Meeting and Presentation of Digital Taste and Smell to Andoni Luis Aduriz, Number 3 chef in the world at Mugaritz the number 4 restaurant in the world with Luis Castellanos CEO of Jardin de Junio http://www.eljardindejunio.com
I had the great pleasure to be invited to a meeting with Andoni Luis Aduriz, Number 3 chef in the world and Luis Castellanos CEO of Jardin de Junio. They wanted me to present our work in digital augmented taste and smell.
The restaurant is in a beautiful mountainous area around San Sebastián. At first we had lunch and discussions together. The lunch was simple yet so delicious. Tomato with olive oil and salt, baby lettuce, and lamb chops. I didn’t realize the lettuce was a sneak preview of the incredible dinner.
Next I gave a presentation on our research on multi-sensory mixed reality and I gave some demonstrations, such as the electric taste machine. I was really happy and excited that Chef Andoni was pleased and wants to work together on a project.
Next we watched a piano concert at the restaurant, and at next the most amazing dinner of my life. Andoni gave us a tour of the kitchens. It was incredible to see more than 70 staff prepare the dishes for only a small group of patrons, maybe 40 or 50. Each table at the dinner is given different dishes, to suit the mood and personality of the patrons. It is an individualized feast.
There were more than 20 courses at the dinner. It was an explosion of amazing tastes, textures, visions. The dishes were an incredible combination of traditional and modernist / molecular cuisine. For example what I thought were noodles were made from some kind of beef marrow. What looked like a chocolate sweet was made from duck’s blood. At first my brain forced me to think it was chocolate, because of the visual dominance, and next I could taste savory.
The whole dinner went on for hours and hours, accompanied by incredible local wines also. At the end of the night we were saturated and exhausted. It was one of the most incredible times of my life.