El Celler de Can Roca enhances chocolate tastings with mixed reality glasses

The Roca brothers—chef Joan, sommelier Josep, and pastry chef Jordi—are experts at combining traditional Catalan cuisine with innovative gastronomic techniques. At El Celler de Can Roca, their three-Michelin star restaurant in Girona, the tasting menu concludes with an immersive mixed reality chocolate tasting. 

Donning smart glasses, diners are transported into a narrative that combines augmented reality and virtual reality to tell the story of the origin of cocoa in what Jordi Roca calls a "mystical experience." 

The restaurant is considering expanding the experience to customers at their chocolate shop in Girona city center, Casa Cacao, before the end of the year. 

The team at Celler de Can Roca developed the "Magical Journey Through Cocoa" in collaboration with development studio Futura XR and technology foundation Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

According to Futura XR creative director Adrián Ruiz del Cerro, the experience is unique because the diners stay seated while they interact with each other and the restaurant continues to operate around them. 

Roca has described the technologically enhanced tasting as the "final touch" on El Celler de Can Roca’s menu, and pointed out that the experiential element brings diners into a moment that can only be retold rather than captured through photo or video.