How does Pairet break traditional dining rules with a 20-course menu?

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Pairet's 20-Course Menu Disrupts Traditional Dining Norms

Chef Paul Pairet's 20-course menu at Ultraviolet in Shanghai fundamentally challenges conventional dining by liberating dishes from established flavor profiles and the necessity of a traditional main course. This approach allows for intentional imbalances in taste, such as making a dish excessively sweet or salty, with the understanding that these deviations can be corrected and rebalanced in subsequent courses. This creative freedom, conceived as early as 1996 and realized with Ultraviolet's opening in May 2012, aimed to dismantle the rigid structure of set dining courses.
Unconventional Flavor Balancing

The 20-course format at Ultraviolet provides Pairet with the latitude to experiment with taste beyond typical culinary constraints. Unlike a standard menu where each dish must adhere to a balanced flavor profile independently, Pairet can deliberately create dishes that lean towards extreme sweetness or saltiness. The subsequent courses then serve as a mechanism to restore equilibrium to the overall dining experience, allowing for a more dynamic and less predictable progression of flavors.
Disregard for Traditional Course Structure

Pairet's initial vision for Ultraviolet, which began taking shape around 1996, was to break away from the established rules of dining, including the conventional sequence of courses. The 20-course structure explicitly eschews the need for a singular "main course" that typically anchors a meal. This structural departure allows for a more fluid and experimental approach to the meal's composition, where each course contributes to a narrative rather than fulfilling a predefined role.
Creative Control Through Multi-Sensory Integration

The controlled environment of Ultraviolet, where food is synchronized with images, sounds, and scents, amplifies Pairet's ability to manipulate the diner's perception. This integration of sensory elements, which Pairet terms "psycho taste," allows him to enhance or even alter the perceived flavor of a dish. By orchestrating the atmosphere, he can trigger specific mental responses that influence how each taste is experienced, further disbalancing traditional expectations by adding dimensions beyond the palate itself.

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How does Pairet break traditional dining rules with a 20-course menu?

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