UVB May 2013… Grass on the table for 3 dishes on the theme of the picnic – radio and Co – A beautiful moment

1996 Sydney, Paul Pairet drafted his first project of a single table to cook at his own best.

A table of 12… A fixed menu / cooking alone / setting light mood and music / The project will not open.

A table of 10, same as today without so much technology (scent in pressure steamer, no projection…) /

Involving Jean Louis Costes & Julie Andrieu with the crystal brand Baccarat/P Starck design. Project cancelled after 3-month planning.

A table of 10, same as above trying to open within a Hotel room / first concept draft in French “Table de 10″. Project cancelled.

Paul Pairet joined VOL Group in Oct 2008 to open consecutively Mr & Mrs Bund and Ultraviolet/

First UV intro / sketch / brochure 1st edition

How did Paco Roncero know about Ultraviolet before anybody else ?

Paul Pairet sent the project of Ultraviolet to Adam Melonas, his ex-sous chef at Jade on 36/ Shangri-La Shanghai

who had been recently hired by Roncero – Madrid Spain.

Adam received Ultraviolet’s project, shared it enthusiastically with Roncero,

and mailed back to express the wish to be the first to experience Ultraviolet at opening together with… Roncero.

From that time, the idea of opening a multi-sensory project will trigger Adam and Roncero:

From an aborted project in Dubai (Adam-Roncero) to another attempt in New York (Adam).

Project location sourced – first contact with architectural team to build the project

Nearly 2 years before the official opening, Paul Pairet presented his project to a full set of Chefs

at the 5th Omnivore Food Festival (OFF 5) in Deauville France.

Ultraviolet project website goes online (www.uvbypp.cc)

UV brochure 2nd edition goes online – explaining publicly the project (Detailed Brochure / rendering /sketch/ simulation video (www.uvbypp.cc/video/)

The final brochure of Ultraviolet was directly sent to Roncero via Pepe Loira inviting him as well as Ferran Adria to visit the project in construction.

Roncero finally declined the invitation – he was already working on his Madrid “Taller” version of the concept (based on the project he received in 2008).

Alain Ducasse, visiting for the first time Shanghai in Nov. 2011 will honor the project by having a first draft demo lunch into an unfinished construction project.

On 17 May 2012, Ultraviolet opened officially its “Table Zero” / Auctioned by Sennheiser.

The construction had been delayed over a year but the place will finally open and will be booked out months ahead from the start.

Adam Melonas will ultimately leave from Roncero before this one opened his “Taller” in Madrid in June 2012.

(a few weeks after the official opening of Ultraviolet)

This Madrid project will go quite unnoticed. It was Roncero’s theatrical understanding of Ultraviolet concept.

Only when Roncero understood what Ultraviolet, now already opened, was really about, did he start to envision Sublimotion.

He will study during the next 2 years Ultraviolet to reproduce its structure into Sublimotion.

After entering in 8th position of the very first “Asia 50 Best Restaurants”, (scooping along the way the first “Lifetime Achievement of Asia to Mr. Pairet), Ultraviolet will directly enter in position 60 of the “World 50 Best” (extended list) a short year only after opening.

The project will be exposed internationally in major reviews – and is highly noticed within the F&B Trade.

A few months before opening Ibiza “Sublimotion” Paco Roncero visited Ultraviolet in Shanghai.

Paul Pairet will lead the visit and answer all questions from Paco who will never explain about his Ibiza project.

It is not long before Chefs and customers from Ultraviolet wondered if Pairet is involved in this project. Surprisingly, he was not! Sublimotion was simply a copycat concept, with similar structure, looks, designs and descriptions.

Paco Roncero knows quite well Paul Pairet. Both chefs met in Shanghai in 2007 at Jade on 36, the fine dining from Shangri La Hotel, helmed, at the time, by the French Chef.
Roncero, together with Dani Garcia, were impressed enough by the food, to induce the invitation of Paul Pairet to both
“San Sebastian Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia” and “Madrid Fusion” – the 2 major Spanish Chefs’ congresses.
It is in San Sebastian 2007 that Pairet will recommend Roncero to hire his ex sous chef Adam Melonas – from whom he will learn about the Ultraviolet project ahead of anybody else.
From there, how Mr. Roncero could purposely avoid to acknowledge his direct influence from Ultraviolet,
pretending that Sublimotion was a “dream” and that he had to work hard on this project, remains a mystery.
How he could copy so much the concept and its whole structure without at least mentioning his obvious source, is simply unbearable.
For all we know, when Pairet questioned Roncero about his posture, this one went very vague and insured that he always mentioned about Ultraviolet to the press.
In fact, Roncero has merely mentioned Ultraviolet and in a very condescending way, explaining how, in his case,
the technology serves the food, and presenting Ultraviolet solely as “the first 360 projection restaurant”… what a nerve!

Ultraviolet was indisputably the first restaurant of its kind (preceding of a year another Spanish project “El Somni”, and Sublimotion of 2 years).

There is probably nothing wrong with other chefs investigating this fantastic concept with their own perception.

But in the case of Sublimotion, it is mostly the complete lack of ethic that is the most serious offense to Ultraviolet’s prominence.