On Thursday 21st November, we did something we’ve never done before. We ate in the dark. In the middle of Birmingham.
‘Dining in the Dark’ is an immersive culinary experience created by Maribel restaurant at Brindleyplace and national charity Sense. The unique menu designed is designed to enable guests to shift from “eating with their eyes” and to focus on texture, taste, smell and sounds by dining blindfolded. Dining in the dark experiences have become popular over the last five to ten years as experiential activities take over our leisure time, but this one was pretty special given the collaboration with Sense. We didn’t want to miss out!
On entering the restaurant we were blindfolded before being taken to our seats, immersing us immediately into the dark. First came the canapés, which tasted of either cheese or potato – very different flavours of course, but this simply demonstrates how much of what we taste is influenced by what we see; it was so hard to tell! The canapés were in fact Cheese and Onion Crackers!
Head Chef at Maribel, Harvey Perttola came out after each course to talk to us about the dishes, giving us insight into the different flavours we were tasting. Harvey has been head chef at Maribel for just over six months and is already making a name for himself through his delicious à la carte and tasting menus, offering fine dining without the pretence.
Guests were given Beer and Malt Loaf Rolls to butter (so much harder than it sounds!) resulting in either far too much butter or way too little. We were then served our starters which seemed to have a granola like texture, making it difficult to get onto our forks in the first place, and all I thought the dish featured blue cheese when it was actually Beetroot with Goats Cheese Ice-cream and a Gingerbread Crumb.
The main course was a delicious Duck with Artichoke and Yeasted Pearl Barley. It was a challenge to cut the meat and even picking up and placing a drink on the table wasn’t easy. For me, this really highlighted how even the simplest of actions become complex when you do not have the “visual” reference we are often used to. Some diners struggled to use their knives and forks during the experience so resorted to using their hands!
We were then served our pre-dessert which was what I thought was a lemon mousse. Apparently it was actually a Vanilla Buttermilk Espuma with Passionfruit and Maple! Everyone else found this easier to eat, but due to the lightness of the mousse, it felt like dipping a spoon into air, resulting in some spillages in the Brindleyplace team! The final course was a delicious chocolate dessert with black forest and amaretto ice cream, definitely a favourite of the night. One side of the dessert was the chocolate, and the other was ice-cream, this made for an interesting combination of textures and flavours which was quite confusing initially!
The dining experience highlighted of course the importance of the work that Sense does to help those with complex disabilities to enjoy daily experiences, but also the extent to which our vision influences our interpretation of taste.
Head Chef Harvey worked with the charity to develop this special menu, and £15 of the ticket price went directly to the charity. Harvey is appearing in the Festive Kitchen at the BBC Good Food Show this week, but will be cooking for guests at the restaurant as usual of course!
To learn more about Sense and the incredibly important work they do, visit sense.org.uk.
