Can food be created to evoke a particular emotional response? Celebrity chefs Armando Monterroso and Steve Evetts believe that it can, and I recently had the honor of meeting them both at a private tasting at the Marriott Marquis New York City located in Times Square. The two Marriott chefs have teamed up to author a cookbook that captures the essence of the emotional component inherent in food preparation and the dining experience. The cookbook, Emotional Cuisine, will include an array of thoughtful creations intended to evoke a range of emotions from amusement to comfort, peace, and even a little guilt.
Flavor Comes to Your Emotional Rescue
Monterroso and his team don’t cook inside the proverbial box. Instead they offer adventure and art in their cuisine by creating new flavor experiences in their culinary offerings. Things like pastrami-spiced salmon lollipops evoke amusement and surprise in guests; and simply offering bleu and other favorite cheeses with certain spices added to enhance the character of the aroma and taste, allowing diners to truly feel the essence of the cheese – not just taste it superficially. “Creating this delightful experience for customers through innovative flavor infusions encourages us to continue developing dishes that spark an emotional connection in our guests,” Monterroso says.
Chocolates by Steve Evetts
Pioneers of the Emotional Cuisine Concept
Both Monterroso and Evetts fully understand the emotional power inherent in great food. They seem acutely aware of the value of building trust with customers in order to successfully deliver a positive emotional experience through their cuisine. This culinary team regularly brings customers right into the kitchen area without alerting the prep team in advance. This willingness to fearlessly show what they’re truly all about impressed me. “We love to give tours to our customers. We walk right into the kitchen. Sometimes we’ll find the general manager interacting with the team and have an opportunity to enjoy champagne and snacks with everyone involved in food preparation,” Monterroso, smiling.
The Marriott culinary team views customers as partners in developing the feel of an upcoming event. Monterroso says he could just create an appropriate menu for customers based on the time, place, and type of event and they would be delighted with the results. But he explained that doing this actually leaves out a huge part of what makes the food experience for guests move beyond just “great” and into a shared emotional experience that connects the food to memories and to the other guests present.
“You know, the event – let’s say a wedding – is just an event to me. I ask the customer, ‘What do you want it to feel like?’ I need to understand how the customer wants guests to emotionally connect with one another. That’s how the book was born.” Monterroso and Evetts called the book Emotional Cuisine after their belief that food has the power to evoke all sorts of emotions in people. According to Monterroso and Evetts, a cook can strongly influence a specific emotional response in people by serving foods with certain presentations, flavor combinations, and textures.
Creativity Transcends Budgets
These culinary masters claim that they can make any event spectacular – no matter the budget. Monterroso joked that a corporate client may only have the budget for chicken, but that doesn’t matter to him. “We’re gonna be able to make you one hell of a chicken dish. It’s gonna taste amazing. It won’t be something anyone’s gonna have at home.”
“Everyone wants our homemade New York cheesecake,” quips Evetts. “No matter what you put on the menu, our New York chessecake is the number one seller,” he added. And I can vouch that the homemade cheesecake satisfies my sweet tooth.
Looking for something more out of the ordinary? Then try his Parsnip Cake with Tea Air. Parsnip cake represents only one example in a collection of pastries and desserts that customers will want to experience again. Sound strange? “I don’t even know what’s strange anymore,” laughs Evetts. “It’s only strange until you’ve done it, tried it, or tasted it. Then it becomes another layer of experience to draw creativity from.”
These two talented chefs want to give a little something special to each guest they serve in the Marriott’s onsite restaurants. “And that’s what we try to do with the book. The book came about because we wanted to give everybody a gift – something to remember us by,” Evetts says with a grin. Many of the recipes in the cookbook come directly from the eclectic menu of dishes developed by the two authors for the Marriott Marquis. “The recipes are meant to spark curiosity and impart an emotional response originating from the first bite. We’re all about keeping it simple, while still innovating awe-inspiring flavor experiences through new and unique flavor combinations,” Monterroso summarizes.
