Animated dining

Dining can be an all-consuming experience, something that the world’s smallest chef, Le Petit Chef has proven time and again. The chef, known to evoke all the senses with his food, has finally come to Mumbai at the Grand Hyatt with some adventurous stories cooking infront of you.

The two-hours of immersive dining adventure comprising a six-course meal combines food with cinema, theatre and technology creating a fusion of flavours with virtual reality. With a projector pointed right onto your plate, no meal goes without the little chef moving around your plate and preparing the dish right in front of you.

With the use of 3D digital projection mapping, the chef sows seeds on digital farmland that surrounds your plate. While he runs to fetch a dollop of burrata cheese, the seeds grow into fresh tomatoes and arugula, which he plucks and tosses right onto your plate. Though the salad is ready, the story doesn’t end here — the chef jets off to chase a woodchuck trying to eat the tomatoes. As soon as the chase is over, the food comes to life from the animation.

Followed by a traditional bouillabaisse (seafood-based dish), which places your plate right in the middle of an ocean. Cooked with scallops, clams, shellfish, and lobster, the little chef fishes out each ingredient from the ocean while saving his life from an octopus that eventually makes way onto the plate.         

Created in 2015 by Skullmapping in Belgium, Le Petit Chef has travelled the world, including London, Hong Kong, Paris, Amsterdam, Mexico, Bangkok, Qatar, and Vietnam.

Every dish takes you to a different location in a different country. While at one moment you were savouring the Kerala Bay lobster served with feta parsley hummus and jumbo asparagus, the next moment you may be in a jungle, roasting a chicken served with mushrooms. Not just the water and jungle safari, the chef also takes you to a snowy place to make the perfect coconut ice-cream ball, with whipped cream on the side.

Exposing the Indian audience to such a unique dining experience, Roger Marti, F&B director, Grand Hyatt Mumbai says, “The concept is new and is a fusion of technology, food, and cinema. For every region, there is a different video as the audience altogether is different.”

The experience is at play for this entire month and promises a gastronomic experience that will take your taste buds on a flavorful ride.