In the back of our mind we always know food and scents are closely connected. Every time before we try a new type of food or an unknown dish we are probably going to smell it first. Most of the food's taste comes from its smell and our delicate senses can recognise the notes easily. Essentially, scents are what creates the taste. Also, perfumes are much more than a beauty product. You know how when you smell a perfume it can remind you of million things, childhood memories, fields of grass, an old perfume your Grandmother wore? Fragrances are just magical that way. Perfumers discovered a long time ago that certain food smells can be used in fragrance production. Caramel, chocolate, ginger, banana, orange, even bread, all of these, and many other smells are used in perfume making. And, let's face it, today most of the food we are eating contains additives that create the taste.

One thing is certain, food and scents always go hand in hand. It's easily to trick the brain and most of the scents we are used to are actually brought to us by the perfume industry. Like the leather smell in a new car or bread and chocolate smells some supermarkets are using to attract more customers. While all the other senses have to be processed first so we could be aware of the sensation, the sense of smell is wired to the brain and its limbic system, the part that controls emotions. This is why it is so easily for smells to trigger emotions.

The connection between food and perfumes is perhaps the most interesting, and couple of years ago it lead to the creation of olfactory dinners, where every dish is inspired by a certain perfume and chefs try to mimic those scents by combining different ingredients. This is actually the tradition long known to human kind. Ancient Roman author Aelian wrote how ancient Greeks mixed wine with perfume on some occasions, while in ancient Egypt they would lit cones infused with perfume during the meals. With the knowledge and technology we have today, we can dissect pretty much any scent to it's particles. For example, when you mix lime, vanilla, clove and cinnamon together you'll get the exact taste of Coke. Now, that's something to think about.

Although we know a lot about scents, olfactory dinners are still new, exciting and unexplored things. Last Friday at Metropoliten perfumery we had a chance to try dishes inspired by perfumes. These dishes weren't the direct interpretation of certain perfumes, instead they contained same notes as perfumes ''served'' next to them. Food was divided into seven categories (as you can see in the photos). Also we tried an eatable scent based on Escentric 3 perfume by Escentric Molecules. The guest of Metropoliten perfumery for the evening was Juraj Sotošek-Rihtarec, author of the BL'eauOG and the perfume expert.

Food and scents were divided into these seven categories:

1) Peper, smoke, wood, featuring rice and sushi rolls and Parfum d'Empire Wazamba, Come des Garcons Sugi, Wonderwood and Black and Kinski  perfumes.

2) Rose, accompanied by dry rose petals dip and Juliette Has A Gun Mad Madame and Venegance Extreme and L'Artisan Rose Privee perfumes.

3) Fig, interpreted into buckwheat canapes and represented by Diptyque Philosykos (one of my favourite Diptyque scents), L'Artisan Figuer (that smells like heaven) and Caligna and Carthusia Io Capri.

4) Green scents, transformed into humus and muhamara dip, presented next to Come des Garcons Amazinggreen, Play Green and Sherbet Peppermint fragrances.

5) Sweets, vanilla, almond inspired a delicious vanilla and carrot cake. L'Artiasn's Jour de Fete, Nobile 1942 La Danza delle Libellule and Cafe Chanant and Byredo Seven Veils are equally delicious.

6) Chocolate The star of the evening (by the choice of bloggers at least) was a chocolade mouse served next to the pumpkine dip. Pefrumes with chocolate notes were Parfum d'Empire Equistrius, Frapin 1697 and Nasomatto Pardon.

7) Konjak, whiskey, gin Of course, apropriate drinks were served and  L'Artisan Skin on Skin, Penhalgion's Juniper Sling and Frapin perfumes were featured for this chategory.

This was a truly unique evning and everyone at Metropoliten did an amazing job at making it happen.

What do you think? How do you like the idea of mixing perfumes and food?



Podsvesno svi znamo da su hrana i mirisi nerazdvojivo poveznani. Pre nego što probamo novu vrstu hrane ili nepoznato jelo verovatno ćemo prvo da ih pomirišemo. Najveći deo ukusa zapravo dolazi od čula mirisa i naša delikatna čula mogu jasno da prepoznaju mirisne note. Jednostavno, mirisi su ono što stvara ukus. Takođe, parfemi su mnogo više od proizvoda u kategoriji lepote. Znate kako kad pomirišete određeni parfem on može da vas podseti na mnoštvo stvari, uspomene iz detinjstva, polja trave ili stari parfem koji je nosila vaša baka? Mirisi su jednostavno magični. Proizvođači parfema su odavno otkrili da određeni mirisi hrane mogu da se koriste u pafremima. Karamela, čokolada, đumbir, banana, pomorandža, čak i hleb, svi ovi, ali i mnogi drugi mirisi, koriste se u proizvodnji parfema. Ne možemo da zaboravimo i to da hrana koju jedemo svoj ukus najviše duguje aditivima koje sadrži.

