By LAURIE HIGGINS August 18, 2010

The tender, fresh tuna on watermelon squares topped with slippery avocado and a bright burst of tobiko caviar was an explosion of flavors. a sip of thick peach soup followed by effervescent rose Champagne titillated the tongue. a mussel swimming in saffron butter with fresh chives nestled in a spoon, then slid down the throat. Warm figs wrapped in salty prosciutto with melted St. Andre cheese were dripping onto fingers, tempting one to lick them clean.

No one did, of course, because these delectable treats were part of the passed hors d’oeuvres being served earlier this month at Chillingsworth of Brewster’s “Pink Luncheon,” a fundraiser for the Breast Care Center at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. what these foods had in common was that they are all aphrodisiacs served in honor of guest speaker Amy Reiley, a leading authority on aphrodisiacs and co-author with Juan-Carlos Cruz of “The love Diet” cookbook (Life of Reiley, $14.95) released this summer.

• Watermelon could be called “nature’s Viagra.” one of its phytonutrients is citrulline, and the body converts citrulline to arginine, boosting nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels in the same manner Viagra does.

• Chili peppers raise body temperature, make your tongue tingle and bring a flush to your face. Research shows that chilies can cause an endomorphin rush.
• Mussels have an amino acid that directly raises sexual hormone levels. They are also a lean protein, a good mood food and provide omega-3′s.
• Triple cream cheeses have a scent that replicates that of a female pheromone. Cheeses also lower levels of bacteria in your mouth, making you more kissable, and they contain phenylethylamine, a naturally occurring compound that acts as a natural amphetamine.
• Ginger warms up the body and stimulates both the digestive and circulatory systems to get your blood pumping.

From “The love Diet”

“An aphrodisiac is all about the senses,” Reiley says, explaining that even though certain foods, such as watermelon and mussels, are scientifically proved to be aphrodisiacs, other factors — like color, contrasting textures and temperatures — are what make a good aphrodisiac recipe.

Reiley is the second American to earn the title “Master of Gastronomy” from Le Cordon Bleu in France. She chose aphrodisiacs as her specialty during a two-year master’s program there.

“The nutrition side of it really interested me, and I also love folklore and history, so (the study of) aphrodisiacs was a nice fit for me,” Reiley says. “My overall goal in terms of choosing to be in the food field is to get people in this country more excited about food, and I thought, ‘This is great. what better way to get them excited than to choose to get them, quote, excited.’”

Reiley’s first book, “Fork me, Spoon me,” focuses on 12 foods that have a scientific basis for being an aphrodisiac as well as great folklore or history. She also deliberately chose foods that people anywhere in the country could buy, so oysters and caviar are not in the book, even though they would top Reiley’s personal list.

The 12 foods are rosemary, mint, vanilla, chocolate, saffron, peaches, figs, mangos, ginger, chilis, almonds and honey. These foods all contain nutrients that have been tested in labs with controlled studies to prove their effects on the body. some foods are more pertinent to one gender than the other.

“For men, nuts contain a lot of testosterone, and for women, most people don’t know that celery and fennel have natural plant estrogens,” she says. “That’s why there’s a great celery recipe in ‘The love Diet.’”

In addition to recipes guaranteed to add a spark to your love life, “The love Diet” includes a list of aphrodisiacs and their effects, and a chapter on pantry ingredients to energize your own recipes. With racy chapter titles, such as “Quickies,” “Romantic Weekends” and “Little Blue Pill Foods,” the writing is fun as well as informative.

“Yes, it’s about your libido, but ultimately what’s good for your heart is good for everything else,” she says. “Your overall health is always going to benefit your libido, and if it’s good for your libido it’s always going to affect your overall health.”

Reiley divides her time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, but her extended family has summered at a beach cottage in Sandwich for about 90 years, and she loves spending as much time as she can there with family and friends. Her mother, Ronie Reiley, and close friend Annette Tomei, a chef-instructor at the French Culinary Institute in new York City and co-author of “Chile Aphrodisia” with Reiley, joined her for the “Pink Luncheon.”

The event came about because Reiley has been friends with Chillingsworth owners Pat and Nitzi Rabin for years and ran into them in April at the Taste of Vail Food and Wine Festival, where she was teaching a seminar on aphrodisiacs.

“I’ve been eating at Chillingsworth since I was 8 years old,” she says, confiding that her favorite dining room is “The Library,” which has just one table, as she walked to the main dining room for a five-course meal accompanied by a different wine to complement each dish.

The appetizer was a handmade sausage filled with chopped lobster, scallops and basil, served with a lobster basil cognac cream and topped with crisp and salty sea beans. it was a playful nod to the theme that also included some fabulously sexy ingredients.

“In folklore, all seafoods are considered aphrodisiacs since the time of ancient Greece,” Reiley says. “Lobster is a particular standout since not only does it provide lean protein, but it is a good source of zinc. and we consider it an indulgence, and who doesn’t feel more sexy surrounded by indulgence?”

The next course was a trio of crab salad with mango, jicama, pink grapefruit and cilantro, chilled tomato consomm