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Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet is a single-table restaurant in Shanghai, China, opened in May 2012 by French chef Paul Pairet and VOL Group.

In 2013, Ultraviolet was ranked the eighth best restaurant in Asia by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list and the 60th best restaurant in the world.

DESCRIPTION

Billed as the first multi-sensory restaurant in the world, Ultraviolet uses sight, sound and smell to enhance the food through a controlled & tailored atmosphere The restaurant has a single table of 10 seats and serves a single 20+ course dinner menu for ten guests each night. The dining room of Ultraviolet is ascetic: No décor, no artifacts, no paintings, and no views. It is a purpose-built room specifically equipped with multi sensorial high-end technology such as dry scent projectors, stage and UV lighting, 360 degree wall projection, table projectors, beam speakers and a multichannel speaker system.

Each course of the menu is dressed-up by lights, sounds, music, and /or scents, enhanced with its own tailored atmosphere to provide context for the dish’s taste.

Ultraviolet originally evolved from Pairet’s desire to reduce the technical constraints of the traditional restaurant, which is organized to provide “a la carte” service. This type of organization requires preparation methods that Pairet considers “sub-standard”. By monitoring the timing of the courses and offering a fixed menu, Ultraviolet is able to optimize the control and the quality of cooking in ways that the majority of traditional restaurants cannot – a model that has roots in the historical “table d’hôte” concept. This control allows Ultraviolet to play on and intentionally direct the atmosphere for each dish through multi-sensory technology.

Ultraviolet incorporates technology traditionally used in unrelated fields to drive and control the “psycho taste” and enhance the perception of food. This concept is based on Pairet’s interest and desire to stimulate what he calls the ‘psycho-taste’. Howie Kahn, writing in the New York Times, conveyed Pairet’s idea that ‘psycho taste’ allows eating to “act as a gateway to the mind” and “it delves into the notion that memories, associations, expectations, ideas, misunderstandings, joys and fears all play a role in the experience of a meal.”

Pairet, among others, believes that our perception of taste can be altered by a lot of factors Expectations, memory, mood, weather, surrounding, trivial factors… everything about the taste, but the taste: By staging the ambiance assigned to a dish as we eat, he attempts to trigger emotion and uplift the perception and memory of a dish. Pairet has been quoted as saying “Food is ultimately about emotion, and emotion goes beyond taste.”.

CUISINE The restaurant’s cuisine draws on Pairet’s French background, his experience working in Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney, Jakarta and Istanbul, and is  a blend of experimentation, comfort and simplicity. The restaurant has described its cuisine as “avant-garde figurative.”

After 15 years of developing this concept, Pairet publicly presented the final theory of Ultraviolet for the first time in 2010 at the OFF5 French Omnivore Food Festival in Deauville, France.

RECEPTION

Howie Kahn commented in T: The New York Times style magazine “Ultraviolet, and its auteur, seem like the next steps in the chain of culinary evolution”. He also described the food and dining experience as “succeed[ing] brilliantly, mesmerizingly and, as intended, deliciously. Both UV menus reflect Pairet’s personality directly, setting the table with humor and grace, mischief and whimsy, with puzzles to solve and dishes to think through.” http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/shanghai-surprise/

Brian Johnston wrote for Sydney Morning Herald: “this is probably the most avant-garde restaurant in the world.” http://www.smh.com.au/travel/activity/food-and-wine/the-light-fantastic-20130621-2omss.html

In another of Johnston’s write-up in Voyeur, Virgin Airlines in-flight magazine, he wrote “There's no more outrageously original restaurant on the planet than the recently opened Ultraviolet, which its maverick avant-garde French head chef Paul Pairet describes as a "multi-sensory experience". https://travel.virginaustralia.com/voyeur-article/redefining-luxury

Claudio Grillenzoni reviewed the restaurant for Identita Golose in 2013, describing Ultraviolet as: “An incredible psycho-gustative odyssey lasting 4 hours and 22 dishes”. He commented on the food, saying “all dishes, on top of being remarkable, are always served in a very fun and unassuming way… one of the most experimental and challenging, one of the most fun and accomplished of the recent past.” http://www.identitagolose.it/sito/en/154/6122/china-grill/journey-to-the-centre-of-the-earth.htm#.UcLK3kOmN1k.twitter

William Drew, editor of Restaurant magazine, posted his review on The World's 50 Best Restaurants website in 2012: “The dishes’ conception is frequently playful and witty, their presentation theatrical in the extreme… it takes the idea of the multi-sensory consumption of food – blurring taste with emotion – to an unprecedented and inspirational level… this might just be the most avant-garde restaurant experience in the world.” http://www.theworlds50best.com/ultraviolet/12825/

Crystyl Mo wrote for Time Out Shanghai in Ultraviolet’s opening month (May 2012), “Ultraviolet is radical and it was very much worth the wait… The food is central to the night, never just a prop; each meticulously crafted bite is so delectable, we’re left craving more after nearly every course.” http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/venue/Restaurants__Cafes-European-French/6008/Ultraviolet.html

Condé Nast Traveller UK edition selected Ultraviolet in its Gold Standard Restaurants 2013, saying “Ultraviolet is China's most immersive foodie experience… Truly extraordinary.” http://www.cntraveller.com/awards/the-gold-list/gold-standard-restaurants-2013/ultraviolet-shanghai

Luc Dubanchet described in Omnivore magazine in 2012: “Ultraviolet transgresse enfin les règles, réinvente le restaurant sans oublier la cuisine… tout sonne juste, équilibré, sensible. Et parfois même bouleversant.” / “Ultraviolet finally breaks the rules, reinvents the restaurant, not to mention the cuisine… everything sounds just right, balanced and sensitive. And sometimes overwhelming.”

He continued to state, “ce travail délirant sur le rythme, l’image, l’effet de surprise, la réécriture complète de ce que peut être un accueil, un service, une cuisine du 21e siècle. Non décidément, ni arrogance, ni prétention chez Pairet. Derrière le rêve fou et conceptuel, cette volonté de maîtriser par l’illusion et la mise en scène nos émotions gustatives, le trouble de manger et vivre une immense poésie.” / “this crazy work on rhythm, image, surprise, a complete rewrite of what hospitality, service, and cuisine of the 21st century can be. No arrogance or pretension in Pairet, not really. Behind the crazy dream and conception, it’s the desire to control, by illusion and staging our gustatory emotions, the eating disorder and to live a great poetry.”