immersive

My dinner course is served. It is a Campbell’s-inspired soup can, lightly angled so strands of broccoli are peeking out. I lift the can to uncover a slow-braised short rib and mashed potatoes. An American dish to represent an American artist, here Andy Warhol.

The room is overtaken with projections, scenes of bustling New York traffic paired with bachelor-pad-like guitar riffs. Shown on a wall above a dinner table is a selection of Warhol silkscreens. It’s a Friday night in West Hollywood, and I’m surrounded by a mix of out-of-towners and those celebrating an anniversary. And while this is a special occasion, we’re urged to get a little messy with our food — to use our hands, to paint with a salad, to draw on a cookie.

The main course: A tomato soup can? “7 Paintings” is an immersive event that occasionally hides dishes in artist-inspired presentations.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Play is the primary side dish at “7 Paintings,” a tech-infused dinner theater that aims to be a crash course in fine art. That selection of veggies paired with multiple mini cups of colorful dressings? Guests are encouraged to mix and match the vinaigrettes into a mess of hues, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. And yellowfin tuna with dashes of avocado and taro chips? That’s an edible tribute to Banksy, of course. What does raw fish have to do with stenciled street art? It’s bold, heavily angled and has a short shelf life? Maybe? Perhaps don’t overthink it.

Even the paper is edible.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“Have you ever eaten a painting before?” says Nadine Beshir, the Dubai-based creator of “7 Paintings.” “We try to get people out of their comfort zones and eating paper. I want to bring out the child in them.”

“7 Paintings,” held at Sunset House L.A. through the end of August, is the latest example of immersive dining to arrive in this city. These experiences often involve guest participation and are accentuated with advanced multimedia technology and sometimes theatrical elements.

Worldwide, there have been standouts. For instance, Eatrenalin at Germany’s Europa-Park, a dining room-meets-ride where participants are whisked around the space on trackless “floating chairs,” has just received a coveted Michelin star. Ibiza’s Sublimotion has similar haute ambitions, pairing 12 diners together in a room that will come alive with otherworldly projections and performers. At times, diners will win don virtual reality headgear.

But tech-driven immersive dining experiences have never quite taken off in Los Angeles as a trend. Last year, the Gallery, where fantastical cityscapes and projections surrounded downtown L.A. diners, stood just a couple months before the concept was abandoned.

“7 Paintings” pairs food with art and music. It’s “fun dining, not fine dining,” says its founder.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Bartender Luca Famulari shakes a cocktail at the immersive dining event.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“The economics of a restaurant are not the same as the economics of theater and the challenge of combining the two lies in thinking outside the box with respect to pricing and cost structure, such that the customer perceives high value from both the food and the experience,” says the Gallery co-founder Daren Ulmer.

Entrepreneurs keep aiming for that careful balance. “Le Petit Chef and Friends” is currently running at Tangier at downtown’s Hotel Figueroa, an event in which a fully animated film is projected on our plates and tables. Long-running pop-up event Fork N’ Film leans more dinner and movie, pairing dishes directly inspired by what is happening on screen. Upcoming films include “Ratatouille” and “Lilo and Stitch.”

The field comes with challenges. “The costs are very high,” says Joanna Garner, an immersive designer and former creative director with experiential art firm Meow Wolf. Garner has been experimenting herself with communal, immersive dinner events, and her next, the flirtatious “Please Open Your Mouth,” is set for July 11. (No tech there, as Garner is after a more sensual, adult-focused gathering.) Tickets for her event are $150 and a spot in the “7 Paintings” dining room runs $175, priced on par with a number of city’s most acclaimed restaurants.

There is also the reality that all public dining is in some fashion immersive, usually requiring varying combinations of engagement, communication and presentation. And then, are all these added elements distracting?

An animated Mona Lisa sits on the wall as guests enjoy their meals. Throughout the dinner, the painting provides factoids on various artists.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Throughout “7 Paintings,” for instance, an animated Mona Lisa, situated on the wall next to the main dinner table, will provide brief biographical details of each artist represented.

“Being able to nail the food, and nail the story, those are two very difficult threads to weave,” Garner says. “I do think, ultimately, people come to a dinner table to talk to the people at the table and to have intimate experiences. To have an experience where you’re constantly being taken away from the food, I’m not so sure if that’s what people are looking for.”

