Fine Dining- An art to challenge your expectations

Food innovation is the new buzzword which hasn’t left any stone unturned to outshine the magnitude of innovation being done all over. For innovation, although sky is the limit but when it comes to food, I guess there is no limit. Restaurants these days are sinking their teeth to the core to come up with ideas which titillate our senses and fulfill all our dreamy gastronomical desires. Unique fine dining experiences are no longer confined to just ambience, presenting the regular food nicely and good service but the span is infinite and extends to every possible element which sometimes is not even within the ambit of our anticipation.

Unfolding the mystery of what all is happening inside the food lab today is like churning sea water to see the world beneath the ground level. The biggest change that has overtaken the whole idea of giving a pleasant experience is to play with your senses and challenge your expectations. The magnitude of your expectations being challenged or senses being duped is directly proportional to the pleasure you experience out if it which is mainly driven from “Molecular Gastronomy”. So basically molecules i.e. smallest unit of a chemical compound is being used which participates in different chemical reaction and change the way a food looks, tastes, as well as feels. The craziest element of molecular gastronomy is virtual flavoring (mainly through the process of evaporation) which doesn’t even allow you to set any expectation. Just imagine an eggplant tasting like banana, looking like potato chips and eventually being used for a dessert; would you even conceive something like this? This is the real world of food experiments happening today.

Molecular gastronomy is given affect mainly with the use of liquid nitrogen to change the food temperature very fast and play with its texture, presentation as well as flavoring. We all would agree that we eat with our eyes. The temptation to hog mainly comes from the way the food looks like which signals our mind to brace for the binge. An additional temptation as of today is around the element of surprise with the deceptive appearance as well as aroma. This element of surprise which deceives your senses actually creates sensation and addiction of trying food more frequently and experience the bliss. Food chains have rightly captured this and are competing around innovative style of cooking, use of bizarre and unmatched ingredients and unique presentation to sensationalize your dining experience.

Apart from the food, the entire dining experience covers tons of other elements which are also repackaged, recreated and presented differently to break the monotony, make you feel special and give you a unique experience. The most common of them is around fancy cutlery which has to go in sync with the opulence of the restaurant and the innovative presentation of the food being envisaged like toy trucks/giant wheel for starters, tiny gas cylinder for beverages, pressure cooker for Indian curries, telephone booth/typewriter for the bills etc. Sometimes the food and the cutlery is so fancy that it gets confusing as to what is there for decoration and what is meant for actual consumption. What also is equally fascinating is the food as per your mood and the best example is the Sunday brunch which is meant to fuel your lazy weekend morning with a fizz & instigate you to slurp till you burp.  

Another leg of different dining experience is around ambience which is based on specific themes like beach, royal ship, metro, cave, Bollywood, sports, vintage, Jungle and so on. One of the most blissful experience I had in terms of a very classy ambience was at a plush restaurant in Gurgaon where you go to the 4^th floor using the lift and come back to the ground floor through an escalator where you get to see an awesome art in the form of landscaping accompanied by a water reservoir surrounded with flames which is simply impossible to put into words. Obviously, if something like this is curated specifically to add to your experience, it makes a hell lot of difference and can’t be bypassed.

It’s very exciting to plan and zero in upon a venue out of countless options. The marathon of excitement continues with the unique description in the menu or having a digital menu, ambience, combination of ingredients never heard before, fancy cutlery, the reconciliation of your expectation with the food being served, customizations like private dining, customized decoration & menu etc. This is one of the most competitive area which keeps the food chains on the edge to keep thinking out of the box and benefits the customers to have endless divine experiences. If all of it continues in the same fashion, days are not far when we will have championships like Olympics to showcase insane level of culinary skills. Bon Appetite!!!