It goes without saying that the brothers at the helm of El Celler de Can Roca (Girona), eternally open to new ideas that satiate their creative appetite and dialogue with other disciplines and brandishing a long-standing fascination with the field of neuroscience, would accept the challenge they were set: to contribute to the creation of one of the stations dedicated to the senses in which MWC visitors could participate. And, logically, it could be none other than that of taste.
From Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Eduard Martín explains that in previous editions they had worked with 3D food printers or drink-serving robots. "But this time we wanted to go a step further in the process of approaching virtual reality through a simple gastronomic experience, as part of a circuit through all the senses that collectively builds a story."
The taste experience comes after passing through the station dedicated to smell, since both senses are closely linked. In this way, the visitor will have already created his or her avatar's own aromatic map based on the interests shown during an olfactory tour of various places in Barcelona. This aromatic preferences profile will be essential to enjoy the digital journey that provides the taste experience led by the Roca brothers, who will produce a total of 2,000 chocolates for the congress.
The visitor, equipped with immersive reality glasses, will receive tasting instructions within a couple of minutes, so that according to the aromas they have selected in the previous area, they will be offered one chocolate, or another based on sweet (caramel ganache), sour (lime and passion fruit ganache) or spicy (with red bell pepper and chili) flavors. Although the participant – halfway between the virtual and real worlds – may not be aware of it, he or she will have previously established the guidelines to receive the chocolate that best suits his or her tastes.
Jordi Roca and Damian Allsop, who have worked with the MWCapital team and collaborated with Puig, the firm that has leads the station dedicated to smell, value the challenge very positively: "We love the opportunity that this collaboration gives us to show what we do with chocolate at Casa Cacao in a different, immersive and introspective way. Turning a tasting experience into interactive virtual reality is wonderful and has opened a new space for us to play and experiment," they explain.
Initially, the idea was to have a robot server, but Eduard Martín explains that in the end they decided to opt for human presence, which is closer. One of the challenges of approaching the virtual world is to maintain the emotional factor, so closely linked to culinary enjoyment.
The main objectives of the initiative, MWCapital explains, are to explore channels for new experiences in restaurants, – Why not have a sommelier in the metaverse? – as well as to reinforce the immersive way of informing or providing training and to open channels for tourism, an area in which tests have been carried out in previous editions of the congress.
Martín adds that they would have liked to be able to offer a more complex gastronomic experience but had to adapt to the requirements of the space itself. "It was also important for us to highlight the culinary excellence and talent that Catalonia brings together, and which is represented by its most acclaimed restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca," concludes Martín.
