«Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are,” claimed Brillat Savarin in his book the Physiology of Taste. From the first minutes following birth, or even before, we are exposed to multiple stimuli from an environment specific to our culture. This early cultural experience, associated with the culture-transmitting part played by parents, has a lasting influence on what we eat, how we prepare our food and how it is eaten. In today’s context of globalization of agri-food markets, it seems important to understand the changes in behavior and perception caused by our cultural heritage in order to offer suitable products. To illustrate my point I will draw on a study that was conducted as part of the FUI NUTRICE project spearheaded by SEB. The objective of this FUI project was to improve the nutritional and organoleptic qualities of rice while meeting consumer expectations. Rice is widely consumed worldwide but it is prepared, cooked and eaten very differently according to the culture, region, and type of rice used. To understand these differences, we used a qualitative approach based on observation of reality and focusing on practices and imagination. This approach means we are able to underline the differences in behavior in terms of purchasing mode, preparation and consumption, and to understand the causes of these differences and their impact on consumer perceptions.