Result of the discussions between culinary designer Marc Bretillot and scientist and founder of Le Laboratoire David Edwards, The WHAF is a generator is the Flavor of Clouds. The exhibition helded at Le Laboratoire through last April 15, tells the story of WHAF, his original idea, the concept in its design. The exhibition presents also the first prototypes of WHAF through its edition as an object of design, archival photos and videos. A highly taste of artscience meeting!

Le Laboratoire is a contemporary art and design center in central Paris, where artists and designers experiment at frontiers of science. Exhibition of works-in-progress from these experiments are frequently first steps toward larger scale cultural humanitarian and commercial works of art and design. Le Laboratoire was founded in 2007 by David Edwards as the core-cultural lab of the international network, Artscience Labs.




 
THE WHAF

Imagine a cloud of flavor rising up from a kind of water jug that has the form of a large glass globe. Now, imagine gently inhaling this cloud... An olfactory and gustatory caress gently teases you. And there you have it! You have just tested and tasted (and hopefully, enjoyed!) Le Whaf, the most recent Laboratoire innovation. Invented by David Edwards, and designed by Marc Bretillot, Le Whaf once again bears eloquent witness to the surprises we can find with the encounter of art and science. Today, scientists are looking at ways to make fine-particle, breathable aerosol sprays, for the purpose of administering medical drugs to human lungs in significant quantities.

This is especially the case of the pharmaceutical startup company, Pulmatrix, which aims to combat respiratory infectious disease by generating such aerosols using ultrasonic waves, emitted by piezoelectric crystals. This is the medical science technology that David Edwards, one of the founders of Pulmatrix, has used in creating Le Whaf. Over recent months, Marc Bretillot worked with David Edwards and the Foodlab team* (* Le Laboratoire’s culinary laboratory) to come up with an original, contemplative design that expands the new gastronomic terrain recently uncovered with the invention of Le Whif.

Guests are invited to try out the first Whaf prototypes, a selection of delicious recipes created by the chef Thierry Marx. Le Whaf opens a new culinary era, when flavors become a flight of the imagination…

 
The recipes!

Three juicy liquids should be prepared for this Whif. The first one, called B52 is a combination of star anise, ginger and citrus; the second Whaf recipe, called Tomato Air is reminiscent of a light and fl oating tomato soup; and the third recipe, called Martini Classic encapsulates all the smoothness of the famous Italian drink, but with less alcohol thanks to Le Whaf process. Liquid is poured into Le Whaf, which causes a cloud to form. Since they are very small (about 5 μm - smaller than Le Whif), whaffed particles can remain in suspension for almost a minute, even when we capture the cloud inside a glass. We withdraw a pleasant, ephemeral flavor with a type of straw.

And can we whaff our own recipes? Yes, we can, bearing in mind, of course, that Le Whaf is still a design prototype. The form of Le Whaf that may eventually come into our homes will be easier to understand once we have all whiffed at Le Laboratoire for a while.

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