Perfumer Bodha is collaborating with Michelin-starred restaurant Orsa & Winston on a feast for the senses
Words by ANUSH J. BENLIYAN
Los Angeles-based therapeutic perfume house Bodha and Michelin-starred restaurant Orsa & Winston are joining forces to host a celebration of the senses: a one-night-only fine dining event held on Sunday, July 28. The exclusive, ticketed Scent Dinner promises to awaken the olfactory and gustatory palates through a five-course meal prepared by chef-owner Josef Centeno, with each dish conceived around a classic perfume scent profile — fruity/lactonic; herbal/marine; earthy/spice; woody/smoky; and floral/powdery.
“[About] 80 percent of your sense of taste is actually your sense of smell,” says Bodha founder Emily L’Ami, whose signature L.A. Woman perfume in partnership with Apiece Apart debuted last year. “By designing courses around perfume categories, we’re hoping to bring the world of perfume to life in a new and delicious way,” adds L’Ami, who organized the concept dinner with culinary writer (and wife of Centeno) Betty Hallock after the two met at a perfumery class and bonded over their shared love of food and fragrance. “I see it as an opportunity to better connect to your senses,” Hallock says.
The collaborative dinner will feature aromatic beverage pairings and fragrance material enhancements, with such possible dishes as kanpachi with peaches and coconut leche de tigre served with melon-infused junmai nigori sake; and summer lettuces with fresh herbs and nori vinaigrette coupled with Konbu kombucha.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit GrowGood, a local urban farm that Orsa & Winston regularly works with and supports. Serendipitously, the nonprofit “has a perfume garden in collaboration with The Institute for Art and Olfaction,” Hallock says. “It seemed like a really fortuitous full circle.”
$125/person. Tickets available through OpenTable. 122 W. Fourth St., L.A., 213-687-0300.
Feature image: A chilled herb soup from ORSA & WINSTON’s signature tasting menu. Photo by Dylan + Jeni.
July 17, 2019
