By Isabel Scott
Describing itself as ‘figurative avant-garde’, Ultraviolet was the first multi sensory restaurant in the world, brought to fruition by chef Paul Pairet to challenge conventional attitudes towards food. The restaurant closed earlier this year but operated for thirteen years, and was the first restaurant originating from China that joined ‘Les Grandes Tables du Monde’. A reservation was required for one of the ten seats at Pairet’s dining table, where all customers dined together to collectively experience Ultraviolet’s sensory dining.
How did it originate?
Ultraviolet was sixteen years in the making, devised by Paul Pairet in 1996. Pairet’s background in both science and cooking at a hotel school in Toulouse informed his experimental culinary style. Stints spent working in Istanbul, Hong Kong, Sydney and Jakarta gave Pairet experience of fusing French cooking styles with Asian ones, before settling in Shanghai and opening Ultraviolet. Opening in 2012, Ultraviolet served a twenty course menu to ten customers at a time until its closure earlier this year. The concept was to challenge the constraints of traditional à la carte service by restricting the restaurant to a singular table. Subsequently, Pairet was free to monitor the time and type of courses as well as the atmosphere for each dish, through multi-sensory technology.
Food as an experience
Pairet’s dining room was similar to an exhibition space in that high end lights, sound, images and cool air are used to tailor the environment to each course. The focus of Ultraviolet, however, remained on the food, with the mood of the room continuously adjusted to highlight or challenge taste, rather than to distract. In this context, food transcends its basic role of simply satisfying hunger and becomes a refined, artistic experience.
How does that happen?
The 20-course tasting menu, featuring imaginative dishes like “Foie Gras Can’t Quit” and “Truffle Burnt Soup Bread,”was synchronized with changing visuals, sounds, scents, and lighting to heighten flavor perception. An ocean-themed dish may be accompanied by projections of crashing waves, sea breeze scents, and ambient marine sounds. For the iconic “Truffle Burnt Soup Bread” course, meanwhile, diners are immersed in an evocative woodland setting in which projections of towering trees and fog-covered forest floors swirl across the walls and tabletop, while subtle woodsy scents—like damp moss and faint cigar smoke—are gently diffused around the room
Pairet employs cutting-edge technology- including 13,850 metres of cables and wires, 454 metres of AC piping, 56 speakers and 7 high-resolution projectors – to precisely shape every aspect of the restaurant’s atmosphere.
What’s next for Ultraviolet?
Unfortunately Ultraviolet’s closure earlier this year has ended this multi-sensory experience, but Pairet continues to practise in his more conventional French bistro, Polux, in Shanghai. Nonetheless, the legacy of Ultraviolet, which was dubbed”the world’s most innovative restaurant” by the Telegraph in 2017, will not be forgotten.