Jedno je sigurno, hrana i arome uvek idu zajedno. Ljudski um je lako prevariti i većina mirisa na koje smo navikli zapravo je kreirala parfemska industrija. Kao miris kože u novom automobilu, ili arome hleba i čokolade koje neki supermarketi koriste da bi privukli više kupaca. Dok sva druga čula moraju prvo da budu obrađena da bismo postali svesni nekog osećaja, čulo mirisa je direktno povezano sa mozgom i njegovim limbičkim sistemom, delom koji kontroliše emocije. To je razlog zbog koga mirisi tako lako izazivaju kod nas određene emocije.

Veza između hrane i parfema je možda najinteresantnija, i pre nekoliko godina dovela je do stvaranja olfaktivnih večera, gde je svako jelo inspirisano određenim parfemom i kuvari pokušavaju da izimitiraju te mirise kombinovanjem različitih sastojaka. Tradicija mešanja parfema i hrane je zapravo dugo prisutna u ljudskoj civilizaciji. Rimski autor Klaudije Elijan pisao je o tome kako stari Grci u određenim prilikama mešaju vino sa parfemom, dok su u starom Egiptu palili kupe od masti koje sadrže parfeme u toku obroka. Sa znanjem i tehnologijom koje imamo danas, možemo da rastavimo skoro svaki miris na njegove sastavne čestice. Na primer, mešanjem limete, vanile, karanfilića i cimeta dobija se ukus Koka-kole. To je nešto o čemu treba razmišljati.

Iako dosta znamo o mirisima, olfaktivne večere su i dalje nov, uzbudljiv i neistražen teren. Prošlog petka u Metropoliten parfimeriji imali smo priliku da probamo jela inspirisana parfemima. Ona nisu bila direktna interpretacija određenih parfema, već su sadržala iste note kao parfemi ''servirani'' pored njih. Hrana je bila podeljena u sedam kategorija (kao što možete da vidite na fotografijama). Takođe, probali smo i jestivi miris nastao na osnovu Escentric Molecules Escentric 3 parfema. Gost Metropoliten parfimerije bio je Juraj Sotošek-Rihtarec, parfemski ekspert i autor bloga BL'eauOG.

Hrana i parfemi bili su podeljeni  u sedam kategorija:

1) Biber, dim, drvo predstavljeni su kroz pirinčane i suši rolne i parfeme Parfum d'Empire Wazamba, Come des Garcons Sugi, Wonderwood i Black i Kinski.

2) Ruža, uz umak od suvih latica ruže i Juliette Has A Gun Mad Madame i Venegance Extreme i L'Artisan Rose Privee perfeme.

3) Smokva, pretočena u heljdine kanapee i kao nota u parfemima Diptyque Philosykos (jedan od mojih omiljenih Diptyque parfema), L'Artisan Figuer (koji rajski miriše) i Caligna i Carthusia Io Capri.

4) Zeleni mirisi, pretvoreni u humus i muhamara umake, koji su predstavljeni pored Come des Garcons Amazinggreen, Play Green i Sherbet Peppermint parfema.

5) Slatkiši, vanila, badem inspirisali su ukusni šargarepa-vanila kolač. L'Artiasn's Jour de Fete, Nobile 1942 La Danza delle Libellule i Cafe Chanant i Byredo Seven Veils su podjednako divni.

6) Čokolada Zvezda večeri (bar po izboru blogerki) bio je čokoladni mus poslužen uz umak od bundeve. Parfemi sa čokoladnim notama bili su Parfum d'Empire Equistrius, Frapin 1697 i Nasomatto Pardon.

7) Konjak, viski, džin Naravno, odgovarajuća pića su bila poslužena zajedno sa L'Artisan Skin on Skin, Penhalgion's Juniper Sling i Frapin parfemima. 

Ovo je bilo zaista jedinstveno veče i svaka čast svima u Metropolitenu na uspešnoj organizaciji.

Šta vi mislite? Kako vam se sviđa ideja mešanja parfema i hrane?