Fancy smoking your dinner? The hookah that lets you inhale food

Hookahs are usually used for smoking tobacco - but a new twist on the Middle Eastern pipe gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "inhaling your food".

Using tiny volcanic stones and charcoal, the luxury hookah 'Aroma Vapologie' produces a flavourless, calorie-free vapour when heated instead of the usual tobacco smoke associated with hookah pipes. That vapour can easily be flavoured with everything from fish to chicken smoke.

Even cocktails are possible: you simply add a few drops of the liquid, oil, spirit, or cooking juice to determine the taste of the vapour, then inhale.

Aroma Vapologie inventor Eric Gormand claims Aroma Vapologie "sets the standard for luxury narghiles - also known as hookah - and does it the French way, by creating a new culinary approach".

Wanting to combine the idea of molecular gastronomy and beautifully-designed hookah, Gormand collaborated with deisgners and chefs to create the device.

Collaborators include prominent figures in the international design world such as Régis Dho, Jean-Marc Gady and Nedda El-Asmar.

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There is no sign of the hookah in the UK just yet, but it is already on the menu in restaurants in Japan, Turkey and Switzerland.

Chef Laurent Pichaureaux is a fan of the product, and has used it to make chocolate desserts combined with a Cognac hookah vapour.

"The Cognac has this slightly bitter edge to it, which stands up to the rich sweet chocolate. They complement each other. I inhale, I take a bite, I inhale, I eat, and like this I can catch all the different sensations and aromas," he said.

Chef Julian Allano, who uses an oyster vapour for his dishes, said: "While inhaling you get the essence of the sea, as if you would eat an oyster without having the viscous texture which some people do not appreciate. What we have here is airy and light".

Despite seeming like a calorie-free alternative to food, Aroma Vapologie isn't designed to replace meals.

The co-founder of Eric Gormand's company, Airdiem, Katherine Poulachon-Brault said: "Like with wine, Aroma Vapologie should be used to pair vapours with foods and reveal subtle, otherwise unnoticed, aromas in your meal.

Airdiem also offers the pipe in several different designs, including "The Disco Pipe", "The Fez Hat" and "Oxygene" - a pipe designed to look like a fish bowl.