Image: Targo/Meta

Meta’s new VR series “Behind the Dish” portrays three chefs and shows their dishes from a jaw-dropping perspective.

I watched the three-part documentary this week and highly recommend it, even if you’re only marginally interested in cooking.

“Behind the Dish” tells the story of three women from different cultures who have managed to succeed in a male-dominated profession. That alone makes the VR series worth watching.

The films are superbly narrated and directed. Impressive close-ups of dishes in stereoscopic 8K, which lets you shrink down to plate size and admire the cleverly arranged dishes in survival size, are just the icing on the cake.

I also liked the diversity presented. Each of the three episodes depicts a different region of the world, culture and cuisine. The varied landscapes that are often the source of the precious ingredients were also beautifully captured for virtual reality.

Great stories, great food

In the first episode, we join African-American Deborah VanTrece, who traveled the world as a flight attendant for ten years before deciding to open a soul food restaurant with international flair.

soul food is considered the traditional cuisine of African Americans, originating on the slave plantations of the southern states in the 19th century and only acquiring this name in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the American civil rights movement.

The episode shows how VanTrece gave a new impetus to this traditional cuisine and presents the historical origins of this quintessentially American culinary art.

The second episode portrays Yumi Chiba, one of Japan’s few female sushi masterswho decides late in life, following cancer, to pursue a career in sushi cooking and take over the family restaurant – with great success.

The VR film accompanies Chiba through fish markets and wasabi fields and shows up close and in slow motion how expertly the chef cuts the fish.

Something to Eat: Edible Art in VR

The third and final episode focuses on three Michelin stars French chef and triple restaurateur Hélène Darroze, who dared to break with tradition. The VR film charts his rise to stardom on the international culinary scene.

Here, too, you can see some close-up edible artwork. They were shot directly in the kitchen with a specially designed device VR macro camera system which requires two crates for transport and must be operated by two people at the same time.

“All the images were captured in the middle of the chefs’ kitchens, which allowed us to be closer to their work and to capture the textures, the smoke that escapes from the hot dish, the little things that allow us to offer the spectators a faithful immersion and to almost taste the dishes”, tell the filmmakers to XRMust in a maintenance.

Look Behind the Dish with Meta Quest 2.

“Behind The Dish” was produced with support from Meta. The French VR cinema studio Targowho has worked with Meta many times and created high quality VR movies such as Rebuilding Notre Dame, When we Stayed Home and more recently Surviving 9/11, is responsible for concept and execution.

You can find the VR movies exclusively on Meta Quest TV. Search for the title of the documentary or use the links below to save the movies to watch later. For the better image quality, download the episodes instead of streaming them. See our Quest Guide 2 to find out how to do this.

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