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So I usually don't post my stuff here unless I find it applicable to any sort of recent discussion. Being that molecular stuff is all the rage these days, here's a piece I recently wrote. It's pretty basic--so for those of you that are interested in but dont know much about a few of the new-ish applications I recommend giving this a read--but I think the insights from from Chefs Dufresne and Goldfarb are particularly interesting. An excerpt: And of course I mention eG:

by the Daily Gullet Staff In the days of Escoffier and classic haute cuisine, there was little controversy surrounding the simulation and proper execution of what appeared on the platter. Haute cuisine meant copying the dishes of Escoffier as faithfully as possible; the closer you got, the better you were. This approach was universally accepted, understood -- and appreciated. Maybe it started with nouvelle cusine, maybe earlier. Perhaps the genesis of today's avant garde movement gave it real focus. But there's no denying that traditional culinary attitudes have given way to advancement, augmentation and innovation. Among avant-garde restaurants and chefs, revolution is the norm. A laboratory milieu, an atmosphere of culinary invention, and careful documentation has permeated the professional kitchen. Online food media like eG Forums encourage diners to distribute photographs of new dishes found the world over -- within hours of their capture. Our understanding of culinary ethics has not kept up with this evolution. On 14 March 2006, eGullet Society member Sam Mason (aka Willie Lee) noted similarities between dishes served at Interlude (a restaurant in Melbourne, Australia) and dishes from American avant-garde restaurants WD-50 (Wylie Dufresne's New York restaurant, where Mason is the pastry chef) and Minibar (Jose Andres's Washington, DC restaurant). Soon after, other Society members noted similarities to dishes from Alinea (Grant Achatz's Chicago restaurant), and suggested a substantial pattern of duplication. Chef/proprietor Robin Wickens of Interlude, also an eGullet Society member, responded to the claims. Information about the dishes was gleaned from a series of photographs resident on the Interlude restaurant website. When we checked, the photographs weren't there. The eGullet Society doesn't have an official position on this matter, but it's appropriate to publish the following for two reasons. First, by presumably removing the photographs from its website, Interlude has made examination of the evidence impossible, unless we bring these photos to light in a journalistic context. Second, we believe the Interlude controversy is not a simple matter of a lone Australian restaurant copying a few dishes from halfway around the world. Rather, it's one of the most significant issues facing the global culinary community today. The eGullet Society and its membership, including most of the world's foremost avant-garde chefs as well as a broad range of consumers and commentators, is a natural nexus for discussion of those issues. Of course, it is our hope that these discussions will influence the understanding of ethics in cuisine, and perhaps worldwide public policy in such matters. Interested parties can judge for themselves the extent and severity of the emulation. We look forward to constructive, civil eG Forums comment and discussion. We have invited several chefs and restaurateurs to weigh in. (Images from the Interlude web site appear as the first in each pair. The second in each of the first four pairs are from Alinea; the last is from the WD-50 web site.)

I heard through the grapevine that Anthony Bourdain's Decoding Ferran Adria is finally available on DVD through ZeroPointZero Productions ... I went to check out their website and lo and behold ... http://www.zeropointzero.com/ferran.html Great news indeed.

