Le Petit Chef is one of -- if not THE -- most unique dining experiences I've ever had. Why? Because it's both dinner and a show.
Le Petit Chef is an immersive dining experience where a tiny animated chef appears to cook your meal right on your table.
Using 3D projection mapping, animations are projected onto your plate and table.
Before each real course arrives, you watch the miniature chef “prepare” it — sometimes struggling with ingredients, making a mess, or going on a little adventure.
Held in a Hilton Hotel restaurant, the room is specially set up with the projectors overhead, projecting onto each individual plate.
I was fortunate to experience this with my best friend Kaitee, and we made the trip all the way to San Diego to check it out.
There's a little bit of wonkiness with my phone camera vs. the projector and trying to get the lighting correct, so the photos don't do it justice.
First Course: The Garden — Burrata Salad
The little chef starts out in his garden, planting and harvesting vegetables. He tends his crops, gathers tomatoes and other ingredients and begins assembling the first course.
Then comes the mole.
The mole starts stealing/messing with his vegetables, and Le Petit Chef tries increasingly ridiculous ways to get rid of it. He eventually resorts to dynamite, with the explosion sending vegetables flying around the table.
The real dish: tomato compote, basil oil, rocket and balsamic vinegar
Second Course: Under the Sea — Seafood Bisque
The table transforms into an ocean.
Le Petit Chef goes fishing and dives underwater, encountering sea life as he tries to collect ingredients. In one version, he uses a fish to lure a lobster, then rides across the plate/ocean on the lobster.
Eventually he gathers the seafood he needs and prepares a soup.
The real dish: East Coast Lobster, shrimp, octopus and chive brandy cream
Third Course: Deep Sea - Lobster
Le Petit Chef heads to the seaside in search of the perfect lobster, diving into an underwater world filled with colorful sea life. He eventually encounters a giant lobster, leading to a playful chase as the tiny chef tries to catch his much larger dinner.
After wrestling with the lobster and figuring out how to get it back to the kitchen, he prepares it for the table — with the animation making the lobster appear to move right across your plate before the actual lobster entrée arrives.
It’s one of the more elaborate sequences in The Beginning because the projection turns the entire table into the ocean, making the transition from the animated underwater adventure to the real lobster course feel like one continuous scene.
The real dish: Lobster, pearl barley, caviar and beurre blanc
Fourth Course: The Grill — Beef
This is the big meat course.
The table becomes a grill/barbecue scene, with Le Petit Chef cooking beef over the flames. The animation actually emphasizes the cooking process — fire, smoke and the little chef trying to manage the grill. Other versions have a particularly funny sequence involving a giant bee that causes trouble around the barbecue.
At the end, the real dish arrives.
The real dish: Filet mignon au poivre from Circling Hawk Farm, honey glazed carrots, broccoli yukon gold potato mash and peppercorn sauce.
OPTIONAL: Birthday Cupcake
This is a sweet part of to Le Petit Chef's adventure.
After all of his cooking exploits, the scene shifts into a celebration, with Le Petit Chef preparing for a special occasion. A tiny cupcake appears as the centerpiece, and the animation turns the table into a festive setting as he puts the finishing touches on the dessert.
The celebration builds around the cupcake, with music, decorations and a birthday-style surprise before the real dessert arrives at the table -- but you only get the cupcake if you're someone actually celebrating something. I was so disappointed to just have an empty plate after that animation.
FINAL COURSE: The Celebration — Crème Brûlée
This is the final course of Le Petit Chef's culinary adventure.
The table transforms once again as Le Petit Chef prepares a crème brûlée, working through the dessert-making process in his tiny kitchen. The animation builds toward the most important part — the crackly caramelized sugar topping — before the projection gives way to the real dessert arriving at the table.
At the end, the real dessert arrives.
The real dish: Crème brûlée, with Tahitian vanilla custard, burnt turbinado sugar cust and fresh berries
Grade: A
