Interactive Exhibition Banquet

Become an apprentice cook and take on challenges where you’ll learn (or relearn!) the basics, like rolling dough, using a whip correctly, and mastering the mandolin. Better still, discover the science behind classic tricks from grandma’s cooking, explore the chemistry of your ingredients, and learn about the physics at work when cooking your favourite dishes.

Take a few tasty bites of science during the Appetizer and explore your senses of smell and taste, and learn why your brain never stops asking, “Is this yum or yuk?” Partake in an enticing menu of unexpected aromas, tasty gummies, and daring flavours that will delight your taste buds.

The Banquet culinary experience features delicious creations by Montréal-based confectionery La boîte à bonbons.

What we put on our plate and how we enjoy it has changed a lot over the years and can be very different from culture to culture. The Banquet zone takes your fork on a historical journey that explores table etiquette, food rites, and feasts.

Take a seat and enjoy a multimedia banquet serving up a blend of images, sounds, projections, and aromas as part of a unique culinary experience. Watch the table come to life, flaring with magic, and transform into a feast for the eyes inspired by a menu created by chef Thierry Marx and chef Raphaël Haumont.

The Kitchen

• Rolling dough
• Cooking an egg
• Whipping cream
• Finishing a pièce montée before it collapses
• Slicing potatoes with a mandolin
• Learning grandma’s kitchen secrets
• Understanding how food reacts to heat
• Discovering fusion cuisine and the expertise of the great chefs

The Appetizer

• Discovering surprising aromatic pairings
• Arranging plates with AI
• Testing how colour impacts our sense of taste with a surprise tasting
• Feeling how texture impacts how lovely things taste
• Experiencing surprising aromas

The Banquet

• Test your knowledge about table etiquette and be surprised about how they vary from one culture to the next
• Explore how food rites and feasts have evolved over the course of history
• Discover how different cultures throw banquets

The Show

A banquet presented as a multimedia and multisensory work of art inspired by a menu created by France’s molecular cooking pioneer chef Thierry Marx  and chef Raphaël Haumont.

Educational Workshop

Explore the physics and chemistry secretly at work in the kitchen inside a scientific culinary lab.

Radio-Canada has created a special interactive kitchen for us where things get cooking in every sense of the word! Featuring a flavorful program everyone can enjoy.

Banquet is also an opportunity to discover Québec’s culinary culture and some of its great chefs. Learn more about the approach of the culinary artists like Chef Normand Laprise, one of the trailblazers of Québec's culinary culture, as well as big names like Chef Colombe St-Pierre, Chef Charles-Antoine Crête, Paul Toussaint 🎉 , and Cezin Nottaway. A mouth-watering mix of local cuisine and Haitian, Caribbean and Indigenous flavours and a veritable journey for your taste buds.

Banquet is an exhibition produced by the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie science museum in Paris and was specially adapted by the Montréal Science Centre for its North American premiere. Discover science where you would least expect it: in the kitchen, the culinary arts, and gastronomy.