongside exactly the activities it describes
- Verdict: A charming and accessible tour of food psychology that works best as an introduction to a subject others have covered more rigorously.
I listened to most of Off Menu while doing exactly what Nell McShane Wulfhart suggests in her own synopsis: strolling through a farmers market on a Saturday morning, half-listening and half-watching people debate which tomatoes to buy. There is something faintly recursive about it, listening to a book about why food tastes the way it does while surrounded by food. But that recursiveness is also the book’s strength: it is designed for exactly this kind of ambient, pleasurable listening, and it works in that register.
Wulfhart, a journalist rather than a food scientist, approaches the science of eating as a curious outsider. The questions she pursues are genuinely interesting: why does coffee taste different in a mug than in a to-go cup? Does the sound of a cocktail being prepared change how much you enjoy it? What does background music do to how much you eat? These are not trivial questions. The research base she draws on, which involves real sensory science and food psychology, is legitimate. The issue some reviewers have raised, and it is fair, is that this research has been more rigorously covered elsewhere.
Our Take on Off Menu
At just under six hours, Off Menu is a comfortable, single-session listen that covers a lot of ground lightly. The structure moves from one environmental influence on taste to another: visual presentation, lighting, sound, cognitive priming, the brain’s response to anticipation. Wulfhart keeps each section short and example-driven, which makes for pleasant listening but occasionally sacrifices depth. One reviewer, who had read both Bob Holmes and Charles Spence’s more rigorous treatments of similar material, described this as dumbed-down secondhand information. That is harsh, but the core observation is not wrong: if you have read Gastrophysics by Spence, much of the material here will feel familiar.
For listeners coming to this subject fresh, however, the accessibility is a genuine virtue. Wulfhart is a journalist who knows how to tell a story, and she applies that skill to scientific material in a way that makes it stick. The example about the microwave ping, and how the sound itself triggers anticipation and alters perception, is the kind of detail that stays with you. Multiple reviewers described wanting to own a physical copy, specifically because the book is the kind of thing you want to be able to annotate and return to.
Why Listen to Off Menu
Katie Schorr’s narration is one of the book’s strongest assets. The tone is warm and conversational, as if a knowledgeable friend is walking you through the science over coffee. That quality, which is easy to describe and hard to execute, matches what Wulfhart is doing on the page: making specialist knowledge feel accessible and relevant to everyday experience. At six hours, Schorr never lets the pacing drag; the episodic structure gives her natural places to shift register and keep the listening experience fresh.
It is worth noting that this was released as an Audible Original in 2020, which means it was written specifically for the audio format. That shapes the text in meaningful ways: the structure is more episodic than a print book would be, the examples are designed for ears rather than eyes, and Wulfhart’s journalistic prose benefits from being heard rather than read. This is one of those cases where the audio format is not a secondary delivery mechanism but the intended one.
What to Watch For in Off Menu
The depth limitation is real. Amanda Carmichael’s review, the most critical in the sample, points to a genuine structural problem: Off Menu synthesizes research that serious readers of food science and food psychology will have encountered elsewhere, and it does not add original reporting or analysis beyond what those sources already contain. If you have read widely in this space, this is probably a partial listen. If you have not, it is a well-constructed introduction.
The practical application sections, the hacks and tweaks Wulfhart promises in the synopsis, are lighter than the framing suggests. The book leans more toward interesting-fact accumulation than toward actionable change. Listeners who come hoping for a systematic approach to improving how they cook or dine will find the application side of the book underdeveloped relative to the science side.
Who Should Listen to Off Menu
Listeners who are new to food psychology and sensory science will get the most from this. It is an ideal companion for exactly the activities Wulfhart describes: cooking, grocery shopping, planning meals, or any context where your attention is partially occupied and you want something engaging but not demanding. Serious food science enthusiasts who have already read Spence, Holmes, or similar writers will find little new here. The book’s Audible Original status also means it is currently unavailable outside the platform, which limits broader access.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Off Menu an Audible Original, and can it be accessed outside the Audible platform?
Yes, it is an Audible Original released in 2020. As of the time of writing, it is listed as unavailable on Audible itself, and at least one reviewer noted the frustration of not being able to return to it or own it in print. Access may be limited by platform availability.
How does Off Menu compare to Charles Spence’s Gastrophysics or Bob Holmes’s Flavor?
Gastrophysics and Flavor are more rigorously sourced and go considerably deeper into the underlying research. Off Menu covers similar territory but at a journalistic rather than scientific register. If you have read those books, this will feel like a lighter overview; if you have not, it is an accessible introduction to the same material.
Does the audio format add anything to this book compared to print?
Significantly, yes. Off Menu was designed as an Audible Original, meaning the structure and prose were built for listening rather than reading. Katie Schorr’s warm, conversational narration is part of the experience in a way that a printed text would not replicate. It is genuinely better heard than read.
What are the most practically useful insights in Off Menu?
The sections on environmental factors like lighting, background noise, and vessel choice, the coffee-in-a-mug versus to-go-cup example is a good representative case, offer the most immediately applicable insights. The book is stronger on interesting-fact accumulation than on systematic practical guidance.
