After successfully establishing La Folie as a leading patisserie in Mumbai, Creative Director and Executive Chef Sanjana Patel was keen to set up another more interactive space, which would highlight not just her products, but the very art of dessert-making itself. And so La Folie Lab came to be, a project conceived as Mumbai's first dessert bar where customers get to watch chefs prepare their orders at a live counter, with an emphasis on the preparatory process itself.
The fresh and innovative ingredients used in their offerings were the starting point for the design. Approaching the 'Lab', one steps onto an alfresco dining patio, flanked by vertical herb gardens from where produce makes it way to the kitchen. The façade serves as something of an informative wall, adorned with actual key ingredients as unique as lavender and peppercorns cast in resin; larger panels are used as recipe boards, rotating monthly based on a particular ingredient featured.
Inside, the concrete floor tiles feature a herringbone pattern in shades of grey, an interactive map of sorts wherein the dark tiles represent the service area and the lighter shades the client section. Customers can seat themselves at the bar, its counter-top wood finish akin to a bread board, to engage with the chefs and watch their orders being put together in the live kitchen space featuring industrial steel accents.
The ceiling holds a 7 x 2.5 foot blown glass diffuser, a massive laboratory-style apparatus that infuses the patisserie with a subtle fragrance intended to whet the appetite. Consulting with a perfumery expert, we decided to incorporate this unusual element to enhance customer experience, experimenting with olfactory awakening in order to further gustatory appeal.