<img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_21200.jpg" width="324" height="285" hspace="5" align="left">Within the family of products with soul, we include in this analysis all products that have played a major role in El Bulli, those that have warranted special attention or have been important in our evolution. The N2O that we blow into siphons to obtain foams meets these criteria, except in one crucial aspect that might be debated for hours: is air a product? There are many preparations in which air plays an important role, even though it has never been treated as a cooking ingredient, but the creation of foams in 1994 certainly gave it star status. <br><br> What in fact characterises foams is their airy texture, their lightness, and the fact that they have more air than traditional mousses. The mission of the siphon is to blow air into the preparation with the help of N2O capsules that charge this utensil. Without the magic of the siphon, without the intervention of this gas that is not only harmless but also tasteless, foams would not be possible. Air is an essential element for obtaining these foams for which we feel a particular fondness, and for this reason we think that it deserves to be included in the family of products with soul. <br> <hr noshade size="2" color="#666666"> <table border="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_381.jpg"></td> <td><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_4833.jpg"></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_1999.jpg"></td> <td><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_7110.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">Foams arrived in 1994, but they had undergone a lengthy germination phase. The only reason that this preparation did not come to fruition until then was because of technical problems, as we did not know how to achieve this texture that we dreamed about, and if we had the right tool, our dream would come true. Early experiments were carried out in 1991-1992 in Xavier Medina Campeny’s workshop, but after some amusing domestic disasters, the ony thing that we knew was that gas was essential to reap success in this aspect. The appearance of the siphon in our kitchen was to give us the solution, but even then it was not so simple. <br> <br> </td></tr> <td valign="top"> </td> <td> In 1993, our dear friend Antoni Escribà brought us back from Switzerland a gadget that we called “the phantom siphon” because it was always getting lost. After buying a set of CO2 capsules, we attempted to make our first foams, but we knew nothing about gases at that time, and the foams we obtained seemed fermented to us. Strangely enough, we went back to CO2 in 2001 for our mojito and carrot soda. In any case, these discouraging results caused the “phantom siphon” to be banished to the cupboard. <br> <br></td></tr> <td valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_829.jpg"></td> <td> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_6625.jpg" hspace="5" align="left"> In the winter of 1993-1994, while we were helping our friend Eduard Roigé to draw up the menu of the restaurant Bel-Air in Barcelona, a customer asked for a dessert with whipped cream. To our surprise, the cream was served in the kitchen with a gadget they took out of the fridge, from which whipped cream emerged by pressing a lever at the top. Suddenly we saw the light, and we reckoned that this siphon might solve the foams problem. So we borrowed the siphon, and in a matter of just a few days, our dream became a reality. <br> <br> Now, when we look back on that time, it is hard to believe how long we used this siphon "full stop," the name we gave it to distinguish it from the ISI siphon that came to El Bulli in 1997. The siphon “full stop” was charged from a bulky cylinder containing N2O, and it was a sizeable gadget which meant that ease of service from it left a lot to be desired. Even so, for three years we were inventing foams and serving them from that lovable monstrosity. The ridiculous thing was that when the ISI siphon arrived in 1997, we realised it was very similar to the "phantom siphon" that we used to charge with CO2, and that if we had used N2O instead, we would almost certainly have adopted it instead of our siphon "full stop".</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1141577940/gallery_29805_2457_1187.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138590929/gallery_29805_2457_7783.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">At this stage of the game, so much has been written about foams in the gourmet media (and even the general press) that it only remains for us to mention the brief history of this preparation, which is a technique and a concept at the same time. Cold foams were hatched in the El Bulli kitchen on March 19th 1994, the year the development squad project started. <br> <br> Since 1990 we had been nurturing the idea of achieving a lighter mousse, in which the product’s flavour would be much more intense than in traditional mousses. The idea came to us while we were in a specialist fruit juice bar and we noticed the foam that formed in the top part of the glass. Between 1990 and 1993 we conducted a good many tests, some as crazy as the ones we did in Xavier Medina Campeny’s workshop (see elBulli1983-1993), but it was not until 1994 that we reached a satisfactory outcome. <br> <br> For this, the crucial moment was when the siphon came into our hands, the utensil that enabled us to turn our dream into a reality (see The siphon “full stop”, page 90). Our first test involved putting a consommé into the siphon; when it came out, it had maintained its consistency, and we thought that this was because of the natural gelatin contained in the consommé. Therefore, if any product did not gel naturally, we could always add gelatin leaves, something that had not occurred to us the year before during the tests with the “phantom siphon” our friend Antoni Escribà had brought us. <br> <br> And this is what we did with a white bean purée on that fateful 19th of March 1994. The first foam served at our tables was this one, accompanied by sea urchins. The same year we made foams out of beetroot, coriander and almonds. These preparations began life in the savoury world, but once we discovered their potential, their migration to sweet preparations was only a matter of time. In 1994, we only made coconut foam, the first in a long series that we began to prepare from the following year onwards. <br> <br> Foams were born with the intention of using only the juice or purée of the product in question, without the addition of cream, eggs or other fats that might diminish the flavour. As time went on, we began to realise that on the one hand there was the philosophy of foams, but on the other hand we had a marvellous gadget, the siphon, which provided us with innumerable possibilities: creams, meringues, extremely light mousses that were easy to prepare, and so on. Today we would probably call anything that comes from the use of the siphon, a “foam”. <br> <br> Of course, foams are very well known today, and hundreds of chefs serve them in their restaurants. It remains to be seen whether they will be so important in twenty or thirty years’ time. As for the controversy surrounding them, we still find it hard to understand why criticisms have been so harsh. Current results lead us to claim, without hesitation, that there are good foams and foams that are not so good, in the same way as there are mousses with varying degrees of success. </td> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></font><hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"> <font size="-2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is the second part in a multi-part series. Part one is here.<br> El Bulli books may be purchased here.<br><br> Our thanks to Juli Soler for his invaluable assistance in this project. <br> Copyright Ferran Adria, Juli Soler, Albert Adria ©2006. <br> Photographs by Francesc Guillamet. <br> Art by Dave Scantland, after a photograph by Francesc Guillamet.<br> Introduction to part one by Pedro Espinosa.<br> <br> </font></td></tr> </table> </body> </html>