Food is framed as a star of “7 Paintings” but tasting it is just one component. At one point, we must uncover a cheese course in a tiny treasure chest, the code for the lock hidden in the projections (don’t stress, it’s not a hard puzzle). Beshir highlights the Pollock-inspired salad course, which is accentuated with a jazz soundtrack, as the thesis of the evening.

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1. A guest uses a silicon brush to apply sauces onto an entree, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. 2. Projections fill up the dining table during meals.

“This course is really about getting people to free their minds from preconceived ideas,” Beshir says. “Like, you have to eat with a fork and knife, or the salad comes and then the dressing. No, the dressing comes and then the salad, and it’s trying with big brushes to paint the way he did. A lot of people do not understand Abstract Expressionism, and they think it’s people just splashing colors around. But when you understand the link between the rhythm of the music and painting, you live it. We give you time to paint with your salad dressing.”

In L.A., Beshir has partnered with nightlife impresario Kim Kelly, who is plotting a “Sleep No More”-inspired walk-around theatrical show for the Sunset House venue later this year. “7 Paintings,” however, is fully seated, and purposefully a little silly. Beshir and Kelly have been evolving it during its L.A. run, recently adding a stronger painting component by giving guests their own canvas to work on throughout the evening. Each night crowns a winner.

“Everyone comes over to look at their art,” Kelly says. “It just kind of changed the whole thing, to be honest. People are now being creative throughout the entire evening. Instead of just watching and occasionally painting, you’re now painting the whole time.”

As for what, perhaps, soba noodles with edamame and mushrooms have to do with Pablo Picasso, or why Salvador Dali gets an unexpected dessert course of a white chocolate potato souffle, Beshir clarifies the goal of the evening. While the animated Mona Lisa will provide backstories on each painter, this isn’t an educational night. “It’s fun dining, not fine dining,” Beshir says.

And by the end of my night, strangers were socializing, showing off their painted cookie creations, sharing Banksy tidbits and asking for recommendations on various vinaigrette combinations. Ultimately, it’s an evening of discovery, packed with surprises like finding an entire course hidden under a canvas.

Darryl Mayes of Charlotte, N.C., left, and Taylor Smith of North Hollywood, right, uncover their course.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“We try not to have too much sophistication, like fried ants or something. I’m personally very adventurous in how I eat, but if I want to have this in 100 cities around the world, I cannot be too meticulous.”

And Beshir has big goals.

“I want this be your movie and dinner thing,” Beshir says. “I want people to be waiting for our next show, and to be able to afford to come every couple months.”

And to come home not with leftovers, but perhaps a painting of their own.

WE HAD one job – to get the crystals – but as I found myself sliding down a vertical drop into a pit of sand, I realised it’s a lot harder than it looks on telly.

The Crystal Maze TV series first graced our screens back in 1990, with host Richard O’Brien leading a team of six ambitious players to complete challenges.

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For the uninitiated, each challenge wins a crystal – which gives the team five seconds in the giant glass dome at the end to catch as many gold foil tokens while they are blown about.

Weekends during my childhood were spent screaming at the TV with my mum and sister as we vowed we would be able to do The Crystal Maze’s famous challenges better than the contestants themselves.

So where better to test my mettle than at the Crystal Maze experience itself, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary?

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The immersive experience is one of the oldest in the UK and is still running at its Shaftesbury Avenue venue in London.

Joined by our rather peppy Maze Master to help us along the way and keep us entertained, our experience started with an introduction to the show for those who had (shockingly) not seen it, to understand what the experience is about.

And before I knew it, I was selected as team captain, responsible for picking who to do each 2-3 minute challenge in one of four categories just like the show – physical, skill, mental or mystery.

And just as you’d expect with the TV show, the experience has all of the much-loved themed ‘zones’ too.

Starting in the Medieval Zone, we made our way through a historic street leading to a courtyard with a well in the middle covered in cobwebs, to our first challenge – a physical that involved bouldering around a room to reach the crystal before coming all the way back (think ‘the floor is lava’).

You do a couple of challenges in each zone before heading to the next, with enough options meaning you can return again and not do the same ones.

The Futuristic Zone felt like entering a space station but with classic 90s features like a big red button and a stereotypical alien form.

