The document discusses the 10-seat restaurant Ultraviolet in Shanghai, China. It is run by French chef Paul Pairet and combines cutting-edge cuisine with advanced technology and sensory design. The restaurant aims to enhance the dining experience and "psycho taste" through controlled factors like lighting, sound, scent and more. It describes the restaurant's secret location, 20-course tasting menu, and the extensive technology integrated throughout the space in concealed ways. The article notes the restaurant aims to take control over all influencing factors of the dining experience.

1. Taiwan on TopThe Island State Lines Up as a
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Plus: Asian Designers Dominate
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2. Surface Asia 7170 Surface Asia
Two sets of China-based entrepreneurs
have embraced technology as the future of
wining and dining, with rather different
BUT EQUALLY dramatic results.
Words Simon Ostheimer
The New World
FOCUS / Future of Hospitality
Ultraviolet
Born and trained in France, Paul Pairet first came to
notice in 1998 at Paris’ Cafe Mosaic, before landing
in Shanghai in 2005 to open Jade on 36 at the
Pudong Shangri-La hotel.
The smells, textures, aromas and flavours of his
travels have inspired and rooted his very distinctive
style of cuisine, and in just three short years, Jade
on 36 has come to stand far apart from the hotel
restaurant crowd, staking out an international
reputation for sophisticated, avant-garde cuisine, and
becoming a destination in itself.
In 2008, Pairet left Jade on 36 to join the VOL
Group at the heritage Bund 18 building, before
embarking on his most challenging creation to date, a
10-seat restaurant with a secret location that presents
cuisine attached to raw emotion.
“Ultraviolet is the result of a 15-year dream,” says
Pairet. “The project crystallises what I believe in
the most: the attempt to unite food by staging the
otherwise random ‘atmosphere’ in order to enhance
the food served and the memory of it.”
Having arrived at the restaurant’s secret location
following a car ride across town, guests are led to
a single table of 10 seats, where they are served
a 20-course “avant-garde” set menu. The dinner
that subsequently unfolds has been described as a
sensory play choreographed by Chef Pairet and the
Ultraviolet team.
Food is obviously the main reason to experience
Ultraviolet, and taste its primary focus, but Pairet
says that to assume food is only about taste is naive.
“Food is ultimately about emotion,” he says, “and
emotion goes beyond taste. Emotion is influenced by
your mood, your memories, your surroundings, your
expectations, the people sitting next to you, your
chair, your subconscious, the lighting, the memory
of music, the realism of a sound, a view, a particular
scent, the so-called atmosphere, and all external
parametres building up your pre-conceived idea of
what you are going to taste.” The chef has a label for
this: the “psycho taste.”
According to Pairet, the psycho taste is everything
about the taste but the taste. It is the expectation
and the memory, the before and the after, the mind
over the palate. It is all the factors that influence
our perception of taste. For instance, see a tomato,
and your mind will call upon its memory to tell you
its taste. Smell bread baking, and you can taste the
finished loaf. Pairet says we all “psycho taste” before
we taste, which is why he is taking control over all
influencing factors.
So how will the design of Ultraviolet affect
our psycho taste? “Inside there are a table, 10
chairs and white walls. No décor, no artefacts, no
paintings, no views,” says Pairet. However, behind
the pristine surface lies a wealth of cutting edge
technology, including computerised RGB lights,
The 10-seat restaurant combines mind-bending
cuisine with cutting-edge design, including
computerised RGB lights, LED floor strips, pin
projectors, UV bulbs, HD wall and table projectors,
dry scent diffusers, tracking shape recognition,
infrared cameras, multi-channel surround sound
system, laser speakers, and a temperature air
turbine. For French-born, Shanghai-based chef Paul
Pairet (above), Ultraviolet is the result of a 15-year
dream, and the embodiment of his devotion to the
‘psycho taste’.
LED floor strips, pin projectors, UV bulbs, HD wall
and table projectors, dry scent diffusers, tracking
shape recognition, infrared cameras, multi-channel
surround sound system, laser speakers, and a
temperature air turbine. All this sensory technology
is concealed within the ceiling and walls, and
controlled remotely from a “techno-room.”
The numbers involved in the creation of his
vision are staggering: 29.5 tonnes of steel, almost
14km of cables and wires, 32 air-conditioning
machines, 131 power sockets, 27 smoke detectors,
45 doors (eight automatic), 10 computer screens, 56
speakers, 12 CCTV cameras, and more than 4,000
pieces of tableware.
