I then researched other ways I could manipulate or enhance the dining experience and concluded that my program was to be    ‘A high end and exclusive, intimate sensory dining restaurant.’ 

Taking inspiration from other existing sensory dining experiences, I came up with my own:

‘A DASH OF DARKNESS‘ 

Sight- The Restaurant  ‘Dans Le Noir’, where you go to eat in the dark and are served by visually impaired staff. 

‘A CONDIMENT OF CHROMOTHERAPY’ 

Playing with lighting to create mood – The restaurant ‘Ultra Violet’. I want to take this further and use Chromotherapy  (sometimes called colour therapy), which uses light in the form of colour to help balance people’s physical, emotional or mental energy. 

‘AN OUNCE OLFACTION’ 

Smell -  75% of what you taste comes from what you smell. One dining experience will use the ‘Aroma Fork’  which is a scent-emitting fork where aromatic oils are dropped on blotting paper within the fork. To seduce the senses and amplify the taste. 

‘A TAD OF TOUCH’ 

Eating with hands - In some customs it is normal to eat with your hands and it is what we would have done in our primal stages of existence. I wanted to create a dining experience, which was very hands on. 

‘SONIC SEASONING’

Eating whilst listening to Music - Heston Blumenthal introduced his iPod-enhanced seafood dish and I saw a wine bar that used sound frequency to manipulate the taste of wine. This also works with food. High frequency sounds enhance the sweetness of food whilst low frequency sounds bring out bitterness. So my idea was to create a dining experience that would play with this idea.  I decided that all of the pods could evolve into this experience for the dessert stage of their dining experience through speakers within the pod enclosure. Sonic seasoning. 

'BUFFER ZONE' 

Buffer zone – I took inspiration from the 'Silence Room' in Selfridge, a space for the customers to relax and unwind .­I wanted this space to be a space of from the outside world and of the for the dining experience before them. I wanted this space to be a space of desensitization from the outside world and of the anticipation for the dining experience before them.