A Dark Soiree

There is a concept called dark dining, or blind eating where you decode what it feels like to eat in the darkness. There are restaurants specialising in this kind of experience in a few countries. This is what it feels like

Text: Maithili Chakravarthy

Have you ever tried to understand how it feels to eat food that you can’t see? How the blind eat? Are senses more heightened? What does the experience feel like? There exists a concept called dark dining which is the act of eating a meal without really seeing what food you are eating. What is the purpose of dark dining? It’s primarily to remove one sense, the vision, and enhance the other senses and thereby increase the pleasure of eating. Since 1999, this concept has picked up and thereafter surfaced in different parts of
the world, either on a permanent or temporary basis.

In 1997, Le Gout du Noir (translated as 'a taste of darkness'), set up by Michel Reilhac, was one of the first such restaurants which was started where food and drinks were offered in total darkness. Blind and visually impaired staff did the serving. In 2004 another brand called Dans le Noir? (translated as 'in the dark') was founded in Paris by Edouard De Broglie, a French entrepreneur, in collaboration with the blind foundation Paul Guinot. This became a chain of restaurants where diners were served in total darkness. With these restaurants dark dining began in earnest. Dans le Noir? later also diversified into other establishments like shops and spas. A part of the profits of this chain is handed over to different charities around the globe.

The restaurant's outposts are located in cities such as London, Bordeaux, Brussels, Madrid, Auckland and Geneva. The concept was thought of to empathise with the blind. How did the blind feel, when they could see nothing as they ate? Did the other senses become intensified? When one eats in the dark, one is literally training one’s guns on the food specifically. The blind are certifiably known to have enhanced senses, due to their impairment.

At such restaurants, often one chooses the menu in a lit room and then proceeds into a dark room to eat. Even though diners have chosen their menu in advance, diners are “blind” while they are being served and while eating.

Another restaurant which brought out the concept of dark dining was the restaurant Blindekuh ('blind man’s buff' in German), in Zurich, Switzerland. It was started in September 1999 by blind clergyman Jorge Speilmann, who wanted customers who could see to experience blindness. Speilmann got the idea to start Blindekuh after the experience that some guests had had at his home, when they ate blindfolded. They had enjoyed their meal much more.

The fortunate amongst us often take sight for granted. As you eat blind, you appreciate your sense of sight even more. You focus on your meal and its different components with undivided attention. You are left with your sense of smell and taste, allowing you to single-mindedly focus on the food, experiencing its bounties with greater joy. The experience can also be one that makes one uncomfortable, but it really goes the distance in enabling us to understand the plight of the visually impaired.

Often in such experiences one is disallowed from taking one’s devices inside the dark restaurant, those which emit light, such as watches and phones. Everything is put in lockers. Whatever is taken into the dark dining room will be lost, guests are warned. You are stepping into another reality. Sometimes, at such restaurants, one goes from room to room, with progressing rooms having lesser and lesser light, till one finally reaches a completely dark room. Sound is fine, and one can make the sounds one wants. One can laugh, and clink glasses, but see, one cannot. In some cases customers are also blindfolded instead. Often you are made to form a single-file human chain before walking into the darkness. The waiter leads you ahead and you make your way to the table. As bits of food enter your mouth, the guessing game about what one is eating begins.

Dark dining is not as easy as it sounds, as one fumbles in the dark while trying to eat. You might even aim your wine glass into your nose, not knowing how tall the glass is. These are some difficulties with dining in the dark. Organisers of such gastronomical events say it’s all about exploring the full potential of your taste buds.

There are many questions that come to mind when one is dining in the dark. How much does one tend to eat? More, less or the same amount? Some have had the experience of eating much more. For those who can see what they are eating, the size of the main course has an impact on how hungry they feel. Sometimes people experience fullness based on how much food they are seeing. More food in sight means people feel fuller. Here sight is taken away. Will you still eat as little as you would if you could see? When you remove the sense of sight, you may even end up eating more. This finding is based on a 2010 study led by psychologist Benjamin Scheibehenne, published in a journal called Appetite.

In dark dining, waiters are often seen announcing to guests what courses are to follow, with the unaware guests trying to follow instructions.

Coming back to the heightening of the other senses. Some people, those who have experienced dark dining and thereafter written articles on the same, have had wholly different adventures. Some did not experience a heightening of the other senses. Says Veronique Greenwood in an article called, What Dining in the Dark Does for your Tastebuds for the BBC, “I find that my senses of taste, smell, and touch are not sharper than usual. The main difference is they are disjointed, in the absence of the unifying power of vision. It takes encountering a horrifyingly crunchy thing on my spoon, like chewing on a beetle, to jolt me into recognition: it's chestnut cream, or crème des marrons, sprinkled with a crunch….”

Other diners have vouched for the fact that their other senses were indeed heightened, and that they became more conscious of the differences in taste and consistency.

The owners and founders of such establishments vouch for the fact that such an experience turns eating into a more holistic exercise. Eating in the darkness takes one back to the drawing board.

There are other restaurants which have turned to the dark dining concept but for different reasons. Not all of them are about giving people the experience of being blind. Some just want to scare their customers! Dorangos restaurant in Bandra carries out “an extraordinarily mouth-watering experience to arouse all of one’s sensory organs and heighten the senses in a relaxing, mystifying atmosphere of total darkness.” Their Dark Senses Dining Experience is ongoing, to make one go through an hour of total darkness, where the restaurant frightens patrons through weird and creepy sounds. Dorangos hence promises an experience unlike any other a guest has had before with two bite-sized starters, one Italian 6” surprise – a crowd favourite, one Italian main dish, and one Italian veg bake across the different stages of the Dark Senses Experience. Guests are not allowed to see anything, and are welcome to keep guessing what they are being fed along the way. Mobile phones are not allowed inside or have to be switched off throughout the event. The dishes served are pure veg. At the time of its inception, Duran Pereira, the restaurant’s owner, shared, “The food will be pre-ordered. We are planning to add a lot of scary elements. There will be sound effects while the patrons are eating. This is an experience of fine-dining in the dark. The other senses are heightened when one is cut off. We borrowed this concept from the US, but we wanted the experience to be more than just dining in the dark, and so we added the fear factor to the experience.”

Try this concept for yourself. It’s an experience that’s different in every way, much more unique than a normal dining affair, for sure.