Rut roh...just saw this article on NYTimes.com about the NY health departments concerns over sous vide. I'm thinking more temporary setback/annoyance than real problem. Thoughts?

I have a question-Alinea or Moto? Having trouble deciding. Taking my dad to Chicago in June, he's open to anything foodwise.

I've been trying to track down a source to purchase gellan. I have a few of Wylie Dufresne's recipes and he uses a lot of it. A search on google proved fruitless. Anyone know where you can get this fermented gum? Thanks in advance.

<img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_23208.jpg" width="324" height="285" hspace="5" align="left">Few chefs and restaurants have documented their creations with the detail and systematic approach that Ferran Adria, Juli Soler and Albert Adria have taken. The trilogy El Bulli 1983 - 2002, which will be followed by a new volume (already published in Spanish) documenting the years 2003 and 2004, gives unique insight into the history of El Bulli -- which is to say a unique insight into the avant garde movement. <br> <br> Taking advantage of the upcoming publication of the volume corresponding to the period 1994 -1997 in English, French and German, we present a series of four excerpts: what happened at El Bulli during 1994, and a peek at the style developed in 1995 that revolutionized cooking: deconstruction. Twelve years later, much of what the El Bulli team created has been adopted in high-end cuisine the world over. We'll learn how products are analyzed; how senses are used as a starting point for creativity; how the frontiers between preparations in savory and sweet dishes began to blur; and the philosophy behind El Bulli service and dining. Finally, we'll learn how one of El Bulli's most pervasive techniques came to be: 1994 is the year of the first foam. <br> <br> Controversy, challenge of the established mindset, and cuisine have always gone hand in hand at El Bulli. To this day, foams and deconstruction are questioned in some circles, though their creation dates back more than ten years. I'm sure that the members of the eGullet Society will find food for thought in this series. And of course, food for discussion. </font><br> <br><hr noshade size="2" color="#666666"> <table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <tr> <td><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_381.jpg"></td> <td><img width="497" height="69" src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_7255.jpg"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_1128.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="middle"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Our reflections on products led us to develop a work system that all chefs use to a greater or lesser degree, but which at that time we decided to take to its ultimate consequences. This was something as simple as going to the market and buying a product, not for the daily requirements of the restaurant, but in order to study it, to try and understand all its characteristics, and then get as much use as we could out of it. A product should be touched, turned over, looked at from all angles, as a sushi expert does with a tuna fish, in order to assimilate its shape, density, weight, volume and so on. <br> <br> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138577531/gallery_29805_2457_4028.jpg" hspace="5" vspace="0" align="left">Here is an example to illustrate this process: the mango. We know that it is a tropical fruit, which tells us that it is available all year round. It has a wide range of flavours and subtle features, reminiscent of the peach, the banana or the passion fruit, while at the same time it is easy to combine with other flavours because of its balance between acidity and sugar. There are some sixty varieties, and in each one there is a distinction between the mango (male), fibrous, smaller and tastier (usually used to make purees) and the manga (female) which, because it has a more pulpy texture, is easier to manipulate. It can be zested (and the skin mixed with mango puree to take advantage of its resinous flavour), and it is then that we see that, unlike other fruits, it does not go brown, which increases its usage potential. Because of its size, we can cut it up in various ways: julienne, matchsticks, brunoise, etc. It can be sliced, and if we do so thinly with the slicer, we see that its texture is similar to pasta al dente. This may lead us to treat it as a new pasta and shape it into tagliatelli, ravioli and so on. In addition, a mango puree could give rise to a good many preparations: sorbets, foams, coulis, etc. The example of the mango could be expanded even further, and perfectly illustrates a way of observing products that is of great use to us for developing creative ideas.<br> <br> </font></td> </tr><tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_2444.