foodite

thats a term I haven't yet heard in this context... can you elaborate on what you mean by dematerialization? is this the term you use to define breaking down food into its most basic sensual elements?

Chef - What are your thoughts on the recent topic of copyrighting and patenting food and culinary processes? Re: http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/new-er...-recipe-burglar

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Adria mentioned that there are techniques, not necessarily specific chemicals, that can be used to sperify anything - be it basic sperification, reverse spherification, oil spherification, etc.

I'd be curious to see what those "internships" are all about.

I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to sample any of the products made in the demos - I would have loved to try some of Paco Torreblanca's creations - like the milk foam and glucose cookies. And to anyone who was present, I completely missed the technique that Paco Torreblanca employed to create the liquor-filled beads/cylinders that were set in the cornstarch trays. Anyone catch the details of that?

If anyone wants to see pictures, I've uploaded some here: http://flickr.com/photos/gsanjose/sets/72157594329159911/ I'll be uploading more soon.

I'll be there too!

Actually, there are 2 separate events. There is the dinner at the Beard house on Thursday evening for $750/$1000 and there is the all-day demo at Gustavino's on Saturday for $300. Is anyone here attending the Saturday event?

I haven't been back since Bruni starred it, but when I was there a couple months ago, I couldn't get enough of the stuffed squid and the crispy pork belly.

I've been to r4d a couple times now, once for breakfast and twice for dessert, and every time has been a great experience... especially the cordial and attentive staff, so this post from Eater was a little surprising: eater: Room 4 Dessert

Its amazing to me that anyone would want to eat a sugar-covered raw quail egg. ← The yolk membrane actually starts to cook a little from the blowtorch and begins to turn white if you leave it on too long. I've never actually broken the yolk by the blowtorch alone, every time the yolk broke it was because the hardened caramel pierced it when I was trying to flip it over. Trust me, I wouldn't want to eat more than 1 of these at a time, but the combination of sweet crunch and creamy yolk gives a really interesting mouthfeel and texture, even if it only lasts for 1/2 a bite.

Flamin' hot Cheetoes, Pepperoncinis, and Orange Juice.

One of my weird food combos is McDonalds french fries dipped in their soft serve cone One thing that a friend of mine loves doing is eating a banana with a Kraft singles... I don't get it at all..

If I remember from the marketing video for Texturas that I saw, I believe the parmesan noodle is made by adding agar-agar to "parmesan water." No alginate or calcium involved.

An update: I think I finally honed a technique that I'm happy with. I took on the suggestion of whizzing up broken up pieces of thecaramel in a spice grinder and then sifting it onto silpat using a square stencil that I jimmied up with a piece of cardstock. The humidity (and heat wave) in my NYC kitchen made it a little hard to work with because the caramel dust started bunching up almost immediately, so I did the the squares in small batches. Once sifted onto the silpat, it went into a 325 degree oven to remelt. I didn't time it exactly, but basically kept them in the oven until they turned clear. When they cooled, they were thin pieces of almost-clear neutral caramel. Initially, I believe the el Bulli recipe said to make 3/4" squares, but I found them to be too small for the quail yolks. I redid it with 1" squares and found the extra sheet that hung off the edge worked much better in conforming to the countours of the yolk when torched. Apart of making the thin sheets, another thing that I found difficult was actually flipping the yolk after doing the first side. Unless the caramel sheet is perfectly centered, they yolk could easily slip out of the hemi-shell so I started torching the first side of the yolk on a spoon so that I could just take the entire spoon and invert it. Here are some pictures of the process... And the final preparation, plated a la el Bulli vol 3:

Thanks everyone for the advice, a pizza cutter definitely sounds like it would help. I also like the idea of not having to cut anything at all by sifting pulverized caramel onto stencils! I'll report back once I re-attempt the egg. Filipe - Yes, the gold powder is essential for the holistic experience of this treat and once I nail the caramel it'll surely be dusted, but until then, I didn't want to waste gold.. even as just dust it's pretty expensive

I finally got around to attempting to make el bulli's golden egg over the weekend and, sufficed to say, had a couple issues... was wondering if anyone else has attempted it and what tips you may have. For those that don't know, el bulli's golden egg is a raw quail egg yolk wrapped in a thin coating of crisp caramel. The recipe is in the el Bulli 98-02 CD. In it, it says that the caramel is made by heating isomalt, fondant, and glucose to 325 degrees and then spreading it out in a 1/2" layer. It is then cut into 2" squares. To make the squares paper thin, they are re-heated for 5 minutes at 345 degrees between 2 silpats and rolled out thin. Once rolled, the sheet is cut into 3/4" squares, which are then blow-torched onto the yolk so they melt and conform to the contours of it. A couple questions: What is the best way to cut the sugar into squares? I found that if I waited until they cooled, they were so brittle that they exploded into shards instead. I also tried piercing an edge with the heel of my knife to start the cut and those turned out a little better, but still not that clean. Should I cut it while it's still warm? Also, I tried thinning out the sugar into as thin a sheet as possible by rolling it between 2 Silpats, but it still wasn't quite thin enough. Any thoughts on other ways to make extremely thin sheets of caramel?

Do you recall them checking the pH of the orange juice and alginate? I would have thought that OJ would be too acidic. I had marginal success with tomato puree, which I think has lower acidity than OJ. ← I too haven't had much success with OJ and I always thought that something had to be added to tame the acidity, but when I specifically asked about it, he said it was just plain old Tropicana and Sodium Alginate. I haven't actually tried his proportions yet.

<a href="http://www.texturaselbulli.com">Texturas el Bulli</a> Booth at the New York Fancy Food Show: <br> <br> <center><iframe align=center src=http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?user_id=69594707@N00&tags=texturaselbulli frameBorder=0 width=500 scrolling=no height=500></iframe></center>

I went again today and Chef Katsuya Fukushima was there from minibar doing the same demo. He was basically spooning an alginated solution into a calcium bath using plain old Tropicana Orange Juice. The air was made with just an immersion blender and some lecithin. The proportions he was using was: Alginate Solution: 500g liquid, 2.4 g sodium alginate Calcium Bath: 500g water, 3.25g calcium chloride I'll post pictures of it shortly. There was also a marketing video of a Sous Chef at el Bulli making soy (sauce) noodles, green olive ravioli, and parmesan spaghetti - really awesome stuff, I could've stood there watching the looping video for hours.

Wow, your concept sounds really exciting, good luck with it and can't wait to hear more about it on your blog.

Did anyone who attended the Fancy Food Show in Manhattan see the booth for Texturas el Bulli? They're actually under the name of Rogers Intl who is the US distributor. The sous chef of minibar was there making orange juice ravioli and caviar as well as orange juice air.

I haven't received my package of alginate and calcium yet, but am really excited to try all this stuff out. I was wondering the same thing as Edsel. Can you actually taste the alginate or is it flavorless? And what about the residue from the calcium bath? What would happen if you didn't rinse off the ravioli/orbs in terms of taste?

How about Otto? They have a nice selection of cheeses as well as a lot of vegetarian options - though it would be a significantly more casual atmosphere than Bouley or Daniel.

Hi Will, Are you, or any of your fellow molecular gastronomes, going to be doing any appearances or seminars in the New York area any time soon? I'd love to see and hear more about the topic! I recently saw Sam Mason and David Arnold play around with all that stuff at The FCI the day after you and he spoke at the NY Culinary Festival and it was really interesting stuff to watch (especially since the demo kitchen was much more organized and stocked than the one he had to deal with at the festival). Cheers, Gerald