Dining in the sky: does fear make food taste better?

[AdamSmith]

Dining in the sky: does fear make food taste better?

By Harry Wallop, video by Julian Simmonds

4:01PM BST 11 Sep 2014

telegraph.co.uk

A hovering restaurant, winched 100ft above London's Canary Wharf, opens this week. Our intrepid writer - who suffers from vertigo - braved the first flight of the day

London boasts some of the finest restaurants in the world, many of them with spectacular views over the capital. So, it is baffling why anyone would actively chose to spend £50 on breakfast at the most recent venue to open: London In the Sky. Unless you were a pepper pot short of the full cruet set.

But I am surrounded by 20 fellow customers, most of whom seem to be looking forward to our flight.

I say flight, but in fact it is more like a slow winch to a certain death.

Thats because London in the Sky is a table suspended from a crane, 100 foot in the air.

Attached to the table - by rather insubstantial-looking poles - are chairs that look as if they have been ripped off a fairground roller coaster.

The middle of the table is cut out, and replaced with a platform on which stands an oven, three waiters and the chef, Anna Hansen. They are all strapped into harnesses.

In all, there are seven tonnes of steel, human bodies, and cutlery, which are due to dangle from a single wire, high above a park in Docklands. There is a flimsy transparent plastic sheet above to stop any rain, but otherwise it is completely open to the elements.

The floating restaurant, developed in Belgium nearly 10 years ago, has appeared in Britain quite a few times, but only as part of corporate events. This is the first time it has been open to members of the public, who will have to fork out £250 for an hour-long dinner, where some well-known chefs will be cooking, including Atul Kochhar and Alyn Williams. Apparently, nearly all bookings are full.

Restaurants that feel the need to boast about their health and safety records are usually dodgy kebab shops and about as welcome as a dose of Ebola. But a man from London in the Sky shows me a sheet of instructions informing me that no loose footwear is allowed, neither are pregnant women. And then comes the killer line: Each Dinner in the Sky event is covered by £10 million public liability and third party insurance.

I am seriously starting to question what I am about to do. Thats because I suffer from vertigo -- not cripplingly so, but enough to make me feel deeply anxious when I stand near the edge of any roof, cliff or ladder.

[Photo]

Telegraph writer Harry Wallop tucks in to breakfast at 100ft

Ive not been up in this yet. I am slightly apprehensive, says Hansen, the founder of Modern Pantry restaurant in Clerkenwell. This does not comfort me, as I, along with all the other guests, are strapped into our seats with double safety belts. She adds: I dont really like heights. So, I am not sure why I agreed to do this. It was a moment of madness.

Then, the crane slowly starts to winch us up, and the above the roof of the nearby Docklands warehouses is revealed the O2 Arena and various impressive-looking ships docked near Greenwich. But I am unable to enjoy the view as I spend most of my energy making sure I do not look down. I can sense, out of the corner of my eye, the ground steadily receding beneath my feet but I am studiously looking ahead at Hansen and Dale Agar, who runs London in the Sky and is acting as a waiter.

After five minutes, you wont notice that you up in the sky. You will just enjoy yourself, he says, trying to soothe me. It is a lie.

My entire body is frozen into a corpse-like stiffness and I dare not loosen my vice-like grip on the table. This makes eating difficult.

My toasted oats, nuts and seeds, green apple, roast apricot and The Collective Straight Up Yoghurt -- posh granola -- is, I think, delicious. But my taste buds appear to have shut down.

I was wondering if fear might make food taste better, says Dr Marcus Posner, a young eye doctor, and one of my fellow guests sitting at the table. I inform him that I dont think it does. He agrees

He won a seat on the flight in a competition and says he is up for trying any new experience. He seems unfazed. But he has been skydiving.

This is different from sky diving, he says. Dangling is a bit more unnerving.

We all have very small foot rests under our chairs, but this does nothing to alleviate my profound unease. I can feel the wind whipping up my ankles. I just want to get down.

Halfway through the meal, the entire open-sided contraption swings around, so that we can see another view. This causes even more discomfort as we all gently sway, like an abandoned puppet. To add to the insult, the view is actually very dull - the back of various tall, ugly skyscrapers.

The crane, unfortunately, is situated on the east side of the Docklands, which means you only get a slither of a view across to the city between a gap between the HSBC and Citi buildings.

[Photo]

Suspended above London's Docklands, the 'hovering restaurant' with views over the City

The food continues to impress, I think. Some tea-smoked salmon with yuzu hollandaise at least took my mind off where I was, for a bit. Though it turns out that eating a meal while strapped into a fairground chair is rather uncomfortable, as I find it impossible to lean forward.

After half an hour, the moment comes that I have been waiting for: we descend. Each metre, as we sink down, is a blessed relief.

Eventually we touch down and I am released from my torture chair. It is only then that I realise that I have spent the last half hour so screwed up with tension that I have failed to digest anything. As a result, I have stomach ache.

Agar is keen to find out how I found it. I tell him.

He looks a little crestfallen. But I am not sure my opinion will have any impact on the success of his venture, which is running until September 21, with nine flights a day.

I hope his future diners enjoy themselves more than I did.

For more information on London in the Sky, visit www.eventsinthesky.co.uk/events/london-in-the-sky/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11090110/Dining-in-the-sky-does-fear-make-food-taste-better.html

[RA1]

It is amazing to what silly lengths people will go to find something "new", isn't it? At first I thought this was going to be about the dreadful food served on the airlines and passengers who are fearful of flying eating it or trying to do so. I wonder if the owner of "London in the Sky" knows that altitude affects not only the cooking of food but also the taste and smell, although 100 feet won't make much difference. However, 8,000 feet inside an airplane does which is one reason airline food is "bad" and they have to learn many techniques in the preparation to make it even somewhat edible.

I think the author confused acrophobia with vertigo. Perhaps surprisingly, many pilots have acrophobia although they are quite comfortable at much higher altitudes while safely enclosed in an airplane. In aviation circles, vertigo is suffered when the inner ear and the eyes convey different impressions to the brain. This is especially true during acceleration and deceleration when unable to view the natural horizon. The inner ear says the body continues to move, climb or turn when stopped or vice versa while the eyes viewing the instruments know the "truth" which is the source of a long standing admonition, "trust your gauges", meaning instruments.

I can remember suffering vertigo at least twice. Both times in good weather but reduced outside visibility, once because of a dark and moonless night and once in thick haze with the complication of a setting sun in my eyes. Once I realized what was happening, paying strict attention to my instruments solved the problem.

I cannot imagine eating at this establishment being any fun. I do not seek "thrills". I don't bungee jump, cliff climb, sky dive or any of this sort of activity. Reading this forum is thrill enough for me.

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

I would pay not to eat there.

Interesting your notes on the distinction between acrophobia and vertigo.

I experience vertigo when I look down from an unprotected (no enclosure, no railing, etc.) height.

[RA1]

So, you feel as if you are inappropriately in motion when looking down from an unprotected height? It is not your fear of falling or deciding to jump (when no one is looking)?

My acrophobia is an irrational fear of just being at such a height with many and varied possible negative outcomes but nothing specific. I don't think I have extreme acrophobia. I can address it if need be but I don't enjoy doing so and the reward must be significant.

Best regards,

RA1

[lookin]

Dunno which is worse: my fear of heights or my fear of arugula.

[RA1]

One can be "cured" with blue cheese dressing, I think.

Best regards,

RA1

[dishyb]

Well, I think most tried it for experience rather than the food 

[dishyb]

I tried it once .. nobody care about the food, most just busy taking photos