It was here where I started my first challenge.

Completely blind to what I was doing, my team guided me through as I had to get a ball from one end of the maze to the other. Thankfully I completed it… with just seconds to spare.

There is also the recently launched Ocean Zone, where you descend down a ladder into the shipwreck of the steamship S.S. Atlantis.

And last but not least, the brilliant Aztec Zone – entered via a vertical slide.

Complete with sand and crawling vines, I felt transported to another world.

In another physical challenge, fellow Travel Reporter Alice Penwill had to slither under criss-crossing ropes with dangling bells, that she daren’t ring otherwise it would mean an automatic lock-in.

After an hour of two or three challenges each, sweating, cheering and high-fiving, we had secured 35 seconds in the much-anticipated crystal dome.

“Will you start the fans, please,” our host bellowed after we entered, making adrenaline rush through my body as it felt like I was living the iconic TV moment.

I won’t lie, frantically catching foil tokens and shoving them as fast as you can into a narrow letterbox, was hilarious – I think I laughed more than actually catching anything.

If you manage to get enough tokens you’ll get a prize. Although if I’m being honest, I wasn’t there for the prize; I was there to live out my childhood dream.

Before leaving the experience, you can grab a picture in Crystal Maze bomber jackets in front of the iconic dome.

The experience is suitable for those aged nine years old and over, though be warned the whole experience is quite physical with moments crawling through tunnels (though there are ways around this if this isn’t accessible to you).

And if you book the experience before May 30, you’ll be entered into a draw where winners will get the chance to play in a ‘Money Dome’ session, where you have 30 seconds to collect as much money as you can, up to £1,000.

The experience costs £47 per person and considering it’s the original immersive experience, it remains one of the most impressive I’ve been to yet.

NATALIE Appleton’s son Ace looked every inch the grown-up rockstar as he attended a new Bowie exhibition with his famous Mum.

​The pair posed on the red carpet at the opening night of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone at The Lightroom in London.

Ace is the son of the All Saints star and her husband, The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett.

​Natalie is around 5’5″, while her famous other half, Liam, is 6’1″, and it looks like Ace certainly inherited his Dad’s lofty genes.

The 22-year-old towered over his Mum as the mum-and-son duo posed for photographers at the showbiz event.

​Liam Howlett and Natalie have been together for 25 years after they met at V Festival in 2000.  They married in 2002, and Ace was born in 2004.

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​Natalie also has an older daughter, Rachel, 33, from a previous relationship with Dreamboys stripper Carl Robinson.

Despite their fame, Natalie and Liam have kept their family life relatively private, choosing to let their son carve out his own path.

And it seems that approach has paid off, with Ace now making a name for himself on the London music scene in his own right.

​Following in the footsteps of his musical parents, Ace is bass guitarist for the Camden-based group, Pedestrian Band, with his proud Mum known to plug his music on her socials.

Ace’s band Pedestrian are still emerging on the London indie scene, but they’re already turning heads with their experimental sound.

The trio have released their debut EP and built a cult following, earning a reputation as one of Camden’s most exciting up-and-coming acts.

​

While he isn’t relying on his famous surname, Ace is well-connected in music, with cousin Gene Gallagher, son of Nicole Appleton and Liam Gallagher.

Meanwhile, Natalie and her sister Nicole shot to fame in 1996 alongside Shaznay Lewis and Melanie Blatt in the girl band All Saints.

The group proved a massive hit and brought fans songs like Pure Shores, Black Coffee, and Never Ever.

The foursome became huge stars, with Nicole and Natalie going on to date some big celebrities, before settling down with Liam.

Nicole once had a high-profile with Robbie Williams between 1997 and 1999, which included an engagement and a terminated pregnancy.

Natalie and Ace attended the launch of Lightroom’s latest exhibition of immersive Bowie content projected onto it’s 11-metre-high walls and floor.

​The hour-long experience features live recordings, interviews and unseen footage from the David Bowie Archive.

​With a huge sound system and Bowie as narrator, it’s considered the closest to experiencing the late icon live.

​David Bowie: You’re Not Alone will run at Lightroom near King’s Cross from 22nd April 2026.

Tickets are priced from £25 for adults and £15 for students and concessions.