Vanilla cream, mandarin sorbet, milk, honey, toasted hazelnut, carmelized brown sugar, bergamot basil… Sound like a delectable confection? Or a gourmand perfume? Both are correct! The Lemon Cloud dessert, created by pastry chef Jordi Roca of restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, Spain, is also a fragrance – Núvol de Llimona – created in collaboration with perfumer Agusti Vidal.
Chef Jordi and Perfumer Agusti traveled from Girona to meet us at our hotel during Sniffapalooza’s Barcelona fragrance journey. They shared their fascinating story through sights, sounds, and smells. See our YouTube videos of their presentation below.
Inspired by 5 boxes of bergamot brought to the highly-acclaimed El Celler de Can Roca by a friend, sommelier Joseph Roca recognized that the scent was similar to a cologne that he wore, Calvin Klein Eternity. Intrigued by the close relationship of taste and smell, Jordi promptly went to work on a dessert interpretation of Eternity, using the bitter fruit for a bergamot basil sauce to be served over ice cream and sorbet. Dessert interpretations of over two dozen other fragrances followed – including Lancome Miracle, Terre d’Hermes, Thierry Mugler Angel, and Ralph Lauren Polo Blue. A serendipitous meeting with Barcelona perfumer Agusti Vidal at a perfumery course sparked their collaboration on a fragrance based on the Lemon Cloud dessert. Created specifically to be sniffed while enjoying the dessert and enhancing the culinary experience, it turned out to be something more than they had anticipated. Though it wasn’t their intention to sell the perfume, they received many, many requests and inevitably Núvol de Llimona the perfume was born – complete with a beautiful opaque white globe-shaped bottle and a box with a reprint of one of Jordi’s paintings. Lemon Cloud is available here and here.
Jordi and Agusti shared samples of Lemon Cloud with us, and we’d like to share with you! Enter our giveaway for a 5ml rollerball bottle of Lemon Cloud by leaving a comment below. Tell us which dessert you think would make a fascinating fragrance.
Núvol de Llimona:
Top notes: bergamot, tangerine
Middle notes: lily of the valley, milk, custard
Base notes: sugar syrup, toasted sugar, musk