By JUSTIN BERGMAN
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| Scott Wright of Limelight Studio At Ultraviolet, video-screen walls and music produce different moods for a multisensory eating experience. |
The scene resembles a religious procession, not the opening salvo of a 22-course degustation menu. As images of candles flicker on the walls, a bell begins to toll and an angelic hymn fills the room. Ten servers wearing ball caps and blue aprons slowly enter from a side door, heads bowed reverently over the silver bowls in their hands.
Then the mood suddenly changes. The opening strains of the AC/DC song “Hell’s Bells”
rip through the room as the servers place the bowls before the 10
diners seated around the stark white table. Inside, a green disc meant
to evoke a Communion wafer is suspended on a silver prong, illuminated
by a green spotlight from above. The first course, a wasabi-flavored
frozen apple bite, is served.
Such theatrics are all part of the show at Ultraviolet, an experimental new restaurant opened in Shanghai by the French chef Paul Pairet,
whose aim is to deliver a multisensory eating experience that goes
beyond the mere taste of the food. Served in a dining room that more
closely resembles a movie theater, with 360-degree video screen walls,
surround-sound speakers and high-tech overhead lighting, each dish is
accompanied by a carefully choreographed set of sounds, visuals and even
scents, all intended to create a specific ambience to enhance the
flavors of the meal.
The goal is to break down the constraints of the typical restaurant and
intensify the focus on the food, not distract from it, said Mr. Pairet,
who is also the head chef of Mr & Mrs Bund, the acclaimed French
restaurant in Shanghai.
Speaking rapidly in sometimes imperfect English, he explained: “I really
think that we never lose the focus of the dish. I would not even say
that the dishes are better, but to a certain, the memory of the dish is
stronger.”
The four-hour meal is high on whimsy and imagination. Mr. Pairet’s play
on fish and chips (a single, battered caperberry stuffed with anchovy
paste and paired with a Scottish beer) emerges in a dreary storm with
images of raindrops on the walls and the sounds of thunder, before a
British flag is illuminated on the table and the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” begins to play.
Diners are transported to the beach for the steamed lobster course,
surrounded by crashing waves, the cries of sea gulls and the scent of
seawater from the steam of a pressure cooker the host of the dinner,
Fabien Verdier, whisks around the room. With each meal priced at 2,000
renminbi per person (or $314 at 6.35 renminbi to the dollar), the
success of Ultraviolet ultimately depends on the quality of the food.
Mr. Pairet has already received a glowing review from one noteworthy
critic: Alain Ducasse. After his visit last year, the chef scrawled
“C’est magnifique” on a wall reserved for comments from guests.
Mr. Ducasse understood that Ultraviolet wasn’t trying to be “a
restaurant of the future,” Mr. Pairet said. “What we are doing is really
anchored in the restaurant just trying to bring the things a bit more
relevantly around the food.”
Ultraviolet, (86) 21-6142-5198, uvbypp.cc. Guests depart from Mr & Mrs Bund, 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, Shanghai. Reservations made online at uvbypp.cc/bookings.
Source: The New York Times
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Another brilliant and imaginative idea of restauranteurs! Chef Paul Pairet has brought not just a different taste of the dish to the diners but also the feeling to every bite. Once said that color can promote different feeling, now with the combination of color, visuals and sound, the feeling of every cuisine which the diners have been served would be depicted more clearly. That create the specific memory which reinforce the flavour in the the diners' mind. The dining experience is also more interesting as it's not only about trying new food. It has become a performance of art, the harmonization of all the elements from food to visual and sound effects makes the service more like a show. This is so exciting that it's worth a try for everyone who loves culinary art.
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