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until recently, it was a given that going to a gourmet restaurant meant eating products that were expensive: caviar, foie gras, truffles, lobster and other products that had become veritable myths of cuisine. We too had this view of haute cuisine, but in 1994 we began to consider the scant logic of this concept if it is thought about completely objectively. In fact, the price of a product is set by the law of supply and demand: if the product is scarce and much sought after, its price is high; if there is a glut, and not many people want it, then it is cheap, with all possible conditions in between. This is how the situation stands. A good example of this phenomenon is salmon, which was the luxury fish par excellence until salmon farming began a few years ago. Since then, its consumption has spread widely and it is affordable to a large public today. <br> <br> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138577531/gallery_29805_2457_5867.jpg" hspace="5" vspace="0" align="left">This new perspective opened our eyes to the fact that every product, regardless of its price, is magnificent as long as it is of good quality, and can play a role as important as any other product. A young almond does not enjoy the same gourmet prestige as a Norway lobster in traditional terms, but we believe that both products have the same culinary value. So we decided that as far as we were concerned, a sardine was as important as a sea bass, or an artichoke as a truffle, and that what should govern our choices was sensibility, not price or prestige. This does not mean to say that we place little value on products that, like truffles, caviar or many others, we consider to be divine. <br> <br> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_1066.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As stated previously, from 1994 onwards our evaluation of a product was focussed not so much on its gastronomic prestige as on its flavour characteristics -- the features that made up its individuality or, to borrow a term that should only be applied to humans, its personality. In El Bulli we have called this set of a product's refinements and characteristics, the product's "gene". For example, this "gene" is what enables us to taste asparagus and identify its flavour, to be aware that it is, in fact, asparagus. <br> <br>Our memory stores data about the various product "genes", thanks to which we can tell what we are eating. Some products have a very strong personality and only a small amount needs to be eaten to tell us what they are. For example, spices and aromatic herbs have a stronger flavour concentration than other products. Furthermore, it is easier to tell half a dozen vegetables apart than half a dozen types of fish. <br><br>This way of looking at things came to us along with the previously-mentioned assessment of products. In El Bulli we began to accentuate this "gene" in 1994, in an attempt to highlight its characteristics, and we decided that it was a priority for us to preserve this personality even when we submitted the product to manipulation or preparation. For example, we had always dreamt about making a basil jelly with as much or more flavour than a fresh sprig of basil, or an asparagus sorbet with as much flavour as the vegetable in its natural state.<br><br> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_840.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In 1997 we mentioned in Los secretos de El Bulli the existence in Roses of a magnificent restaurant. Luckily, Rafa is still running his establishment, and we still go there when we want to eat fish that tastes only of fish. In the book, we said that Rafa's cooking, thanks to the honest flavours he was able to extract, was something we could learn from. We might say that the most important thing in his cooking was to preserve the pure flavour of the product. <br> <br> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_4165.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">These reflections were in response to ideas that we had every now and then between 1983 and 1993, particularly regarding molluscs, cooking vegetables, shellfish, fish etc. on the griddle, and they caused us to review a good many habits in preparing certain foods. For example, molluscs and crustaceans are usually overcooked, when in fact this reduces the intensity of their flavour, no matter how delicious the accompanying sauce is. Overcooked meat, fruit and vegetables consumed out of season (that is to say, often after they have been in cold storage, which reduces their freshness, aroma and flavour), or canned truffles, lacking all the aromatic potency of this product, are just some examples of customs which, if we want to be true to our philosophy and fully respect the flavour intensity of each product, should be looked at again. In fact, we are getting used to doing this in our daily life with certain products that do not have all the flavour that potentially they could have. This is a pity, but it is so true that perhaps when we taste a product whose flavour characteristics are intact, we may find that it has "too much" flavour. 1994 marked a change in this respect, as the sporadic concerns of previous years came together in an idea that we have been applying ever since.</font><br> <br></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_2389.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138577531/gallery_29805_2457_8436.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">When trying to understand a product it is essential to know how it can be consumed and the best way of preserving its original flavour. There are three ways of consuming a product: raw, cooked and by modifying its texture. The first way enables one to appreciate its original flavour and texture, and in many cases this is the usual way: oysters, fruit, certain vegetables, etc. By means of the second method, the product is cooked in some way. If the cooking time is short, the final flavour will be nearer the original (griddled, barbecued, sautéed). Long cooking tends to remove the natural element from most flavours (casseroles, stews, etc.) and although the result may be appealing, it could be said that the product’s “gene” has been overmodified. <br><br> The third way of consuming a product is perhaps the most complex. It consists of preparing and modifying its texture (soups, jellies, foams, sorbets, ice creams, mousses, etc.) while attempting to preserve as much as possible its original flavour. It has been claimed that a prepared product can never beat the perfect flavour of the original, but this should not be taken as gospel. Sometimes a new texture is just as pleasing as the product in its raw state. Back in 1992 we set out on this path with our cold jellies and liquidised soups; by 1994 (with foams, savoury sorbets, etc.) products in prepared textures were incorporated in a big way and started to become a feature of our cuisine.