A scientific feast awaits at the Banquet!

In 2010, UNESCO inscribed the ‘gastronomic meal of the French’ on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making it a living heritage, accessible to all and to which we all contribute. Cooking is a popular and intergenerational art form which brings people together. Inventing, tasting, sharing…the discipline feeds on numerous cultural influences and continues to reinvent itself with new foods, recipes and techniques. What better than a trip to the Banquet exhibition to discover this incredible heritage for yourself, which runs until 7 August 2022 at the Cité des sciences de la Villette (Paris, 19th arrondissement).

This fun exhibition gives visitors the chance to immerse themselves in sumptuous and festive multi-sensory experiences. The exhibition calls on all of our senses, as they all have an important role to play in taste perception; eating also involves smelling, feeling, tasting, touching and hearing. And when science gets involved, we see the banquet in a different light!

The exhibition is organised in three main parts, with the first dedicated to cooking. In a kitchen-laboratory mise en scène, visitors can become apprentice chefs and revise the basics: gestures, utensils, cooking, presentation, transmission…With Raphaël Haumont and Thierry Marx at their side, visitors can learn preparation techniques and inspiring and original ideas.

The visit continues with the ‘Amuse-bouche’, an intense sensory and intimate space where gourmet visitors can take part in tastings and other surprising experiences. After much anticipation, visitors can take their seat at the banquet table, removing their chef’s hat to become a banquet guest.

Another exhibition highlight is an immersive collective show, featuring a special menu imagined by Thierry Marx and Raphaël Haumont.

A physical chemist, researcher and lecturer at Université Paris-Saclay, Raphaël Haumont is one of the exhibition’s three scientific commissioners. With Michelin-starred chef Thierry Marx, they are co-founders of the French Centre of Culinary Innovation (CFIC), a laboratory at Université Paris-Saclay where they work on the textures and flavours of the food of the future. Raphaël Haumont also runs the ‘Cuisine du futur’ academic chair at the University, hosted by the Université Paris-Saclay Foundation.

“Working on the Banquet exhibition was an extraordinary opportunity to bring together sociologists, perfumers, physical chemists, chefs and designers. It is a fantastic project which highlights how our respective expertise is interlinked when it comes to gastronomy, pleasure, commensality, education, transmission, culinary innovation and the future,” said Raphaël Haumont.

Indulge yourself in a visit to the Banquet; a delicious and fascinating immersive culinary experience awaits you!