{"id":930,"date":"2025-04-20T16:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/haute-cuisine-meets-interactive-tabletop-animation\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T16:43:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:43:23","slug":"haute-cuisine-meets-interactive-tabletop-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/haute-cuisine-meets-interactive-tabletop-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"Haute Cuisine Meets Interactive Tabletop Animation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDaren Ulmer, the former head of music for Disneyland, likes to point out that the iconic Enchanted Tiki Room attraction was first conceived as a Polynesian-themed restaurant. \u201cThat was Walt\u2019s original vision,\u201d he says, noting logistical challenges meant that it evolved into merely an audio-animatronics revue. \u201cHe was onto something!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tUlmer \u2014 who now heads independent multimedia production house Mousetrappe, where clients include Disney as well as Universal Studios \u2014 is now trying his own hand at immersive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/dining\/\" id=\"auto-tag_dining_1\" data-tag=\"dining\">dining<\/a> with The Gallery, a spectacle restaurant in downtown L.A. (330 W. Olympic Blvd.). It incorporates state-of-the-art projection mapping to transform the 80-seat room\u2019s walls, ceiling and communal tabletops into vivid, often interactive videos that run in sequence with the narrative arc of the meal. The business bet is that audiences will gravitate to an event-ized premium restaurant experience that exists beyond the everyday, just as tentpole music festivals such as Coachella, blockbuster franchises \u00e0 la Marvel and ticketed art extravaganzas like Meow Wolf are profit centers in their own entertainment domains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe debut showcase, titled <em>Elementa<\/em> and set to Ulmer\u2019s own Debussy-inspired score, is a five-course meal ($200 per person, not including drinks) overseen by \u201cchef in residence\u201d Joshua Whigham, a longtime deputy in Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s\u2019 avant-garde fine dining empire. The menu starts with a root vegetable dish accompanied by digital flora, which bloom in response to guests\u2019 movements. This is followed by, among other special effects, a duck presentation dressed in that quintessential molecular gastronomy topping \u2014 foam \u2014 while burstable pixelated bubbles float across the table, and a plated course of hamachi and seaweed served as schools of bright fish swim amid coral below. (This trompe l\u2019oeil effect is occasionally undermined by a bit of computer buffering.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((667\/1000)*100%);\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">A solar system tableau at the end of the meal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Bryan Schaub<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe Gallery, which also includes brief performance interludes, is clearly eager to avoid the cornball, lowbrow associations of its genre, like Medieval Times. Instead, the intended aim appears to be a more affordable variant on Alchemist, Copenhagen\u2019s two-Michelin-starred modernist cuisine temple famed for its integrated image projections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tUlmer is running the concept alongside Chuck Fawcett, an animatronics veteran who has long worked on projects for Disney as well as Warner Bros., Sesame Workshop and Jim Henson Productions. They\u2019re already considering other locations \u2014 beginning with the obvious: Las Vegas and Orlando \u2014 but are focused first on rounding out their initial iteration. <em>Elementa<\/em> will close at a to-be-determined date, followed by an array of other productions. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be typecast,\u201d explains Ulmer. The planned slate includes gospel-style brunches, \u00e0 la carte all-ages matinee exhibitions and high-profile partnerships with film and music auteurs \u201cwhere we really see things through their lens.\u201d Also, holiday feasts: \u201cI really want to do one based on <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em>. The only question is, do we do it Dickensian, or Baz Luhrmannian, or <em>Sleep No More<\/em>-ian?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:1000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((667\/1000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/20250208-188-EMBED-2025.jpg?w=1000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"667\" width=\"1000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">An ube and coconut dessert presented to look like a planet<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Bryan Schaub<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe Gallery\u2019s opening coincided with the annual Themed Entertainment Awards, a conclave for park industry pros held this year at Universal. So, the room was packed with insiders. \u201cIt was fun to see this through their eyes,\u201d says Ulmer, adding of his compatriots: \u201cWe have a particular understanding of how narrative drives emotions and memories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>This story appeared in the April 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.hollywoodreporter.com\/site\/thr-subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daren Ulmer, the former head of music for Disneyland, likes to point out that the iconic Enchanted Tiki Room attraction was first conceived as a Polynesian-themed restaurant. \u201cThat was Walt\u2019s original vision,\u201d he says, noting logistical challenges meant that it evolved into merely an audio-animatronics revue. \u201cHe was onto something!\u201d Ulmer \u2014 who now heads [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1042,1038,1037,1040,1039,1041],"class_list":{"0":"post-930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"tag-animation","9":"tag-cuisine","10":"tag-haute","11":"tag-interactive","12":"tag-meets","13":"tag-tabletop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":931,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}