As the experience economy continues to thrive, attention spans reportedly are narrowing and climate consciousness is gaining urgency, innovative restaurants are rethinking the fine-dining experience.
From shelter-in-place-induced home dining to the delivery craze spurred by the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats, the restaurant scene has experienced a few years of upheaval. While some lockdown legacies remain – the company Zoom meeting, for one – there’s a reason why dining in didn’t ultimately trump dining out for high-end establishments. ‘A creatively stimulating experience at 101 Gowrie requires a lot of interaction and engagement from our guests,’ says chef Alex Haupt of the Amsterdam-based restaurant, who picked up 2021’s Michelin Young Chef of the Year Award. ‘I did not and do not feel that that experience can be translated into a takeaway/pick-up offering.’
And there he says it: experience. It’s something with which your home dining table – perhaps with a view to a stack of work documents that demand attention, not to mention the dishes that need washing afterwards – cannot compete. ‘First and foremost, a restaurant . . . must become a destination,’ writes Kristen Hawley for Skift. ‘Now that customers can get the food from a restaurant anywhere they are, businesses must double down on what happens inside.’ This is arguably more important for fine dining, where guests expect a certain level of experience for the higher price tag.
Photos: Tobias Lamberg Torjuse
Cover and above: In restaurant Iris, housed inside a floating orb-shaped structure in Norway’s Hardangerfjord, chef Anika Madsen serves a multi-course dinner that aims to communicate the ‘challenges and threats to the global food system’.
Although the Michelin Guide states that ‘the style of a restaurant [has] no bearing whatsoever on the award’, is it possible to entirely separate the environment from the meal? And even if Michelin inspectors can do it, can guests? Michelin-starred restaurant Äng in Sweden, for example, used to receive reviews that the food was amazing, but the space – low-ceilinged and filled with dark wood and leather – was lacking. CEO and partner Daniel Carlsson responding by overhauling not only the restaurant but the entire flow of the evening. ‘You lose attention if nothing other than the food changes,’ says Carlsson, ‘if the light, temperature and setting remain the same.’ After all, sitting in the same seat and space for hours on end can feel incredibly static, and a haute cuisine meal often takes between three and four hours, but can even extend beyond the five-hour mark.
While Äng adopted a restrained aesthetic for its new staggered spatial experience – in which diners literally shift between settings, from relaxed to formal, from bright to dark – others have pushed this approach to the extreme. ‘Our rule of thumb is that something spectacular happens every 20 minutes,’ says Sam Bompas of multisensory experience design studio Bompas & Parr. ‘This goes beyond the regular succession of courses and paired drinks to the entire set changing around the guests. It could be tables revolving to propel guests into new areas or theatrical set pieces with drinks made by merman mixologists who swim to your table. You emerge with tales to tell, burning with crystalline green flames of inspiration. The best experiences situate you as the hero of the story.’
That doesn’t mean spatial progressions are necessary, nor that smaller establishments can’t find other ways to introduce memorable, performative elements. Having designed the likes of Disfrutar in Barcelona – bearer of two Michelin stars and number three on the 2022 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list – El Equipo Creativo often finds the most interesting way to activate a dining area is by connecting it with ‘production’ areas. ‘It’s never boring to look at chefs preparing quality food or bartenders mixing drinks,’ says cofounder Natali Canas del Pozo. ‘Especially in a high-end restaurant where every step is carefully orchestrated, it’s a beautiful show to watch – something close to an art performance.’
Others are aiming to have an impact much greater than memorability. Steinbeisser’s Experimental Gastronomy, for example, is a series of climate-conscious dinners that cofounder Martin Kullik hopes will inspire guests to create positive change. The initiative began as bespoke vegan, local and biodynamic food experiences for which artists and designers produce experimental cutlery and dishware exclusively for Steinbeisser. Each piece is different – encouraging guests to be more mindful about what they’re eating and how they’re eating it – and can be purchased online after the event. Now Steinbeisser has not only extended the experience to include the likes of glassware and textiles, but the founders have become more reflective and aware of the ecological impact of everything from the tableware to the transportation of chefs, staff and guests. While working to make its events climate-neutral in the coming years, Steinbeisser will invest a large portion of its profits in biodiversity restoration. These reflections also offer the potential for Experimental Gastronomy dinners to further extend the experience. Perhaps the space itself could solidify the message by aligning with the nascent vegan interiors movement, or the journey to the event could become part of the experience.
Photos: Courtesy of Bompas & Parr
In Al-’Ula, Saudi Arabia – home to UNESCO World Heritage Site Hegra – visitors ate meals cooked over lava in an ancient canyon.
Site-specific theatrics
At Forces of Nature, one of two Bompas & Parr-designed pop-up dinners in the Saudi Arabian desert city of Al-’Ula, guests had the unique experience of watching local produce being cooked over streams of molten lava. Saudi Arabia is home to more than 200 dormant volcanoes, creating an immediate link between the cooking method and the land’s formation. The canyon’s ancient limestone walls were illuminated in yellow, orange and red, mimicking an open flame – the most primitive method of cooking – as well as the intensity of the molten lava, while a bespoke sound installation took the multisensory experience further. While not everyone can – nor should – re-create such a spectacularly theatrical event, it stresses the strength of directly connecting an experience to a place, no doubt solidifying both in visitors’ memories.
Photos: Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen
Spatial progression
A visit to restaurant Äng in Sweden begins in a greenhouse that belies what lies beneath. As the evening progresses, diners experience surprising scene changes – including taking a hidden lift to an underground wine cellar, the passage to a ‘secret’ sweeping dining space. Rather than rely on grand theatrics, the project highlights how spatial and product design – in this case by Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa, Karimoku Case Study creative directors and collection cofounder, respectively – can alter the course of an entire evening. Changes in colour, light, texture and physical posture slow down (or speed up) time, shift visitors’ focus, and ultimately create a richer experience. And, thanks to the interior’s relationship with the outdoors and Sweden’s drastically different seasons, the look and feel will alter throughout the year.
Photo: Kathrin Koschitzki
The customized tableware at the recent Experimental Gastronomy experience included Double Spoon by Cornelia Peterson, Burnt Wood Bowls by Sebastien Krier and Soil Glasses by Fabienne Schneider.
Memorability meets messaging
For a recent climate-conscious Experimental Gastronomy experience, Steinbeisser invited South Korean Zen Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan of Chef’s Table fame to cook a vegan feast in Amsterdam. It was the last time the organization will fly in a cook from abroad as it makes moves to become climate neutral. Some changes were already evident in the event’s customized cutlery and tableware – from oversized whittled chopsticks to double-ended seesaw spoons – for which invited artists and designers used traceable ecological materials. Fallen trees were the only source of wooden objects, for instance, while a series of bowls were crafted of sludge from the UK’s River Thames. The latter were only possible to produce because of the year’s low rainfall, another nod to the pressing climate crisis. Kwan’s presence, storytelling and post-meal meditation further instilled the message: ‘To overcome the climate crisis, we should protect nature and the surrounding world. To do this, you must change yourself.’
This article was featured in FRAME 149. Get your copy now.
