Sunday, 05 July 2009
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Edible Menus? The World of Molecular Gastronomy
When the culinary meets the chemistry, crazy things are bound to happen. It's called molecular gastronomy, and it's the science of using chemicals and technique to create new flavors and textures in food, some seeming to completely defy the normal bounds of eating! Here's a look at some of our favorite restaurants and recipes within the mind-boggling world of MG.
Edible menus
At Moto restaurant in Chicago, if the food on the menu looks good enough to eat, you can go right ahead. Chef Homaro Cantu developed a menu made out of edible paper and printed with edible ink. The paper is made from soy and cornstarch, and the ink from an organic food base. It's then run through a normal Canon printer. In addition to menus, Cantu also prints out photographs of items like sushi onto the paper, and then flavors the paper to taste like sushi. Edible paper sushi? Now that will boggle your mind. Read about it here.
Shrimp noodles
What's so weird about that? Well, the noodles are actually made of shrimp. Wylie Dufresne, chef of New York's pioneering wd-50, uses transglutaminase (the "meat glue" used in chicken nuggets) to bind the proteins of shrimp into long noodles. Have a hankering for seafood spaghetti? Food Network has a recipe for the mad scientists out there.
Coffee caviar
This googly dessert has nothing to do with sturgeon and everything to do with transforming liquid molecules into gummy pearls. Prepared most famously by Marcel on Season Two of Bravo's Top Chef, it involves dropping blobs of the liquid of your choice into pools of sodium alginate and calcium chloride with a syringe. Marcel paired the coffee caviar with blinis for a cutting edge dessert.
Gravity-defying Bacon
Famous molecular gastronomist Grant Achatz has taken bacon to new heights at his Chicago restaurant Alinea. First dehydrating the bacon and then wrapping it in butterscotch and apple (uh, yum?), he then threads it on a horizontal wire, creating a dazzling display for your eyes and palate.
Chocolate Pop Rocks Cake
Heston Blumenthal, chef of London's The Fat Duck, is known for eye-popping desserts, including his chocolate-hazelnut cake with a Pop Rocks base, sure to set your taste buds dancing. Attempt your own with this recipe.
What do you think about molecular gastronomy? Is it cutting-edge or does it go too far with food?
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- From: jmisener@thepopsite
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Comments (19)
so ... bacon shirts?
I'd try it.
I think the Pop Rocks base cake and edible menus are pretty neat :)
om nom nom nom.
This is.. unique
ommg i want that cake!
I like freaky food.
Mmmm that cake looks... SO GOOD. Meee want =]
Tasty and trendy
How does the science of cooking (which is what molecular gastronomy means) ever go too far? How would that even be possible? I think they'd have to start making explosive cheesecake or something.
I'd only be scared if I can die from eating these things. Oh man I love shrimp I would really like to try those. =)
those are nothing. my first experience with MG was AWESOME!! i had the tasting menu at WD~50 in NYC and it blew my mind away.
they had a weird version of eggs benedict where the holandaise sauce was breaded with english muffin crumbs and fried into little balls of sauce, came with half cooked egg yolk and bacon as crispy as potato chips. they made spatzle with chicken liver. my fave was the dessert that had yogurt piped into a tube that was olive oil made into a crispy waffer that came with olive oil jam and raspberry flavored ribbons.
that was the most expensive meal i'd ever had and it was nothing short of mind blowing
I would love to try it.
One of my friends went to Moto two months ago, and he had a story for each of the 20 courses he had.
It was epic just listening and seeing the pictures.
It sounds pretty cool but those are just super processed, chemical laden food
I prefer real, whole food
hm sounds interesting. makes me hungry again haha. i want to try the shrimp noodles!
Those look very...interesting. It's making me a little hungry!
Mmm...shrimp noodles? That's a little strange, but nonetheless sounds tasty!
bacon, apple and butterscotch?! ugh. looks better than it sounds.
the bacon, apple, and butterscotch thing sounds fantastic.
makes me hungry