Paul Pairet’s Ultraviolet is a surreal and avant-garde restaurant that will change your entire perception of taste. The project marries food and multi-sensorial technology to create an immersive and unforgettable dining experience, where a sensory play is unfolded over a 20 course set menu.
The adventure begins with 10 diners first meeting at Pairet’s other highly renowned Shanghai restaurant, Mr & Mrs Bund. They are then driven in a coach with tinted windows to an undisclosed location, where they then enter and the diners sit down together and the sensory journey begins to unfold.
The Ultraviolet dining room comes to life through lights, sound, scents, an airy breeze, projections and music, with each course having its own taste-tailored ambience. These unique atmospheres and tastes have been expertly crafted by Pairet, a highly respected French chef who has spent 15 years planning and developing this incredible experience. For Pairet, “food is ultimately about emotion, and emotion goes beyond taste”. The restaurant is an exploration of his now famous theory of “psycho-taste”, which states how our perception of taste is based on external parameters and emotional triggers.
With so much emphasis on taste, it is essential that Pairet has a fantastic menu to drive this project. Fortunately he does, and this ranges from small 1 or 2 bite dishes, through to more substantial dishes to ensure that 20 courses is not too much and instead a fun, exciting and surreal food adventure. This has previously included fish and chips accompanied by The Beatles, rain lashing on the windows and a Union Jack covered table, or steamed lobster with the scent of seawater circulating the room, a cooling breeze and waves crashing on the walls.
This experimental twist on taste, ambience, emotion and dining ensures that an evening at Ultraviolet will be an unforgettable, thought-provoking and thrilling experience. Ultraviolet first opened in 2012 and was the first dining experience of its kind. It immediately caught the eye of critics around the world, and in 2015 Ultraviolet was ranked the 3rd best restaurant in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and 24th in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
