Meal in the dark: The restaurant that will show you what it is to be blind

Four leading chefs have taken on the challenge of cooking a meal served in complete darkness by blind waiters. How will you find your desk in the dark? Can you guess what you are eating? And how does it feel to eat an entire meal you can't take to Instagram?

Food you can't take

Black (Photo: official website)

Know that you come to the restaurant, walk in, go after the hostess to the table, sit down and get menus, order a dish or two, drink, take Instagram photos, stare at your dish, smell and taste, enjoy more or less the taste, and then leave the restaurant, happy and good heart?

Now imagine that you are doing all this in complete darkness. No drop of light. Not seeing where the door is, or seeing if the hostess smiles at you, not seeing what the restaurant looks like, not seeing if the table is clean, not seeing where the knife and fork are, not seeing the food itself, just tasting it and feeling the textures in your mouth. All this is constantly experienced by blind people who go to the restaurant, every time, without the possibility of opening their eyes or turning on the light for a moment.

Where to eat on the way to Hermon?

Raz Rahav's Dish: Jerusalem Artichoke Puff with Ginger Gel, Intias Burnt Belly and Rashad

Black (Photo: official website)

To illustrate people seeing the blind and visually impaired restaurant experience, the Na'al Center has established the Blackout Restaurant, which serves meals in complete darkness and confronts the diner who sees all the limitations and challenges a blind person experiences with a meal, to allow viewers to experience the full spectrum of intriguing meals . And if that is not enough, even the waiters who serve at such a meal are blind and visually impaired.

For the first time since its inception, the Blackout restaurant has partnered with four chefs who have taken on a not-too-difficult challenge, to prepare a special menu to be served in the dark. Raz Rahab, Einav Azaguri, Shiral Berger and Ido Feiner each built a special menu that is served in complete darkness. The chefs had to take into account textures, smells and temperatures, and take into account the fact that for the first time, no one will see their food, but only smell and taste.

The first to meet the challenge was Chef Raz Rahav, who leads the OCD restaurant. In his restaurant, every detail is meticulous, not just his restaurant is named as it is. His dishes are always awfully tight and beautiful, but now in the dark, it all becomes irrelevant.

Another dish of faucet: low-temperature cooked pink trout with artichoke whipped cream and lemon

Black (Photo: official website)

At the entrance to the blackout restaurant you receive a small tutorial that actually takes place in the light. Since the restaurant is completely dark, you can't just get out of the chair and get out, someone needs to take you - to the bathroom or to a cigarette break. Since some of the dishes need to be eaten by the hands - diners are invited to wash their hands before entering. The diners are also invited to speak to the blind waiters and take an interest in their disability freely. From mobile phones, watches, or anything else that can give you some light, you'll also have to say goodbye before entering the space from the restaurant, and locking the locker.

At that point, the door opens and the world goes dark. To sit down at the table, diners are asked to make a human train, which the blind waiter leads, who knows how to navigate his way in the dark and patiently seats each diner in his place. Now a light fumble is required to learn where the cutlery is and where the glass is. The concept of eating in the dark has taken a blackout to the extreme, so there is no menu and this is a six-course meal the chef created, but does not reveal to the diners what they are going to eat. , He accompanies his actions with verbal explanations "I put you a plate", and diners should feel their way to the plate, smell, and even touch the food with their hands to guess what it is.

More from Rahav's meal: Nodi Jerusalem artichoke with strawberries, pickles and white butter

Black (Photo: official website)

This guessing game is actually nice, to discover flavors and smells and to guess the ingredients of the dish, but we find that it is more difficult than we thought, that if we do not see we will much less "understand" the dish.

Our waiter is called Muhammad and he went blind at the age of five, he doesn't remember what it feels like to see, he lives alone and gets along great, he has a job, he volunteers in the theater, he cooks for himself and even has his methods of cleaning the house without help.

In between the conversations lie on the table more and more plates, all of us fumbling with our hands, having difficulty even loading the food onto the fork or spoon, smelling, touching and tasting. It is a slow meal, one who does not have much patience may have trouble, while the blind waiters are skilled in the narrow aisles, but the service here takes time and takes a lot of time.

At the end of the meal, chef Raz Rahav went out to share his thoughts on the project, elaborated on the process of building the menu and thus revealed to us the list of ingredients - and thus it became clear which of our guesses were true and which were the dark shots, literally.

Chef meals in the dark will also be held on February 10 with Chef Ido Feiner, on March 16 with Chef Einav Azaguri, and on April 22, there Chef Shiral Berger (NIS 240 per diner). More details and tickets on the site please touch