PARIS — Restaurant design is moving beyond interior decoration, as chefs here try to create culinary experiences that engage the palate and the eye equally.
Applying design to gastronomy has been in the air for a while. Consider Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, whose El Bulli restaurant is often hailed as the best in the world. He has worked with Swiss designer Luki Huber to concoct his creations for years.
But as more chefs consider how to extend design beyond their dining room and onto the plates, the trend is becoming more pronounced.
In Paris, for instance, Italian industrial designer Claudio Colucci recently teamed with chef Stéphane Gaudard to create new recipes for his Delicabar restaurant at the Bon Marché department store.
“Gastronomy is a beautiful playground” Colucci said. Among the creations the designer concocted with Gaudard is a green tea and rose cake in the shape of a heart.
Didier Elena, the chef at Reims’ two-star Les Crayeres, said he is enthralled with designed food. He is exploring the idea of rectangular cuisine. For example, he cuts fish in rectangles and then serves it with rectangularly arranged vegetables on rectangular plates.
Alain Passard, the chef at Paris’ critically acclaimed restaurant Arpège, said he loves making macaroons square instead of round.
“With four angles, the crunch is different,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paris’ Lenôtre is offering its own square macaroons. And Fauchon sells a square collection of cheeses and charcuteries.
Chefs say the possibilities are endless.
Marc Brétillot, a culinary designer who creates narrative scenes with food, is a good example.
Earlier this year he staged a meal at the Metz Centre Pompidou on the theme, “How to eat in a museum?” His intent was to understand art better through food.
He also recently designed a mille feuille pastry for Bon Marché that stands on its end like a book.
And in June, Brétillot designed a three-course meal based on Alphonse Daudet’s “Letters From My Windmill” at the Palais de Tokyo. The result was spectacular. The appetizer was fish served on a plate in which hot water was mixed with dry ice to create mysterious smoke.
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While the French are still attached to their traditional cuisine, the new generation of chefs and designers predict a tasty future for culinary design.
“You’ll see, 15 years from now, when you’re dining in a restaurant, you’ll be thinking, there is a designer behind this dish,” Brétillot said.