I am having dinner with some colleagues at Brasserie Colette Tim Raue in Munich. It is below freezing outside and the dining room is warm and inviting.

The food is excellent, but that’s not what grabs my attention.

Because the food has triggered something in my comrades - instinct, ego, curiosity, guardianship.

I’ve always known food is as much as social instrument as sensory pleasure, but tonight, it is heightened, or maybe I am more tuned into it. Perhaps it is the weather.

One colleague takes the responsibility of choosing the wine for the table. And instantly he becomes the steward of our pleasure. He studies the menu, cross-checks our dishes, consults the waiter and places the order with consideration. When we raise our glasses in approval, he relaxes, his satisfaction is affirmation of his role - curator, protector of group experience.

This fascinates me.

For another collegue, taste is information as well as flavour. I am watching curiosity expressed socially and this also fascinates me - his need to understand each dish.

He sniffs, stares and separates components, guesses ingredients, challenges himself, and us, and insists the waiter check with the chef to see if he is right. He embodies epistemic drive.

The joy of guessing it was clarified butter in the pomme puree was infectious.

It can easily slip into pretentiousness (my radar is finely tuned for that) but it never does. It comes from such a good place – genuine passion, enjoyment and curiosity.

But tonight, I’m not drawn to the passions themselves, but to what those passions reveal about people.

Hospitality compresses so many things - psychology, culture, ritual, status, curiosity, pride, interpretation - all into one table.

Tonight, food is human behavior in concentrated form.

I find it fascinating because it reveals character - in a setting designed exactly for that purpose. Less