Jonathan Kaplan

Yeah, the Adria products are a bit on the spendy side. "All for chefs" (www.allforchefs.com) has Gluco in stock for 25 euros, but they just changed their shipping policies so it is now very expensive to have it shipped (before, shipping was only 6 euros / kilo, but took about a month and wasn't trackable. Now they are using UPS, which is more reliable and much faster, but also much more expensive -- more like 20 euros/kilo!). The good news is that I'll have some in hand to play with soon... (And also some "Fizzy" -- because, well, why not?) I think that Gluco doesn't act as a thickener; many of the recipes for big spheres make heavy use of "Xantana" to thicken... But of course I'm not sure... I tried to find some other sources for "Gluco" (the "Texturas" website notes that it is a mix of calcium gluconate and calcium lactate) -- but I didn't have a whole lot of luck finding it in food / pharmaceutical grade in reasonably small amounts. And of course, I don't know what the percentage mix is supposed to be anyway, so it would be a bit of a experiment in any event. Best, jk

Following up on the above ideas, how about the following for salmon? Finish the risotto w/ cream and/or marscapone, then add finely chopped dill, and a puree of arugula and/or sorel and/or lemon. I have an Italian friend who makes a very nice herb risotto (he would of course never serve it *with*anything, but that's another story). So ramping up the dill to complement the salmon strikes me as very reasonable... An even more heretical approach would be to treat the risotto like a sauce itself. Make it a little 'wetter' and perhaps finish it w/ lots of cream, choosing the base to complement the dish it will go on... Braised lamb shanks with risotto scented with mushrooms and balsamic, perhaps? Just some thoughts! jk

Bryan, I agree whole-heartedly that other than novelty value, it doesn't do much for me. I'm having some luck using it for desserts, but not as much as I'd like. But in any event, I think I'll go ahead and order some Gluco and see what does... I'm hoping that John is right and it is just the newness that keeps it being used as the standard... Still, it is weird that all the recipes for Gluco on the Textures website are what I would consider "weird" (spherical mussels? well, OK, I guess...). So I'll fool around with it and report back. 'Course, I'll be ordering it from Europe, so it'll be a while before it gets here, and other people might get to it to before me... Best, jk

I've been messing around w/ "ordinary" spherification ala the "adventures in sodium alginate" thread (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86839) (thanks for the suggestions and help, btw!), and am considering ordering some of Ferran's "Gluco" product. Has anyone played around w/ Gluco or similar chemicals? My big question is: Why hasn't "inverse" spherification completely replaced "ordinary" spherification? The inverse method works for foods w/ and w/o calcium (properly adjusted, etc.), is supposed to be more stable with acids, and the product stop "cooking" when removed from the algin bath (unlike ordinary spherification where the skin gets thicker even after the item's been rinsed). So what are the downsides of the inverse process? Why isn't it the standard process now? I'm hoping to get some feedback before I commit to the cost / time / energy of trying it myself. Jonathan

Thanks for the feedback! I think you are right that the combination of these with other items w/ different textures will be part of the key to making these interesting, and that the "surprise" is lost when you are making them... I'll keep playing around with this and post again if I come up with anything worth sharing -- the chocolate caviar, btw, looks *very* cool, and I'm pleased to hear that the texture combo w/ the tuiles was a success. With Tom, I am also beginning to suspect that, with about half a kilo of each chemical, I've got enough to last a life-time, even if I give some to all my cooking friends! Thanks again, jk

I think I must be missing something... I just got the “Spherification Kit” from Allforchefs.com (yes, I paid too much, but I figured it would be easier to just get the kit than to try to order the chemicals separately, etc.), and tried out a few recipes / ideas this past weekend... With the ‘tea ravioli’ I had a hard time getting the shape right, but finally figured it out, and could even suspend the cube of lemon ice in them. I made a pea ravioli, and, after a lot of fiddling with the timing, finally got them to the point where they weren’t so fragile that the broke before they could be eaten, but not so tough that the ‘skin’ was a problem. I tried to make a ‘caviar’ out of soy-sauce based dipping sauce (pH measured at around 4.5, which ought to have been fine), and after some adjustments, they came out OK... The problem is that I wasn’t at all impressed with the ravioli (either kind). The pea was quite nice, I suppose, but not all that different from an intense pea soup – even in terms of the experience, it just wasn’t that unique or interesting (I thought). The tea ravioli was just kind of dull. I have hopes for a ‘caviar’ based on pear juice and pear puree, to complement a walnut souffle I’ve been trying to add a pear note to without much luck for a while, but other than that, I’m sort of feeling at a loss, especially with respect to the ravioli. So what am I missing? Was I just expecting too much from this preparation? What is fun with the ravioli that I’m not getting? With the caviar, I’m excited by the possibility of adding a ‘sauce’ to a dish while keeping it ‘dry’ – but I’m now a bit confused about what I should be trying to do with the ravioli – what can be done with this preparation that can’t be done any other way? Ideas? Thoughts? Oh, I was going to take pictures, but really, everything looked more or just as you’d imagine from the previous photos posted here. jk

I did something similar about a decade ago, just after finishing graduate school but before starting my post-doc. I got lucky finding the place -- a friend lived next to the restaurant, and got to know the chef, and introduced me, etc. I did rather more "ordinary" prep than it sounds like Michael did -- I did learn some fancy stuff from hanging around, but mostly I learned to do simple things quickly and well. The balancing act, I think, is that it is hard to be useful, part-time, and learn a lot. But it is possible -- by doing a lot of really dull prep, I think I earned my keep and the extra time that having me around during service, for example, probably cost the chef, etc. So, I think the answer is -- yes, it is possible to stage part time at a good restaurant, but I wouldn't expect most experiences to be as fun as it sounds like Michael's was! (I've often joked that except for the long hours, low pay, and appalling working conditions, professional cooking was the best work I ever did...) best, Jonathan