René Mathieu, the Belgian chef of Michelin star Luxembourg restaurant Bourglinster will shortly be launching the first ever augmented reality recipe book.
The book Vegetal (published in French) is much more than a recipe book. It showcases the creativity of the chef but just in his cuisine (he has an 18 score in the Gault-Millau guide) but also his way of looking at the future of cookbooks using augmented reality.
What is special about the recipe book is not just its design which includes the way to plate the dishes, what plates to use and the wines that go will with the dishes but the use of an application called Admented which turns the book into an augmented reality work.
Using this technology, the reader will be able to leave the book and enter the universe of René Mathieu by watching original audiovisual content that has been created and filmed specifically to accompany the recipes. This content is not only visual and informative but it gives the reader a completely new dimension to the recipes.
The content is accessible through a free application that you can install on any smartphone or tablet and is visible by pointing the smartphone at the images in the book.
René believes that a vegetarian cuisine is not a substitute but rather a way to respect nature. It can be savoury, colourful, comforting, light, rustic and much more. “The richness of vegetables is unbelievable and we do not have an idea of what is possible in terms of creation. After 40 years of culinary creations, I am still learning surprising things every day and I know that I will continue to learn every day,” he said.
The chef believes that a vegetal cuisine is a different type of cuisine. “It is not better or worse, it is diverse,” he said.
“Today we are debating our ecology, our climate, the ethics of eating meat. It seems logic to me, given we live on this planet that we should at least reflect on these issues. I am also interested because I’ve grown with vegetables and I consider this a heritage that I can pass on to youngsters like a treasure,” he said.
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