It is undoubtedly one of the most technologically-
advanced kitchens in Asia, if not the world. Pairet
jokingly adds a few more statistics of his own.
“Close to 15,000 emails sent, up to 50,000 cigarettes
consumed, 8,000 double espressos, a bowl of tears, 10
bowls of rage, US$2.5 million invested, three years of
work and counting, and more than one year’s delay.”
All this work for a 10-seat restaurant.
Considering the expense and time, why only 10?
“Because the nature of the project is about creating
the best possible experience. It is difficult to make
food at the highest level for more than 10 people
at one time, so that’s why 10 is the perfect number:
creating an atmosphere that is convivial yet not
intimate.” uvbypp.cc

3. Surface Asia 7372 Surface Asia
From a branding standpoint, the owners consider
the store’s most important design feature to be its heart
and bottle logo. “The idea was a literal representation
of Amo Eno,” says Brook. “I was doodling around
with ideas, and when I came up with the two bottles
crossing to make a heart, I knew that was it.”
From an architectural perspective, there are several
key features at play in the store. One is showcasing
wine design products in the front window. According
to the owners, the designer products have helped
bring in a whole new audience that may have walked
right by otherwise. “I can’t tell you how many times
I have seen people walking by in a fast pace, only to
stop dead in their tracks and run over to the display
window to check out the unusual products for sale,”
says Brook.
Another is their wine racking system. The bottles
are displayed horizontally on a cantilevered acrylic
panelling system suspended by the necks with
collaring brackets. The racks are lit from within
and the whole display glows. It’s a stunning and
innovative way to display a fairly mundane looking
product like a wine bottle.
Of course, technology is integral to the Amo Eno
experience, coming in a few main components. First,
the innovative enomatic tasting machines allow
Design in Las Vegas and Clo in NYC, which were
conceptual predecessors to Amo Eno. “I have a love
of design and architecture,” says Brook, who has
been sourcing glassware and directing the design
on all of their projects for more than a decade,
“while Charles is really one of the most influential
figures in wine today, having founded brands like
Screaming Eagle, and recently the highly acclaimed
Sandhi and Leviathan. We all had a vision of the
future of wine retail.”
A key factor to the brand is its flexibility. Each
component, be it the wine bar area, wine retail
display, glassware showcase, or restaurant seating,
can be expanded or contracted depending on
constraints and context, making an easy fit-out into
hotels, high-end malls and shopping areas and even
airports and subway terminals.
Amo Eno
New Hong Kong wine store Amo Eno combines
wine, design and cutting edge technology.
According to co-founder Brook Bradbury, the
intention is to elevate the wine-buying experience
from “the level of dusty crates and cardboard boxes,
to a sleek, modern environment where the customer
feels empowered to explore.”
Amo comes from the Latin word for love, amor,
while Eno from the Greek for wine, oeno, combining
to mean “Love Wine.” The logo represents two
bottles crossing to make a heart, a visually literal
interpretation of the brand name and concept.
Amo Eno was founded by three serious
oenophiles, couple Andrew and Brook Bradbury,
and principal Charles Banks. Andrew and Brook
previously created wine retailers 55 Wine +
FOCUS / Future of Hospitality
customers to alternatively “try and try” or “try and
buy.” In other words, patrons can choose to enjoy an
experience more akin to that of a wine bar, or they
can taste many selections with the intent of finding
the perfect bottle to take home for dinner.
Second, the proprietary software created by
Mindwrack for the touch screen surface tables
allow guests to explore wine profiles, reviews and
characteristics at their own leisure. The bar tops are
fun, educational and interactive for the customers,
who can rate their own selections on the table. The
intelligent software also allows the customer to create
and access their own personal profiles, following
selections, likes, dislikes, and allowing for new
recommendations suggested by the system, creating
an invaluable database. It also ties directly into their
point of sale system, allowing for easy inventory
control and tracking.
“I think Amo Eno brings a whole new perspective
on wine to the Hong Kong market place,” says Brook.
“We give people a venue in which they can easily
attain information on the wines [available in the
shop] through the surface touch screen tables, and
then try a taste before they commit to buying an
entire bottle. It really takes a lot of the guesswork out
of finding something you really love.” amoeno.com
(Clockwise from far left) Design products
in the front window has helped bring in an audience
that may have walked by; Wine retail display; Wine
bar area; The trio behind Amo Eno, Charles Banks,
Brook and Andrew Bradbury; Touch screen tables
allow guests to explore wine profiles, reviews and
characteristics at their own leisure; The owners
consider the store’s most important design feature
to be its heart and bottle logo.