William Colsher

One of the "secrets" to keeping fried food crispy is wheat dextrin, aka Benefiber, aka Trisol. A quick Google will give you percentages.

Why did you heat an empty pan? At 500 F most any cooking oil will be smoking hot and about ready to burst into flame. In actual use you'll never come close to that with any quantity of food in the pan.

elBulli Morphings 1577 Chocolate Bars 2008 74% Chocolate, Milk Chocolate & Cinnamon Caramel, 74% Chocolate & Freeze Dried Blackcurrant White Chocolate, match, and mint, 74% Chocolate & Cocoa Nibs, White Chocolate and Freeze Dried Strawberry SUper easy and as good as the chocolate you use (obviously). Our favorites were the strawberry and cinnamon caramel.

Nothing that exotic - just sugar, a little water and ouzo, then paint the syrup on obulato squares, pop on some toasted pine nuts and dry in the oven.

They're like "vidre" - glass - shatteringly crispy. The recipe is in the 2010-11 volume of the 2005-2011 set.

elBulli 1813 Coca De Vidre. Oh man these are tasty. They're made with anise liquor (I used ouzo) and pine nuts. I'm thinking I'll make 'em with Bourbon and pecans tomorrow.

An elBulli "pre dessert": Gorgonzola Bonbon. A tiny slab of Gorgonzola embedded in Gorgonzola cream and dipped in very bitter chocolate. Good with Port.

Do those of you who use LN2 also use the insulated bowl, gloves, etc?

Pretty much agree with all of the above, though I'd lean toward a stand mixer like the standard model Kitchen Aid before I bought a food processor. And I'll repeat: You mention soup, which brings to mind a high power blender like the VitaMix. The ThermoMix is, as mentioned, a bit of a "cult" and for the same amount of money you can easily buy all the other stuff that's been mentioned. Even so, I'm planning to buy one late this year due to an unfortunate obsession with elBulli 2005-2011. But... all you really need is 1) a good knife 2) a good cutting board 3) a kitchen scale 4) a basic set of quality cookware plus a nonstick frying pan for eggs 5) Miscellaneous hand tools: grater, vegetable peeler, tongs, slotted spoon(s), spatula(s), measuring spoons/cups for the recipes that use volume And... 6) That reliable cook book(s) - see threads here on eGullet I lived for years without a toaster and a microwave but "need" them now. If I was starting from zero, I'd think hard about the SmartOven/Combi-Oven that have gotten a lot of coverage here. If you get into almost any kind of meat cookery, baking, or candy making you'll need an instant read thermometer. Don't mess around with anything other than a ThermaPen. You'll know when you "need" the other gadgets.

I've wrapped up the 2010-11 Survey, put up a list of the 369 "makeable" dishes (i.e. no exotic equipment) along with some dehydrator comments and a couple new dishes aince the last post. http://elbulliathome.blogspot.com/ I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes.

130 F for 15 minutes when I make Lobster Eggs Benedict with little tails like that. However... When I posted I had completely forgotten that I peel the tails prior to the butter poaching for which I apologize. Obviously it's an extra step before cooking that will take some time. And... 130 F might be a little on the rare side for some - other recipes specify 140F for 20-30 minutes which is probably closer to what most people think of as "normal".

Not a professional so FWIW, I'd go with sous vide for the "set and forget" aspect. Skewer 'em so they don't curl, bag with some beurre monte and away you go. At service pull the skewers, cut open the shell with scissors (for easy eating) add a quarter lemon and a little cup of butter and you're done.

Sausage Biscuits and Gravy Eggs Benedict

We all do. Temperature (of ourselves, the air, and of course the food), level of hydration, prescription or OTC drugs, other recently eaten foods (Google Szechwan Button), texture, slight illnesses one doesn't otherwise notice, emotional state... darn near everything affects how we perceive flavors. There are several recipes in the elBulli 2005-2011 books in which an ingredient is cooked at different temperatures or presented in different textures that exploit some of these ideas.

Yes, but their methodology was fundamentally flawed, IMHO.