<br> <br> Finally, two observations. Firstly, there was criticism for a while of this idea of preparing products in textures other than their original state in the savoury world, even though this was common in the world of desserts. Nobody claims that a pear jelly, banana sorbet or raspberry mousse perverts the product’s flavour and yet the opposite seems to apply in the savoury world. This does not mean that we must only offer prepared products; there should always be a balance in a menu. <br><br> Secondly, there are products that have been prepared and become other products, often as pleasing as the unprepared product or even more so. One only has to think of tinned molluscs, which offer two completely different flavours (either prepared in this way or au naturel), or a product as singular as wine, the result of a preparation that is so sophisticated that one almost forgets the grapes. </font><br> <br></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_2716.jpg"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138590929/gallery_29805_2457_27896.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">Up to 1993, our relationship with dairy products had given rise to a few results, as we attempted to understand the characteristic of each product. It was probably parmesan whey that led us to analyse dairy products in a different way, and this opened up a broad range of uses, no longer limited to just textures. Thus, in 1994 we began to use yoghurt as a sauce, brie and other soft cheeses as a soup, or mascarpone as a sort of garnish. In addition, some of these dairy products enabled us to introduce a touch of sourness, which was added to our range of flavours</font>. <br> <br></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_226.jpg" align="bottom"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1138577531/gallery_29805_2457_2935.jpg" hspace="5" align="left">From the moment we began to think of playing with basic flavours in our cuisine, we started to broaden the range of ingredients that could be used in the sweet or savoury world. In our culinary milieu, it is quite clear at what point in the meal savoury or sweet dishes are served. The development of the symbiosis between both worlds in our cuisine opened our eyes as to how relative these dogmas can be. <br><br> In fact, when we analysed a series of products that were usually consumed in the savoury world or in the sweet world, we realised that their usage was somewhat bound by convention. Marrows, carrots, tomatoes, peas or beetroots are more sweet than savoury, yet until recently they had appeared mostly in savoury dishes. Our contribution was to look for the necessary harmony for them to be included in sweet dishes effectively. It is true that some fruits had already often been used in the savoury world: oranges, pears, apples, grapes and plums. But there was room for further diversification: raspberries or passion fruits, which possess acidic properties similar to those of lemons, could replace them in a good many savoury dishes. Lychees are similar to grapes, mangoes can replace peaches, providing their own character. The possibilities are endless. All one has to do is rid oneself of one’s prejudices and concentrate on the intrinsic flavour properties of each product. </font><br> <br></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="right"> <hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"></td></tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="top"><img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1139674845/gallery_29805_2457_671.jpg" align="top"></td> <td valign="top"><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Product association had been one of our main creative methods up to 1993. We had thoroughly systematised and explored it, and we established the foundations for certain flavour combinations which had accompanied us and had been added to over the years. In 1994, our creative approach focussed on other methods (mainly the search for new concepts and techniques), but we were still open to new discoveries. One of these was really interesting: the combination of molluscs and fruit provided us with a superb contrast between the savoury and sometimes slightly bitter flavour of the former and the sweetness and acidity of certain fruits. This happy alliance between two families resulted that year in our rock mussels with coriander foam (with a blood orange reduction), cold/hot clam chop suey (with lychees), and scallops in holy oil with mushrooms and redcurrants. </font><br><br></td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2"><hr size="1" noshade color="#333333"> <font size="-2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is the first part in a multi-part series. Part two is here.<br> El Bulli books may be purchased here.<br><br> Our thanks to Juli Soler for his invaluable assistance in this project. <br> Copyright Ferran Adria, Juli Soler, Albert Adria © 2006. Photographs by Francesc Guillamet. <br> Introduction by Pedro Espinosa.<br> </font></td></tr> </table>

