Digijam

Interesting. I've only had a brief chance to play with the gluco so far - trying a few extremes like balsamic and alcohol caviars and spheres - but didn't have any sticking problems. Wonder if it varies depending on base ingredient or amount of xanthan used. Maybe I was just lucky. This method does seem better than the alginate/calcic one so far. It's handy to be able to quickly thin out or thicken up the mixture as necessary, rather than relying on the more awkward algin to get the right consistency for workable spheres. Plus there's no worry about calcic aftertaste.

Just make sure to pack all those cool kitchen gadgets well out of the way. And if you need any help clearing that cheese trolley before they arrive...

It's now available as part of the El Bulli Texturas range - with the name Malto - from all the usual European websites, but you can request a free sample of Zorbit directly from National Starch. They call it a sample, it's actually more like a lifetime's supply (about 20 times the amount in the Texturas tin).

If it's a little more traditional you're after then Abac would definitely fit the bill. Ate there the night before a trip to El Bulli a couple of years back and it was the perfect counterpoint. They pretty changed half the tasting menu for us - nothing was too much trouble. And the suckling pig was something else. The tasting (7-8 courses, if I remember) might nudge above 75 euro, though.

I believe the mojito orb is one they do at Jose Andres' Minibar. They even pop it into an ISI whipper and CO2 it to make it fizzy. I did try making it once, but decided I kind of like my mojitos a bit taller. You're not kidding. I tried that method first, but avoiding shell cracks with something that wobbles like a miniature breast implant was beyond me. David - you can also read a bit more about the chemicals and techniques over at the El Bulli Texturas website, although they've updated the reverse spherification info to use the new Gluco product instead of calcium chloride.

One of my favourite thing has always been to eat solid pieces of chocolate with a glass of wine, so I wanted to come up with a way of getting the wine inside the chocolate without sweetening in the usual fondant+booze way. There's probably a really easy way to do this, but... The centre pouring out of the milk chocolate shell is wine turned into a liquid sphere with a gel skin using reverse spherification (ie adding a little xanthan and calcium chloride, then dropping doses into a bath of alginate and sodium citrate). The spheres are then placed into hollow chocolate moulds and sealed up in the usual way. Tastes good and bursts in the mouth really well, though I think a dark chocolate and red wine mix will be even better.

It's a shame the shipping at All For Chefs has gone through the roof - I'd found them to be really helpful in the past, although a little hard to contact. Guess it's a bit late, but you can also buy Gluco (and the rest of the Texturas range) at Buffet & Ambigu. They've got it for 19.50 euros, with shipping at a more reasonable 10.50 (to the UK, at least - though the international prices don't appear to be much higher). Only placed the order a couple of days ago, so can't comment on the quality of service yet. Or just how much easier, alcohol-friendly and flavour neutral Gluco makes the whole reverse sfer process...

Holding tempered chocolate is definitely one of the cooler unexpected uses for a water bath. Wonder if anybody has tried using one to keep a new sourdough starter at the ideal temp?

It's kind of a cross between The Cook's Book and David Everett-Matthias's Essence, if that's any help. Everyone I've ever recommended it to has agreed it's one of the best cookbook's around. The recipes are all really strong, maybe not as complex as Thomas Keller's, but what really makes it worth owning is the way it shows the (experienced) home cook how to replicate restaurant-level food - Campbell has just been given a 2nd Michelin star - without killing themselves with stress. On the surface the book just shows how to recreate a bunch of starters, mains and desserts, with little reference info for stuff like bread or pastry, but by including step-by-step instructions and photos for each stage of every dish, along with useful explanations about which elements can be prepared in advance, it actually imparts loads of great practical knowledge.

I'll give another vote for Abac, if you've still got that Sunday slot to fill. Igault's not kidding about that suckling pig - it's so richly flavoured it almost defies the laws of phyics. Wonderfully friendly service, too.

Lannie - love that mini Pave. I'm going to have to steal that idea for my son's first birthday. In the meantime I made my first PH tart - using the raspberry chocolate recipe from the Patisserie book rather than the Chocolate Desserts one. Couldn't find a tart ring the right size, so the shell was a complete mess (I just hope my old pastry teacher doesn't see this), and I'm not entirely convinced the flourless chocolate cake layer was really worth the effort, but everyone sure ate it fast enough.

I just couldn't take it any more - endlessly drooling over this thread and staring jealously at those 'showroom' chocolate finishes. I just had to give it a go... This is my first batch of moulded goodies - dark chocolate (they appear lighter in the photo) filled with a kirsch and praline ganache. I only had a couple of powder colours and some gold lustre to work with, and though the results aren't perfect, it worked well enough to get me itching to make more. Tammy, Kerry, Vanessa, Alana (and all the other experts on here) - I'm blaming you for my expensive new addiction

How about discs of white chocolate with caviar, or white choc and blue cheese? Both work great as an appetiser or a pre-dessert.

