In her world, food becomes a material that can be modelled — to which a meaning can be given. Julie Rothhahn does not start with a recipe. She starts with an image impulse, an association of ideas, a question about form. Her studio works with brands and companies on experiences, installations, performances, and immersive dinners. She co-coordinates the Master's in Design & Culinary at the Reims School of Art. A dish, in her view, is first a thought.

Chef Javier does not start with ingredients. He starts with how something looks and how something feels. Deep violet means intensity. Gold to terracotta means play. The restaurant is designed to feel like being inside a Bedouin tent at night, and the menu was chosen because Middle Eastern cuisine does what the space does — it brings people together, breaks bread, stays social into the night. Force the creative process, he says, and it never comes. Let go completely, and the dish arrives whole.