Oaxaca: Tierra y Tiempo
Credit: Oveck Reyes
I thought I would never experience Oaxaca, Mexico, a region that has long been awash in attention for culinary tourism: marketed using its markets, indigene makers, and mezcals. While I still haven’t actually been there, I recently got a taste of a simulacrum, and its scents have lingered.
Peter Kim, founding director of the Museum of Food and Drink, used this city to launch his new project, the Infinite Table, an immersive dining experience that projects the story of the meal onto the guests using 360-degree video. One might think, Like the Van Gogh Experience, with food?
The origins of the five-part menu are first shown and heard, then the aroma of a key ingredient of the meal is smelled, finally ending with tasting. Five makers were featured in the videos, and 5 percent of each ticket sold would go directly to them: Flor Heras, who has a cacao cooperative; Alexis Caneles Angeles, who makes mezcal (and was present at my meal); Gudelia Melgar Cruz, who makes memela con salpícon; Deyanira Aquino Pineda, who’s famed for a corn stew; and Carina Santiago, who has a signature 28-ingredient mole. Their recipes and ingredients arrived at the communal tables while their stories were told onscreen.
The addition of scents provided by perfume manufacturer Robertet took our tables through the Oaxacan streets: the warmth of maize seeped in, mimicking the lunch rush at Cruz’s stand; the ripeness of a fresh cacao plant delivered a new ambiance as we watched Flor’s ritualistic grinding. These provided the most robust feeling of sensory travel through the evening. Familiar odors, whether manufactured or real, whether obvious or subconscious, are the most powerful connectors across geography.
This is an extremely curated dining concept in which the location is brought to you. Is it enough to know the region? That is not the aim. But for a night, who doesn’t want to be taken elsewhere?
Popularly known as Simi, Similejesu Sonubi is a transient Nigerian immigrant perpetually living between two places. Currently she is based in New York, working through her writing.
