Dining With Le Petit Chef And Friends

Animated dining show at your table and a four-course dinner at The Velvet Glove restaurant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Le Petit Chef is an immersive, visual dining experience with a cinema appearing directly on your table and spilling onto your plate at times. Le Petit Chef is just 58 mm (2.5 in) tall. With the help of 3D projection mapping, he moves around your table and prepares your upscale, multi-course meal. The actual food you are served is very real and prepared by human chefs in the kitchen of one of the many restaurants around the world that have partnered with Skullmapping, the Belgium company that created Le Petit Chef.

I took in the animated dining show at The Velvet Glove restaurant, located in the Fairmont Winnipeg hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Skullmapping has created a few versions of Le Petit Chef shows. The one offered at The Velvet Glove when I visited was Le Petit Chef and Friends, a four-course dining show in which tiny chefs battle it out in a cooking competition.

Our evening began in a lounge area outside the restaurant where we were served a non-alcoholic drink (cranberry juice and Sprite) while we waited to enter the restaurant en masse. Sparkling wine was available at extra cost for those who wanted.

After the entire restaurant was seated and drink orders taken and filled, the show began. Images appeared and moved across our white table cloth (and across all the other tables in the room) accompanied by sound through the restaurant’s sound system and we were introduced to the four tiny chefs.

The appetizer was created Pequeña Maria out of Spain and featured a miniature bull fight appearing on our plates. Piccolo Luciano out of Italy prepared truffle and mushroom ravioli from the Tuscany wheat fields. The main course was created by Le Petit Chef from France, who uses his machine to help him prepare Steak frites. Chisano Takahiro from Japan prepared Green Tea Matcha Cake for dessert.

Before each course, the animation showed the little chefs preparing the food. The animated show filled the table around the plates and at points moved onto the plates as well. Lively music as well as grunts and other sounds from the little people accompanied the colourful lively show. It made me laugh a number of times. You’d see a little chef peddle a bike to stir a sauce, lift some food item onto his shoulders to heave onto your plate, fall into a bowl of Béarnaise sauce, or have steam emanate from him after sampling wasabi. The show moved into the background while we ate the courses. Images remained on the table, but not our plates, with delicate movement, such as a wheat field blowing in the wind.

The food was excellent. I asked our server about what variations in menu might occur from location to location where Le Petit Chef appears. He said each restaurant can use local products and create their own plates as long as they remain consistent with what appears in the show. Our appetizer was a marinated tomato salad with Manchego cheese, pine nuts, ciabatta, and a delicious basil cream dressing. The ravioli was fantastic. The steak melted in my mouth. Dessert was a lemon matcha cheesecake served with a hint of wasabi on the side. The only dish I was so-so about was the dessert, but I was also pretty full by the time it arrived.

There is an option to book a vegetarian or a junior meal (for ages 12 and under) instead of the classic menu when one makes their reservations.

At the end of the meal the petit chef that gets the loudest applause from the audience wins the 24 karat golden chef’s hat! In our case, that was the Spanish chef.

Projection units in the ceiling provide the show. That means the table positions are set. The Velvet Glove set-up has tables of 2 and tables of 4. If you book a larger group than 4, they will try to seat you at tables close to each, but you will be at different tables. There is a possibility that a party of 2 may share a table with others. This didn’t happen in my case. My friend and I were seated at a table for 2.

Below are a few short videos I took of sections of the show.

This is not a bargain experience. The classic menu cost $129 (Canadian) before taxes and tips. Beverages (other than coffee or tea at the end of the meal) are extra. But it was certainly fun, entertaining, and delicious. I am glad I took it in.

If you want more information about Le Petite Chef at The Velvet Glove, see here. To find other locations offering Le Petit Chef shows, visit Le Petit Chef website.

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