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What smells in here? We have asked ourselves this question, for better and for worse, hundreds of times. Because some aromas, even the apparently pleasant ones, can spoil the party in a second if they appear where they are not expected -it is well known the recommendation not to use perfume if you don’t want to spoil a meal. The smell of a space where we are going to have a good time is important but, fortunately or unfortunately, almost everything smells, and bars and restaurants are no exception: working with organic materials and, in many cases, heat, both are continuous generators of odors that must be dealt with in one way or another. Because although the smell of fried food emanating from a house may bring a smile to our faces as we walk down the street on a spring day, no one likes it when hot oil vapours escape from a restaurant kitchen, whose molecules float in the air in the form of tiny droplets, and get inside our noses, distorting the wine we have chosen with enthusiasm or, directly, annoying us.
Independent perfumer and astrobiologist Marina Barcenilla is clear: “There is no one right scent for restaurant dining rooms. Much of what helps us enjoy and savor food is its aroma. If we force a different aroma, it could interfere with the taste of the food and spoil the dining experience. It is also important to remember that smells are a subjective experience, and not all smells are liked or elicit the same reaction in different people. If any aroma is used, it should be specific to enhance or complement the flavor of the dish being served.”
The perfumer recalls some moments of smells that she finds unpleasant and out of context, such as the pungent fishy stench that wafted from the kitchen into the living room, or simply that of an artificial vanilla air freshener that ruined the food. “There are special products to neutralize odors in restaurants, gyms, etc. but I’m not sure how effective they are, and sometimes they have their own smell, which is often quite artificial,” she says.
Nobody likes an air freshener, no matter how good it is, to spoil the aroma of a recipe or a good wine
Oriol Montañés, former chef, perfumer and owner of the perfume store Les Topettes, agrees with her: “I am not in favor of perfuming a restaurant, as it would interfere with the aromas of the food. However, if I had to, I would opt for woods like sandalwood, which is creamy and not very invasive, or aromatic herbs like thyme or rosemary, and I would do it very subtly”.
In this line, the chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, explains that many years ago he noticed a detail that was happening in his restaurant: “There’s something wrong here,’ I said to myself. We were doing the daily protocol of picking up and cleaning, and the aroma that was floating in the air was that of floor cleaners. So I came up with the happy idea of taking some vine shoots, burning them in a censer and spreading the smoke around the room. The smell of burning wood is universal and pleasant for everyone, and is associated with cooking. We continue to do this, and I am even more perverse: I ask them to burn wood in the hut next to Mugaritz so that when the customers arrive at the park, the first thing they smell is that aroma”.
Perico Chicote had his own perfume, which was based on the manly aroma of bar
For François Monti, cocktail expert and author of Mueble Bar (Abalon Books, 2022), the right smell in a bar depends on the circumstances: “Perhaps an air freshener is not ideal for enjoying cocktails, but less so is the smell of sewage typical of the old areas of big cities that sometimes seeps into the interior of the premises”. Monti comments that there are different cocktail bars that use non-invasive air fresheners that the client, once at the table, does not notice. For example, The Edition hotel chain is known for the intoxicating woody aroma, with notes of cedar and patchouli, and black tea and bergamot, – a custom creation by Le Labo – that it uses in its corners and also in its cocktail bar, the Punch Room. “Curiously, it doesn’t affect the perception of the cocktail, despite the fact that the aroma of a cocktail is an important part of what makes it good,” he reasons, and recalls that something similar happens at the bar Santos y Desamparados, in Madrid. “On the other hand, the idea of bar aroma is old and changing. A century ago, classic bars smelled of tobacco. But Perico Chicote had his own perfume, which he said was based on the manly aroma of the bar.”