Is this the cutest restaurant on water? Sea foodies seem to think so

OK, so I’ve eaten in some strange places over the years, but I’ve never been faced with a not-quite-dead fish that’s still jumping on my plate, leading the chef to smash his hand down hard on its tail.

Relax. I’m joking. It’s all happening via animation.

Welcome to the Le Petit Chef dining experience – a sophisticated if whimsical 3D cartoon-like light show that takes place on your table (including your plate), created by Belgian artists Filip Sterckx and Antoon Verbeeck in 2015 via their Skullmapping artistic collective.

Billed as theatre on a plate, Le Petit Chef is available in a number of licensed eateries on land across the world. On sea, you’ll have to board a Celebrity ship for the pleasure.

The animated show uses optical illusion techniques to project a small chef cooking on diners’ tables. But first, he must go fishing to catch their dinner, dig it up from his lush vegetable garden, or pluck it from his hot house pots. Chef even milks a cow to prepare the cream for your dessert.

The menu at Le Petit Chef (located in the French-themed Grand Bistro on level five of Celebrity Edge) is as delicious as the animation is delightful. The show runs for all four set courses of the meal; sample menus include dishes like bouillabaisse shellfish, tomato, lemon and herbs, followed by sautéed chicken breast with garlic mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce.

Each dinner sitting runs for about two hours, and vegetarian options are available.

As diners prepare for the first course, the lights are dimmed so that the animation segments can begin shortly before each course is set down. Each sequence runs for about three to five minutes and tells a complete story.

The cartoon continues after serving as the little chef dances around, trying to drag thrashing octopus tentacles onto your plate – or corral wayward chickens in the hen house.