I've certainly eaten at a few places that were taking the piss.

Tyddyn Llan definitely deserves to be better known. A visit there last year more than made up for a pretty shocking stay at the ex-Michelin rated Carlton House the night before. Not sure it really warrants a top ten placing, though.

A belated happy birthday Jack! All looks great - really nice to see some of the classics. (Takes me right back to catering school.) Can I ask what method you used to prepare the foie?

So you just whack your CO2 cannisters directly into the ISI whipper? I've been wondering whether that would work, but had stuck with fizzing fruit in a big old soda syphon for fear of screwing up my beloved whipper.

Mixing the bacon fat powder with ground bacon could work nicely, too. Just been doing something similar with white truffle oil powder, adding extra black truffle. Have you tried re-cooking once it's mixed yet? Heating really helps bring the flavour of pork or bacon back out, and if you fry it in clumps rather than as a fine powder you can get a nice combination of crispy outside and melty inside.

All For Chefs delivers to the USA, and I suspect Buchgourmet will, too. Neither carries the four new products in the range yet, but I expect they'll have 'em soon.

Looks like the inverse spheres just got a whole lot easier. Calcium gluconolactate - Gluco - has just been added to El Bulli's Texturas line. There's also a new 'Surprises' range, featuring crystalised honey, popping candy, and tapioca maltodextrin. Lots of recipes for the new ingredients at the site, too, along with a handy reference guide summing up which products are useful for each application.

Okay, finally got around to get holding of some of Zorbit's tapioca maltodextrin, and can confirm there's quite a difference. The corn stuff is far gummier, lacking the creamy meltiness of the tapioca one. Probably worth owning both, as I can see the gummy texture working better with some flavours.

Now that's an excellent idea. You can't have too many kinds of porky goodness. As I understand it most maltodextrin is derived from corn. I couldn't find a good UK source for the tapioca version, either, so just bought a 4lb box of the regular stuff (£12 from Body Active) to see if it would do the trick. It seems to work perfectly, though I'd be interested to know if anybody has tried both types.

A fair point. I think this is a potential problem with all these gelling techniques - getting flavours that are strong enough and also complementary to the texture, method of delivery and other dish components. And not just playing with the cool chemicals for the hell of it. Even the lemon agar noodle dish I had at El Bulli a couple of years back seemed kinda pointless - they tasted exactly like regular noodles coated in lemon oil. In addition to the table 'theatre' aspect, the methocel noodles do have the advantage over activa-d in that they can be flavoured with pretty much any oil or essence, though, which makes them very flexible and easier to tweak for taste. And it's an interesting stepping stone if nothing else - over at Ideasinfood they worked on caramelised yoghurt noodles a while back, which I believe then led to their various cool gnocchi recipes. It's also worth trying noodles (or any other methocel bound shape) by blending the methocel directly into a oil rather than heated water, and then just adding to the rest of the mix - eg. methocel mixed into sesame oil, blended with yoghurt and pumped into miso soup, or methocel mixed with yuzu/lemon/mandarin oil, mixed with yoghurt and pumped into a hot fruit or chocolate soup. Doing it this way takes the prep time down to around 30 seconds, something that might be useful for ZKitchen.

John Williams, ex-Claridges and now executive chef at the Ritz created the recipe. It's not so much complex as fiddly... 10 egg shells 10 soft boiled quail eggs 500g lobster mousse (200g cooked lobster, 1 egg white, 200ml cream, seasoning). 20 Long macaroni tubes (cooked) 100g Truffle Clean the shells, dry, and grease the insides. Cut the truffle to fit inside the macaroni, and cut the mac into roundels 2mm thick (making 8 for each egg). Place one roundel in the centre at the bottom of a shell, and 7 around it. Half fill the shell with lobster mousse, add a quail egg (point facing down), then top with mousse. Wrap in cling film and steam at 80c for 8 minutes. Rest, then open shell very carefully.

It's worth thinking of it in much the same way as a cake mix, rather than a process like spherification where the initial viscosity is all-important. Just pour into any small metal mould - a ladle would even do the trick - then let the heat seal it into shape. Working from Alex and Aki's recipe at Ideasinfood I actually ended up thinning the mix quite a bit with milk to get a softer consistency - not sure if my yoghurt and cream cheese were unusually thick - and still found it set just fine. The sourness of the yoghurt was a little too prominent for my liking, though. Next time I'd probably substitute single cream or even a custard. The other thing is that, even with the familiar vanilla flavour, the lack of 'ice' means my brain can't help but think of it more as a hot mousse than an ice cream. Good fun, though. And ripe for variation with heat-and-ice cream friendly flavours like squash, or cream infusions made with donuts, brioche, croissants, cake etc. Chocolate should work well, too, given its regular melt in the mouth properties. Have you tried using the methocel for noodles yet? Really easy to make, and serving diners a syringe along with their sweet or savoury soup is pretty entertaining.