Pics at Chez Pim

I received an email from jessica's biscuit yesterday advertising the above book. Does anyone know it? I have McGee but will this add a further dimension? Thanks, Woods

I just got back from the Madrid Fusión. Many of the greatest were there. The Americans Thomas Keller and Charlie Trotter and the Spanish Juan Mari Arzak and Martin Berasateguí, among many other star chefs, gathered in Madrid last week to talk food. But the biggest star of all at the fourth annual Madrid Fusión, widely regarded as the world’s most important gastronomic forum, was Ferrán Adrià, chef-owner of El Bulli restaurant, who has done for haute cuisine what the iPod did for music fans: nothing short of triggering a revolution. Adrià’s signature (and now ubiquitous) savoury foams are only one of numerous inventions (think liquid ravioli, powdered foie gras, edibles “papers” and “airs”), many copied all over the foodie world, which have changed the way we look at haute cuisine. Today, a many years after he began whipping potato foam out of pressurized canisters, his followers have spread his gospel of science-inspired, defiant, playful food, from New York to São Paulo, from Chicago to Lima. The breadth and ever-growing relevance of Adrià-style inventive cuisine, typically a succession of small servings of interestingly textured concoctions, some kookier than others, has snowballed in recent years, achieving the status of a true revolution. Some of today’s best chefs, like England’s Heston Blumenthal and the American Grant Achatz, are not only converts, but are actually pushing the style in their own different directions. Yet this movement still has no name. The American specialized press recently started calling it “molecular gastronomy”, a term coined in the eighties by Nicholas Kurti, a gastro-scientist at Oxford University. But alas, the name hasn’t stuck. In his opening-day presentation at the Madrid Fusión, Adrià challenged the crowd to come up with a term for the food revolution which he personifies and leads. In the audience, Trotter, Keller and Homaru Cantu (a Chicago-based prodigy), among many other chefs, listened attentively. Adrià scoffed at the term “molecular gastronomy”: “Not only does that make food sound unnapetizing, but it only refers to one aspect of what we are doing at El Bulli today”. He then unveiled a 23-point manifesto defining more clearly what this movement is about (or rather, what El Bulli’s food is about). He conceded that “… the collaboration with experts from different fields, (like) industrial design and science, is primordial”, but refused having himself or his followers pigeonholed as “mad scientists of the kitchen”. To demonstrate that Ferranism goes much beyond experiments in a lab, he stated, for instance, that “cooking is a language through which one can express harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation”. The manifesto also underlined the importance of team work in dish creation, the predominance of fish and vegetables over red meat, small over large portions, fast versus slow cooking times and new flavours of milks (of nuts) and distillations (of earth or fruits) over classical broths. Here are all 23 points of Ferran's manifesto: 1- Cooking is a language through which one can express harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation. 2- One may assume that only top-quality products will be used and that the techniques used to prepare dishes will be well-mastered. 3- All products have the same gastronomic worth, regardless of price. 4- We prefer to cook with vegetables and seafood. Dairy also predominates, as well as dried fruits and other products that amount to a light cuisine. We rarely cook large cuts of red meat or whole birds. 5- Even if the characteristics of products are changed (temperature, texture, shape, etc.), the goal is to preserve its original flavour, except when slow-cooking or when searching for the matrix resulting from reactions such as Maillard’s. 6- Cooking methods, both classical and modern, are a heritage that the cook must utilize to the maximum extent. 7- As happened throughout the past in other fields of human knowledge, new technologies support the progress of gastronomy. 8- The family of fonds is expanding, and alongside the classic ones we use lighter broths (flavoured waters, consimmés, clarified vegetable juices, milks of dried fruits or nuts) in similar ways. 9- The information that is on a plate is enjoyed through all senses, and also through reflexion. 10- The stimuli of the senses are not only taste-related: we can also play with the senses of touch (contrast of temperatures and textures), smell, sight (colours, shapes, illusionisms, etc), so that the senses become one of our points of reference when we create dishes. 11- The techno-conceptual search is one of the cornerstones of the creative pyramid. 12- We create as a team. 13- The boundary separating savoury and sweet is blurred. There’s a rise in the importance of savoury ice creams and cold food in general. 14- The classical structure of dishes is being ruptured. There is a revolution in the appetizers and desserts, in the sense that they have become symbiotic, while the appetizer - main course – dessert hierarchy is broken. 15- A new way of presenting food is gaining strength. 16- A chef’s cooking style is linked to his feelings towards his surroundings. 17- The products and preparations from other countries are submitted to our cuisine’s own criteria. 18- There are two main ways to reach harmony between products and flavours: through memory (deconstructing, links to the autonomous cook, adaptation, previous modern recipes), or through new combinations. 19- Our food is connected to the world and the language of the arts. 20- Recipes are conceived to be served in small portions. 21- Taking a dish out of context, or using irony, performance or spectacle is perfectly acceptable, as long as this is not done in a superficial way, and so that there is a link with gastronomic reflexion. 22- The tasting menu is how we express our avant-garde cuisine. Its structure is alive, and is subject to change. We are betting on concepts such as snacks, tapas, morphings, etc. 23- The knowledge and/or the collaboration with experts from different fields (gastronomic culture, history, industrial design, science) is primordial in our evolution.

