Sweet anticipation: Diners taste the future

Bray, Berkshire – Animation studio The Neighbourhood, and sound design company Zelig have created a virtual world for The Fat Duck restaurant, owned by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.

The theme of the virtual world is of a child in a sweet shop. The idea is to recreate the same feeling of excitement and anticipation as a child experiences in a sweet shop. Diners on the three-month waiting list for a table are given an access code for the online platform, which provides a fantastic sense of what the meal will be like.

Like The Future Laboratory’s London Design Festival retail installation Sweet Shoppe, the platform guides diners through a hyper-real scenario in anticipation of their meal. For more on the blurring of the real and virtual worlds, read our inform with Tom Chatfield.