Using contemporary art and technology, Jing hopes to preserve Chinese culture and heritage by engaging more than just taste
Almost every part of our daily life is a multisensory experience, that is, experiences that involve more than one of our senses. Take the seemingly simple act of eating, for example, which can make use of five senses in one bite. A multisensory dining experience, however, goes beyond that and—thanks to the study of neurogastronomy and restaurants such as Paul Pairet's Ultraviolet with its animated projections on plates in Shanghai or The Fat Duck by British chef Heston Blumenthal that plays sounds of the sea as you munch on seafood—we're now using technology to add another dimension to dining.
In Hong Kong, there is Jing, a new multisensory dining experience from the creative mind of Amanda Cheung and the team behind Wellwellwell which offers a collection of culinary concepts inside Pacific Place.
The name Jing (䭘) is the result of putting two Chinese characters, food (食) and scene (景), together to aptly describe the experience of transporting a diner to another realm by engaging the senses. The experience takes place inside a round private dining room tucked away in the restaurant Auntie Ayi where 360-degree visuals are projected onto curved white walls and the table, along with music and narration that tell stories as you dine.
Hoping to incite curiosity, Cheung describes Jing as a "space control room" or "mini spaceship" that brings people on a journey across time and space. "It's a fun and relaxed way to explore Chinese culture", says Cheung. "I want people to step into this incredibly rich world of Chinese history and food culture through these stories, be it from the past or from different regions."
Jing's first story is based on China's Golden Age: the Tang dynasty and features an eight-course dinner priced at HK$999 per person with dishes inspired by ancient legends, poems and tales including that of Yang Guifei, better known as one of the legendary beauties of ancient China and the beloved concubine of Emperor Xuan Zhong. As the story goes, Yang Guifei loved to snack on lychees, so much so that the Emperor sent horsemen to ride day and night to bring the fruit fresh from Guangdong, some 1,900km away from the palace.
Before each dish is served, the room is bathed in light with captivating visuals and stimulating sounds that are designed to intrigue and enlighten, evoking a sense of excitement as you feast on an equally enticing dish. Inspired by Yang Guifei, executive chef Michael Wu interprets the story as golden pieces of fried lobster served with fresh lychee that is stuffed with creamy lobster mousse. The dish is presented with an intricately carved carrot in the shape of Yang Guifei which is produced using traditional, and labour-intensive, techniques.