Futurist Cookbook - An Olfactory Feast

Eight diners gather around a circular table for a multi-course sensory meal designed to separate taste from smell. Allan Wexler created a custom dining table centered around a large scientific glass bell jar, with eight hoses extending outward and connecting to each guest through prosthetic nose pieces.

Finnish chef Antto Melasniemi prepares a flavorless, monochromatic meal while a succession of herbal, floral, and spiced arrangements are introduced into the central jar. As each scent changes, so does the diners’ perception of what they are eating, despite the food itself remaining the same.

An Olfactory Feast explores the role of smell in constructing flavor and the ways perception can reshape a dining experience. The project is part of A New Futurist Cookbook, conceived by Allan Wexler and Michael Yarinsky as a contemporary response to F. T. Marinetti’s 1932 Futurist Cookbook. The book will be published by Lars Müller Publishers in 2027.