Chennai: Challenge your taste buds at this dine in the dark experience at Park Hyatt

Experience sensory dining in complete darkness at Park Hyatt's Flying Elephant, engaging all senses except sight. Book now.

You eat with your eyes first. 

All five of our senses are interconnected when it comes to food, but first impressions are made when we look at what is put in front of us. How a dish looks, determines how we feel about the meal. This is one of the main reasons why restaurants meticulously plate the food, add garnishes, and other embellishments. It is a visual feast and in today’s Instagram age, your camera eats first. 

But imagine a dining experience where this very important sense is taken away. At Park Hyatt’s Flying Elephant, in a dining roomplunged into pitch darkness you are served a five-course meal. This sensory experience begins unlike any other fine dining experience — with clanking forks and resounding laughter. 

After a brief introduction and interaction with fellow diners, you are led into a dining space and all smart devices are confiscated. The lights are turned off, curtains drawn to a close and blindfolds go on. While your eyes are taking their time adjusting to the lack of light, every other sense is heightened. The carpeted floor muffles the host’s steps as he walks around the 10- seater table explaining what we will experience for the next 90 minutes or so. 

“Slowly reach out and feel what has just been placed in front of you,” says Jaspreet Singh, our host for the evening. The cold ceramic bowl holds the salad course. “I cannot smell anything,” says one guest, while trying to find their cutlery. As the diners begin to taste the salad, they start sounding out their guesses. Apples! Olive oil! Cucumber! The guesses are neither being confirmed, nor denied by Jaspreet, who seems to be having a blast at the diners’ expense. 

Each course is punctuated with fun activities to keep the diners engaged. There are no awkward silences. In the dark, everyone is a friend, and everyone’s guesses are being seriously considered. 

The soup course comes with instructions on how to eat. Served at a lukewarm sipping temperature, the aromas and tastes stump even the food critic in the group. “I planned each course keeping in mind that it shouldn’t be easily recognisable. If I put familiar flavours in front of you, it will not be a fun sensory experience,” says Chef Dhanraj Manogaran, Chef de Cuisine at Park Hyatt, Chennai, who took a month to curate the menu for this experience.