In a dark, round dining room, the late French chef Paul Bocuse explains the next dish.
It has all the hallmarks of the classic fine-dining cuisine Bocuse was famed for: quail and foie gras, wrapped in mushroom paté and pastry, and lavished with truffle sauce.
But at Krasota, a fine-dining restaurant in Dubai, nothing is what it seems.
Bocuse is not physically there; he’s been dead for six years. Instead, it’s his likeness projected onto the room’s curved walls, before dissolving into the dark.
This dish, from the recipe to the wall projection to the deep fake video of Bocuse, was designed by artificial intelligence (AI). It’s one of eight courses in “Imaginary Futures,” a multisensory dining experience at Krasota.
The experience takes diners through different scenarios of what the future could look like, from an underwater city to a space colony to a post-nuclear apocalypse, with each dish themed for its setting.
For its AI scenario, Krasota’s co-founders — digital artist Anton Nenashev, chef Vladimir Mukhin, and entrepreneur Boris Zarkov — ceded control to technology. Nenashev, who designs the projections with 3D computer graphics software, let the AI come up with 150 different concepts, before merging together the best; and Mukhin prompted generative platform Midjourney to reimagine Bocuse’s most iconic recipes, including his signature truffle V.G.E soup.
The experience takes diners through different scenarios of what the future could look like, from an underwater city to a space colony to a post-nuclear apocalypse, with each dish themed for its setting.／Wikimedia Commons
“We drew inspiration from the intriguing prospect of AI (re)creating individuals based on comprehensive data about their lives and experiences,” explains Zarkov. He describes it as a digital-age séance that evokes the memories and style of the late chef through technology — and it’s just the beginning for the future of dining, he says.
“Living hand-in-hand with artificial intelligence has shifted from fantasy to reality,” Zarkov adds.
Multisensory goes sci-fi
Most multisensory dining experiences, often hosted at high-end venues and conceptualized by world-class chefs, are expensive and inaccessible. (Krasota’s show starts from 1,200 dirhams, around $326.)
But Spence likens it to “the Formula One of food,” where the best dishes and experiences will “percolate down to the mainstream.”
And that’s already happening: Fanta’s “TikTok experience” asked consumers to explore how the flavor of its special edition drink changed with different stimuli, and Spence is working with Italian food manufacturer Barilla on soundscapes for different pasta types.
In the future, Spence sees more companies integrating sensory experiences — perhaps QR codes on products that link to a playlist to enhance the taste.
Any technology that interferes with the social aspects of dining will not succeed. People mostly want to talk with each other; dining is fundamentally a social activity.／Freerange Stock
Zarkov’s vision of the future is a little more sci-fi: he speculates that ultimately, brain chips will trick your mind into presenting your senses with whatever your heart desires. “In your mind, it looks like the best California sushi rolls you’ve ever seen,” says Zarkov. But really, the dish is “biomass,” with the precise nutrients, vitamins, and minerals your body needs.
Any technology that interferes with the social aspects of dining will not succeed. People mostly want to talk with each other; dining is fundamentally a social activity.
Charles Spence, experimental psychology professor
But if people are plugged into their own hyper-optimized world, if the dishes on the table don’t look the same to your partner as they do to you, if the decor is different, does dining lose its communal and social aspect?
“Any technology that interferes with the social aspects of dining will not succeed,” such as headsets or goggles, says Spence. “People mostly want to talk with each other; dining is fundamentally a social activity.”
