As someone who’s used to taking Instagramable food photos, eating while blindfolded somehow sounds… old fashioned to me.
“There are studies in psychology that say 80 per cent of people eat with their eyes. When you see the meal, you’d start to imagine what it tastes like before having a bite,” says Alexandre Boccardi, Fever’s Canada lead.
Started last year, Fever has hosted four different Dining in the Dark experiences in Edmonton, including a Thai food special and a Holiday special. Now it has a summer special happening at Stanhope Eatery and Bar, with three options for people to choose from based on their dietary requirements: Green box for vegetarians, Blue box as the seafood option and Red box as the meat option.
“Once you ease in with the lack of visual stimuli, it’s a lot easier to focus on the smell and the taste of the dish,” recalls Boccardi from his previous dining experience. “I wouldn’t say it’s scary. Our servers do a great job at explaining where everything is on the table. It’s a multi-sensory experience where you can focus on the food even more.”
While the menu design plays to each restaurant and caterer’s strength, each experience has a different menu. The chefs also need to consider how to make food easily consumed on the table with people blindfolded. And after each course, the staff asks people to guess the ingredients before revealing the actual dish.
“This is an exciting experience for people who go on their first dates. You can’t see anything on the table, which provides good conversation starters. Since everything is already out of your comfort zone, you might as well be able to go further and get to know each other more.”
Cover your eyes in the candlelit eatery for Fever’s Dining in the Dark experience, August 4 and 18.
