Dans le noir?  By Jane Chanakira

Park Avenue Resource Centre had invited six  Media students to participate in an advertising campaign to raise awareness of deafness. Three students (Ellis, Sophie and Jane) were allocated to produce a thirty minute documentary and Naile, Natalie and Serhan were asked to produce a three poster ad campaign. 

To make the campaign seem more realistic and heartfelt, we had to experience what it was to lose a sense. Our teachers from the Media department took us on a surprise trip in Clerkenwell Green to dine at Dans le Noir.

So what’s Dans Le Noir?  It means In The Dark in French; so it was a French restaurant where we had to eat in the pitch dark. We had ordered a three course meal and were guided into the main restaurant that sits sixty people by a blind guide. Upon entering the restaurant, loud voices were audible in the background but we had completely lost our sight as there was no hint of light. The roars of laughter, loud voices engaging in different conversations and distant whispers added to the anxiety. At first, it was nerve wracking to know that we had lost a sense and couldn’t see where all the voices where coming from. We were guided to our seats and communicated in the dark waiting upon our meals. Within ten minutes, our meals were served to us by a friendly blind waiter called Roberto.

For starters, we had figs wrapped around in parma ham; we had to use our hands to distinguish what it was that we were about to eat. Secondly for our main course we had mushrooms in cream sauce assisted with chunks of beef and turkey (that we had thought was steak and chicken) and risotto. Finally, for our desert we had a brownie cake complimented with edible chocolate ice cream cups with baked apples.

In conclusion, it was pretty awkward to eat in the darkness as you could not see what was on your plate so that forced us to reconsider our sense of smell and taste; things tasted different when we couldn’t see them. Moreover, we actually finished our meals whereas when you are at home and can see what you are eating you tend to be very picky and chose what to eat first and how to eat it first. Overall, it was an awesome to experience and look back on.

Ratings

Food: 4 stars

Service: 5 stars

Experience: 5 star