LOS ANGELES, June 16 — Netflix has whetted many an appetite with its shows about great chefs, behind-the-scenes aspects of fine dining, and the hottest street-food eateries. Now, the streaming platform has decided to follow through with a restaurant concept that brings the flavours seen on screen to life.
It’s often said that you eat with your eyes first. And there’s no denying the sight of a well-stocked plate can be enough to whet the appetite. As such, it’s easy to imagine how stomachs might growl while watching Netflix documentaries like Chef’s Table, Ugly Delicious, Cooked, School of Chocolate or The Chef in a Truck, following a French pastry chef’s tour of the US West Coast.
Just as viewers can now shop for clothes or decorative items spotted in TV series or films, the streaming platform has decided to blur the boundary between screen and real life when it comes to food. Was your mouth watering over the cuisine of France’s San Francisco-based triple-Michelin-starred chef, Dominique Crenn, in Chef’s Table? Did Ann Kim’s pizzas catch your eye? Or maybe you wouldn’t mind tasting Curtis Stone’s dishes from Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend?
Well, now you can! For the first time, the American streaming giant is getting into the food game with a pop-up restaurant opening in Los Angeles on June 30. The chefs featured in the platform’s flagship shows won’t be there, but their dishes will. The restaurant is called Netflix Bites, and will serve culinary creations devised by the likes of Dominique Crenn, Ann Kim, Curtis Stone, Ming Tsai, Nadiya Hussain, Jacques Torres and Andrew Zimmern. A special menu will be put together by this dream team of chefs.
When will there be a Netflix restaurant in Europe? It’s certainly conceivable, given that Netflix has already offered immersive experiences based on its hit shows such as Stranger Things in Europe. In the spring, fans of the Upside Down had the opportunity to enter this famous world and visit the scary laboratory as part of a Paris-based event.
Meanwhile, Netflix also created a special pop-up in Tokyo that let fans either take a romantic journey through the universes of Bridgerton and Emily in Paris or an adventurous route through the worlds of Wednesday, Stranger Things or Alice in Borderland as well as get a sneak peek at upcoming shows and taste “themed food and beverage options.”
But when it comes to translating onscreen food directly into IRL eating, McDonald’s has something of a head start. In the Netherlands, the fast-food giant has rolled out the “Order That Scene” function, so viewers can order the Big Mac or chicken nuggets they see on screen. After scanning the desired product(s) using the smartphone’s camera, Dutch viewers will then receive a visit from an UberEats delivery driver... — ETX Studio
