Givaudan Chef’s Council and Protein VR Experience

Givaudan is the global leader in the creation of flavors and fragrances. In close collaboration with food, beverage, consumer products, and fragrance partners, Givaudan develops tastes and scents that delight consumers worldwide. Creating the future of food requires creativity, innovation, an open mind, and passion. Over a decade ago, Givaudan’s Chef’s Council was born.

Givaudan asked Groove Jones to help them capture live-action footage of the Chef’s Council event in London and create 2D and 360º videos of the event. We also made a unique interactive VR experience for people to explore and engage with the Chef’s Council event firsthand in a unique, revolutionary way.

London Chef’s Council – Focus on Creating the Next-Generation of Plant-Based Foods

Givaudan’s Chef’s Council includes some of the world’s most respected and renowned chefs, providing a direct line to culinary trends worldwide. It began in 2006 in Napa, California, with a Chicken and FlavourVision® directive and has explored Cincinnati – Vanilla, Barcelona – Beef and FlavourVision®, Hong Kong – Umami and kokumi, New York City – Freshness, and Amsterdam – Beyond sweetness.
Givaudan’s cross-functional teams use the outcomes of each Chef’s Council to create new concepts, ultimately leading to commercialization. They identify exciting areas for scientific exploration to give our customers surprising, unique, and delicious solutions.

Groove Jones was invited to London for the Protein Challenge, where our live-action team captured the event.

We had the opportunity to shoot videos of four world-renowned chefs, some with Michelin stars, including Amanda Cohen, Chantelle Nicholson, Cristina Bowerman, and Helena Rizzo. Each was tasked with developing and presenting inspiring culinary approaches with a strong focus on plant proteins.

The Givaudan Protein VR Experience

After the event, Groove Jones developed the Givaudan Protein VR Experience. This virtual reality experience was developed to allow a much larger global audience to experience the event, interact with the chef’s meals, and create innovative and dynamic plant-based protein dishes.

Welcome to the Virtual Chef’s Council – Fire Pit Lounge

This area served as the starting point and hub for the experience. Users arrived at the firepit lounge, surrounded by a beautiful rooftop garden high above the city of London.

The Chef’s Culinary Roundtable Room

The Chef’s Culinary Roundtable served as the starting point for the experience, where you would engage with the individual chefs. Users could activate interview videos (shot by Groove Jones while on location) of the chefs and learn about their insights and thoughts on creating plant protein dishes.

The space is an intimate, high-end, luxury dining space created in CGI. Users in the experience feel like they have a seat at the table.

Interactive Protein Exploration Area

Once inside the experience, users have the chance to build their own unique vegan protein in a one-of-a-kind interactive experience! The goal is to show the user the steps to create plant-based protein dishes.

Users start by selecting the dish they want to create – a burger patty or Thai curry. They can reach out with their hands to begin the process.

After selecting their recipe, they choose the base protein – Peas or Soy.

With the pull of a lever, users select a soy or pea protein base.

They then begin the extrusion and shaping process using the base protein.

Users can then shape their custom protein by adding functional ingredients to the mixer, such as water, fat, preservatives, and texturizers.

The user then adds flavors to their recipe.

We then walk the user through making the recipe for the dish.

This included topping off the burger with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and caramelized onions over the pea patty for the burger.

The user chops peppers, fresh Thai basil, and caramelized onions for the Thai curry recipe.

Groove Jones artist carefully recreated everything in CGI to ensure every ingredient and the final product looked realistic, appealing, and ready to eat.

VR Kitchen

We created the most content in the Kitchen, including over 30 plant-based protein dishes created by the chef teams and recreated in CGI. Users have the chance to see the prepared dish in front of them.

Each dish included a video showcasing the chef and the process of creating the serving.

Below are the dishes we recreated in 3D, which would appear in the kitchen prep area and be visible to the user while watching the dish’s videos.

Chef Cristina Bowerman

Chef Chantelle Nicholson

Chef Amanda Cohen

Chef Helena Rizzo

Live-Action Production

Groove Jones’ live-action team captured the week’s event and local shots in 2D and 360º footage. The content was used for Givaudan’s traditional marketing, social videos, and VR experience.

This is the second VR production we have created for Givaudan. Below are links to the revolutionary and award-winning initial VR production we created for them – https://www.groovejones.com/givaudan-virtual-tastetrek-citrus-vr-tool-for-citrus-flavour-creation/

Award-Winning Production

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
2023 COMMUNICATOR AWARDS
CATEGORY: IMMERSIVE BRAND EXPERIENCE

GOLD
2023 MUSE CREATIVE AWARDS
CATEGORY: BRANDED CONTENT – FOOD & BEVERAGE