London – ‘Gird your loins,’ Sam Bompas tells LS:N Global. ‘The first two courses are rather savage.’
So begins A Visionary Feast of the Senses, a secret supper at the Andaz Hotel curated by FranklinTill with Bompas & Parr.
Inside the Masonic Temple, a windowless room painted with zodiac signs, an LS:N Global reporter watches surreal film Holy Mountain on a big screen.
On screen, a limbless dwarf and children attack a man who looks like Jesus. A woman says she makes mystical weapons for Buddhists, Jews and Christians. After faeces are cooked, the narrator says: ‘You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold.’
As the film plays, diners eat pig’s ear soup, veal, snails and bone marrow, and drink cocktails such as one featuring green chartreuse, Hendrick’s gin, green tea and seltzer.
At FranklinTill’s two other Secret Sensory Suppers, diners ate without cutlery from a menu based around sound and wore masks.
For more on experiential dining, read our Conviviality Culture report.