Technology, art and food complement each other at these immersive dining experiences
Have you ever wanted to taste Remy’s ratatouille from Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” eat a painting or have a cute animated character prepare a meal for you?
All three are possible at various immersive dining experiences popping up along the Peninsula. Fork n’ Film, 7 Paintings and Le Petit Chef are hardly new – they’ve been around for years – but all three recently made their Peninsula debuts.
Assistant lifestyle editor Karla Kane breaks down what’s included in each dining experience in this week’s food feature.
We also take a look at two restaurant chains from Asia debuting along the Peninsula. One hails from China and specializes in sauerkraut fish, while the other from Korea offers casual rice bowls.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Artistic masterpieces come to the table in immersive Mountain View dining experience
To see Leonardo da Vinci’s original “Mona Lisa” in real life, you need to go to Paris. But to eat dinner while a digital version of Mona Lisa speaks? For that, you can go to Mountain View.
More chains from Asia expand to the Peninsula, a whiskey tasting event and a Palo Alto book talk from an acclaimed chef
- A Sichuan restaurant chain with 650 locations globally is hosting the grand opening of its first elevated, full-service concept Saturday and Sunday in San Mateo.
- Simmer & Steamer, a fast-casual Korean restaurant chain, recently opened in downtown Palo Alto – and its CEO hopes to mix humanoid robots with human workers.
- GK Pastry, a family-owned bakery with locations in Palo Alto and Mountain View, opened its newest bakery in Los Altos on Tuesday. In addition to its signature jar cakes, cookies and focaccia, GK Pastry Los Altos will also serve coffee and savory lunch offerings.
- Mian Sichuan Noodle, which temporarily closed its Santa Clara location, is in its soft opening in Cupertino.
- Idyll Time Wine and Gift Gallery in Santa Clara will be hosting a September Extravaganza Night Market Thursday from 3-9 p.m. The pop-up event will feature Bay Area makers, artists and producers.
- Downtown Los Altos will host its first ever Whiskey & Bites Stroll Friday from 6-9 p.m. This ticketed event features tastings from 12 distilleries and food from 10 restaurants.
- The 43rd annual Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday. Expect more than 150 artists and craft vendors, a kids’ zone, food, live entertainment on two stages and beer and wine.
- The Oshman Family JCC Palo Alto will host a talk Monday from 7-8:30 p.m. with chef David Nayfeld of Che Fico and Bubbelah on his new book.
Dinner at Le Petit Chef
If you’re a fan of slapstick comedy and enjoy eating surf and turf, Le Petit Chef may be right up your alley.
This $164 immersive dining experience (which includes taxes and a mandatory service charge) held at the Santa Clara Marriott features overhead projectors that place “the world’s tiniest chef” on your plate to “prepare” a five course-meal. The petite chef faces quite a bit of hardship while making your meal and seemingly dies five times before respawning to prepare the next course.
While vegetarian and kids’ five-course sets are also offered, the projection remains the same and does include visuals of the chef chopping off a live octopus’ tentacles and slicing a lobster lengthwise, which was a bit grotesque.
The first course was basically a cheese course, although I believe it was supposed to be a salad course (as the petite chef was shown in a garden). You’re given a whole fistful of burrata cheese adorned with a Parmesan chip, with just a few segments of beets and slivers of toy box heirloom tomatoes. The proportions of the dish seemed off, but you really can’t go wrong with a plate of just cheese, so I enjoyed it.
I’m not a huge fan of seafood, so I wasn’t particularly excited about the second course of cioppino. But to my surprise, it wasn’t all that fishy and I actually enjoyed the dish, which came with clams, scallops, salmon and grilled crostini.
Next was the butter poached sous vide lobster with cauliflower foam, asparagus and basil espuma, which is airy foam from a siphon. The two foams had different textures, with the cauliflower more thick and creamy and the basil bubbly and airy. The lobster was cooked well, and its natural flavor really showed through since no ingredients on the plate were particularly bold in flavor.
The last savory dish was an American wagyu flat iron with fennel blue cheese-infused whipped potato, maitake mushrooms and port sherry gastrique. I liked that the blue cheese wasn’t overwhelming, but I could taste it just enough that it added a pop of brightness to contrast the decadent steak.
The dessert course was the only course I would not recommend. Besides the fact that the petite chef prepares an ice cream sundae in the projection and the dessert doesn’t match the video, the dish itself was actually bad. The menu advertised the dish as a Meyer lemon tart with a crispy butter shell, crystalized citrus wheel and lavender meringue, but in reality, it was a gummy, gelatinous bitter mess with a soggy and severely underbaked tart shell and a foamy, off-putting meringue. The only good thing on the plate was the ube ice cream served with the tart.
If we disregard the dessert course, the execution of the food at Le Petite Chef is done quite well. However, the menu itself is very standard fare, and the composition of the dishes could use some refinement. It reminded me of a menu found on a cruise ship.
To watch my review, follow @peninsulafoodist on Instagram.
Le Petit Chef, 2700 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara; 408-988-1500, Instagram: @le.petitchef. Seatings offered Tuesday to Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
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