- a food art workshop for five (or more) senses in a restaurant setup -

workshop / event (2009)

It is free of the eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, body and mind;
free of sight, sound, smell, taste,
touch, and any object of mind;
free of sensory realms
including mind-consciousness.

- The Buddhist Heart Sutra -

CONCEPT

A unique food art workshop in a restaurant set-up. Each course is served with an intervention of one of your senses, such as blindfolding, amplifying or muting to enhance your sensitivities and experience new sensations. All in Japanese lacto-ovo vegetarian style prepared with organic ingredients.

The workshop is developed by Maki Ueda, an artist who is known for her artworks focusing on the olfactory sense.

Eating is something to appreciate with the five (or more) senses. In this extraordinary Japanese course dinner you will witness that, with full of sensations, inspirations, and findings.

photos: Moritz Bernoully

DISHES:

WELCOME DISH / お通し

for the sensory sounds with the hearing sense muted / amplified

PLEASE WEAR THE EARPLUGS

rice crackers with aonori seaweeds 青海苔せんべい
fermented miso natto with cucumber (morokyu)　もろきゅう
fried noodles (age somen)　揚げそうめん
seaweed salad　わかめサラダ
fried buckwheat sticks (soba karinto) そばかりんとう
fresh soybeans (edamame) 枝豆
pickls (kojizuke, family recipe)　麹漬け（上田家秘伝）
mixed nuts　ミックスナッツ

APPETIZER / 前菜

taste & smell experiments 1. smell the MISO SOUP PERFUME with the paper (or spray it into your mouth if you like)

1. MISO SOUP PERFUME is distilled miso soup. It's transparet, but contains the flavours. See from time to time how the charactor of smell changes.

top note (green onion)
middle note (shitake / kombu)
last note (miso)

2. Taste the (real) miso soup.

MAIN DISH / 主菜

PLEASE WEAR THE BLINDFOLD

You will get exactly the same dish twice!

1st one:

blind folded
use your hands

2nd one:

take off the blindfold
use the chopsticks

DESSERT / デザート

surprising ice creams PLEASE WEAR THE BLINDFOLD AND EARPLUGS

SPECIAL DRINK

Green Tea for flavour pairing

Spray the orange juice perfume into your mouth, then taste the green tea. "Food combines well when they have major components in common" : the concept widely accepted in the molecular gastronomy scene (www.foodpairing.be)

INSPIRATION

This workshop is primarily inspired by the activities of artists-collective FoAM in Brussels. One of the inspiring events that Maja Kuzmanovic has developed at FoAM was Open Sauces (Nov. 2008). It was about the future of food in many different perspectives. The issues herein included were: molecular gastronomy, food pairing, eating and senses (where Maki Ueda has contributed), logistics and food problems, safety of foods, etc.

DEVELOPMENT

For the documentations, please visit the blog site Scent Laboratory [DINNER FOR MUTED SENSES]

CREDITS

concept & development : Maki Ueda

cooking : Noriko & Maki Ueda

service : Misae Endo & Maria, Tomoko Inamura

special thanks to : Camera Japan Festival

DINNER FOR THE MUTED SENSES