the Experience

Its 6:30 and the bamboo door opens to a warm and intimate world where artistry flourishes and shades of earth fill the room as does the scent of something familiar and comforting. The barrier between chef and guest dissolves away. You are escorted to your table which is barren except for a singular golden box. A surprise perhaps, or a precursor to the series of tantalizing and playful dishes awaiting you.

The service team explains the culinary journey on which you are about to embark. The lights dim; the experience begins. A series of nine to eighteen courses tell a story while your emotions run free. The atmosphere changes – sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatic. All the while your memory of this experience grows until another box appears and you realize the evening has come to an end…or has it.

Taste

Food = Taste + {Emotion + Memories + Atmosphere}

To assume that Taste only comes from food is to discount the human ability to perceive, store, and recall emotion and memories. To demonstrate try this experiment – close your eyes and hold your nose while taking a sip of wine, then release your nose. When the wine hit your tongue you tasted acid and probably sourness. Without the aromas from the volatiles released in the alcohol you would not know if this was a red or white wine or whether it was good or bad. But once you release your nose and can breathe in the aromas your mind comes alive with “taste” and memories of previous wines and where you were when you drank those wines and probably who you were with and the place and time of the experience.

Food is ultimately about emotion which is influenced by your mood, the lighting, smells from the kitchen, fond memories, your surroundings, your dinner companions, the sounds and music in the background and your expectation of what you are about to eat. Eculent is about uniting food with a controlled atmosphere using multi-sensorial technologies to create a fully immersive dining experience where your emotions can be free and your memories come to life...we call this Cognitive Cuisine.

Technology

Technology in the kitchen as well as the dining room enables eculent’s team of chefs and service professionals to create culinary and sensory experiences never before possible. No longer is the chef limited to culinary ingredients and age-old cooking techniques alone. Now the ability to influence and change the taste of a dish by altering the mood through changes in lighting, sound, ambiance, and smell creates a whole new palate of exploration. Think of these influences as new seasonings that can be added to a recipe. 

The technology employed by the chefs in the kitchen and lab include a Bucchi Rotary Evaporator, Poly Science Anti-Griddle, Liquid Nitrogen Tanks, Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, Poly Science Thermal Circulators, Vegetable Air Dryer, Frix Air Machine, Himalayan Salt Oven, Thermomix, iSi Syphons, Turbo Chef Oven, Wolf Range, Wolf Charbroiler, various coolers and freezers.

The dining room also employs a host of new technologies that all run off of Apple networks and computer systems. Using Phillips Hue lighting system each RGB light in the dining room can be individually controlled using an iPad. This provides immense control over the visual environment and gives the chefs new options in terms of plating and food design. The scent generators are also controlled from an iPad using ScentEvents technology. Each of the eight High Definition displays and projectors are also controlled using Apple TVs and iPad Minis.

The programming for each of the courses has taken over three months to perfect.

Emotion

Food always elicits emotions inside of us, but if the food is not spectacular we probably let those emotions go by un-noticed. However, almost everyone can remember at least one spectacular meal in their lifetime. 

At eculent our goal is to bring out your emotions with spectacular meals presented in an artistic and playful manner. 

We elicit those emotions by using color. Color of fresh vegetables or cooked meats, color of the wine or playful cocktails. Color is a deliberate decision with all our dishes.

We can elicit emotions also with texture. Smooth silky ice cream creates a very different emotion than that of a potato chip, While both can be tasty they create a different emotional response.