What was up with the food scene in Tom Jones?

    

While I was not expecting to enjoy the movie Tom Jones,  I can definitively say that it was one of the better movies I've watched in school. It had the perfect amount of comedic elements, and the breaking of the fourth wall was so random that it added to the comedy. Despite being a rouge character of sorts, Tom Jones ends up being likeable, and everything is worked out in the end. However, There was one scene that didn't make any sense. In his search for his true love Sophia, Tom becomes acquainted with a woman named Mrs. Waters. They decide to stop at an inn and have dinner. The meal starts normally, the pair sit across from each other and begin to eat. Then things take a turn. As quickly as the meal started, the two are intensely staring into each other's eyes while rapidly eating their food. What started as dinner quickly turns into a sloppy mess, awkward for the movie's audience to watch. Ultimately the couple stay the night together, and it is implied that this dinner is one reason why. For such an off putting scene, the meal is one of the most recognizable parts of the movie, and one of the most unsettling. Aside from being kind of odd, the scene is silent other than the chewing noises made by the protagonist and his partner. For people with Misophonia (the condition in which sound like chewing, breathing, and swallowing are extremely irritating), this scene would be unbearable, and for everyone else, the scene is extremely uncomfortable, and at the very least weird.