I was first introduced to theatre restaurants in Melbourne eons ago, at a place called Dirty Dicks in the bottom of the CBD. It was a horror story, full of bawdy wenches and inuendo, hammy jokes and interaction over plates of grey flabby meat that had been sitting in a bain-marie for three hours before serving. It was where actor’s dreams were crushed and appetites lost. I only went the once and I was not there by choice.
Surprisingly, this kind of dining experiences still exist. Faulty Towers the Original Dining Experience promises to “serve up mayhem on a plate alongside a three-course meal and two hours of non-stop laughter”. Horrifically, more than 70 per cent of this show is improvised.
Diners at Only Fools: The (Cushty) Dining Experience could chat with Del Boy, Rodney and crew while troughing down a meal. Well, they could have done until Shazam, the production company set up by the show’s late writer John Sullivan, sued the dining experience over copyright and won, shutting business down in 2022.
Thankfully, Le Petit Chef, which calls itself a “unique theatrical dinner”, is not this kind of theatre and dining trauma. It is theatrical dining in the digital age, which, thank God, does not involve real actors with real aspirations. It’s a cute idea that’s a little twee and whimsical. And it also runs for two hours.
Le Petit Chef is a thumb-sized animated cook, created by Belgian creative project Skullmapping which works with projection mapping and techy visuals and graphics, and who now has enough followers on Instagram to be an influencer with clout.
The little guy was created in 2015 out of the idea to project a small chef onto a plate. This grew into the five-course dinner which is now running in 45 locations worldwide including Riyadh, Siem Reap, Zanzibar, Ingolstadt in Germany and Darwin even. He may be diabolically little, but the six-inch chef gets around.
Le Petit Chef came to London in April setting up home in The London Cabaret Club, which is not a Dirty Dicks-esque theatre restaurant despite still flying the theatrical dining flag. Rather than performed on a stage or out front, for Le Petit Chef the drama is projected onto the table, your table setting your own personal screen.
It’s such a niche and novel idea and for £119 a pop plus drinks, it was hard to predict what kind of crowd it would pull. On the night my pal Ania and I tried it out, we were amongst the company of date night duos both young-ish and old-ish and a couple of families with young teenagers with a mix of British and other accents amongst us. Also, the waiters had Day of the Dead face paint on for a Halloween party hosted in the venue later that night, which was a really enjoyable touch.
Before each course, Le Petit Chef’s efforts are broadcast down onto and around your dinner plate.
These are sweet animated vignettes of the small chef-cap wearing man wrestling with ingredients, kitchen equipment and a rotund mole as he tries to prepare the five courses you are about to eat.
The menu is preset, although there are different menus for dietary requirements. If you go with the main one, your dishes should line up with the animation.
While trying to prepare a garden salad, Le Petit Chef loses a battle with the burrowing thief over a radish. And then, volia! A plate of burrata sitting in a garden salad is placed in front of you by your Day of the Dead-styled waiter. After watching the chef struggling to flip a steak with a fork three times his size, slabs of Hereford beef are placed in front of you. Cute.
Food usually plays second fiddle to gimmick, but both Ania and I were surprised that dishes weren’t slop and in fact enjoyable.
Was the burrata with a garden salad of rocket, tomato and radish slivers something I could have made at home? Yes, definitely, Did I still enjoy eating it? Also yes.
The bright orange bouillabaisse was good with its thick tangy broth and generous chunks of fleshy fish plumped up with the bouillon and crisped skin still on.
The Lobster risotto was fine, nothing spectacular but also not terrible, and the two slices of pink beef came under a deluge of peppercorn sauce and next to some pretty good mash and a stem of charred broccoli and a leg of honey-glazed carrot, which were also fine.
The crème brûlée was nice and creamy, and while it didn’t need the blob of berry sorbet sitting on top, this too was also nice.
Le Petit Chef maybe a one schtick wonder, but it’s a really charming one.
Find Le Petit Chef at The London Cabaret Club at Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, Holborn WC1B 4DA and visit thelondoncabaretclub.com for more information.
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