Food Inspiration Magazine

About Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet isn’t like any other restaurant. It is French chef Paul Pairet’s ultimate dream made real. Using aromas, air currents, sound, and visual projections the top chef creates a completely new mood for each of the restaurant’s twenty courses. A single communal table seats ten guests, each of who paid the equivalent of about $860 for the multi-sensory experience. You pay half up front when you book a seat, ensuring adequate cash flow for the restaurant, and reducing the risk of no-shows. The dining room is bathed in light projections, sound effects, music, and scents. There is no interior decoration, no paintings, and no view. You are placed in a room with rounded corners, the walls of which form a single, massive, screen. You are surrounded with visuals from floor to ceiling. Breathtaking images are projected on the walls. The optical spectacle took two designers a full year’s work to create.

Psycho taste

‘Psycho taste’ plays an important part at Ultraviolet. Before being served a dish made with apple and wasabi, the room turns cold and dark. The sound of a blizzard can be heard, and the table lights up like shimmering snow. Your sense of taste is determined by more than just raw flavor here.

Devil in the details

At the time of our visit the team at Ultraviolet was working hard to develop the third menu since the restaurant’s opening in 2012. They are calling it UVC, after UVA and UVB, the previous two menus. It takes a full year to design the menu from start to finish. It’s storytelling to the max. Obviously it is about the flavors of the food, but just as importantly it is about the presentation and the story. What images tell the tale they want to tell? What memories does chef Pairet associate with certain ingredients? Which sounds or which music best suits those? How does a single dish become part of a larger whole? At Ultraviolet, the devil definitely is in the details.

Dedication

Behind the scenes a designated director orchestrates the whole experience from a professional control room. Everything is about timing. This is where the true dedication of the team becomes most apparent. Every restaurant kitchen has that certain vibe, but Ultraviolet creates more than just good food, it puts on a show. It’s almost more of a multisensory test chamber than a restaurant. Every night ten lucky guests witness this high tech gastronomic experiment.

Outside investors were needed to make Ultraviolet a reality. Part of the deal to finance Ultraviolet was the establishment of a more accessible restaurant. That idea turned into Mr & Mrs Bund – Modern Eatery by Paul Pairet. That particular restaurant has since grown to be one of Shanghai’s best restaurants, and it brings in enough money to justify the existence of the slightly more experimental Ultraviolet