Admin: Split from the thread on sous vide recipes. Is anyone sick of this method, do we really need this type of cooking. I hate this method. If you can't cook, try, try again, and you're welcome for the helpful advice. If you think these fancy methods are going to make you a chef you are dead wrong.

Hi All, Grant Achatz, chef and owner of Alinea has graciously agreed to answer a few of our questions. He'll log-in for several hours tomorrow evening and try to field as many questions as possible. Between now and then, please feel free to post your questions here. Again, he may not be able to get to all of them but if you've got something you'd like to ask chefg, now's your chance. Thanks and let those questions roll. =R=

[Moderator's note: this continues the topic Sous Vide: Recipes, Techniques & Equipment (Part 1)] I read in different books that turkey breasts have to be cooked to a temperature of 185 F, which is much higher than the water temperature indicated in Natham's charts for poultry. It is also much higher than others have used reading through this thread. Any suggestions, should I raise the temperature to 185 or cook it at 140F???

I've decided to start my own sous vide topic since I didn't want to hijack the "sous vide recipes" thread. If any moderator deems that this should be moved into something else, please feel free to do so. I think that my trials may prove valuable to others interested in sous vide cooking. Anyway, I'm home from colllege on winter break and am ready to tackle sous vide cooking. After reading through most of the eG threads on sous vide cooking I decided to purchase the requisite equipment a home cook might procure through eBay, QVC, or any other mixed-merchandise retailer. I hope to learn during my experiments and hope others chime in with advice, encouragement, suggestions, etc. I'm willing to try pretty much anything. The beginning of the madness can be seen here. In this post you'll find my equipment and a thread filled with a wealth of information on sous vide cooking. Tonight I tackled a few types of seafood at 46C with mixed success: Before: Scallops "U6-8" aka really huge shrimp Wild Alaskan King Salmon Eggs poaching at around 150F per Wylie from wd-50 I poached the seafood for about 45 minutes per nathanm's amazing charts in the sous vide recipes thread. I didn't really plate anything prettily since this was to be a pretty methodical tasting of the sous vide results. After: I found that the shrimp didn't quite turn all pink so I had to bust out the heat gun to finish most of them off. I also very quickly sauteed a couple of them over really high heat to bring a little bit of crispiness to the outer layer. I found that this worked quite well and yielded a very firm, very concentrated shrimp flavor with a pleasing but subtle texture difference. The scallops were my personal favorite. I quickly chilled them after the sous vide process then sauteed them very quickly (as per www.ideasinfood.com a fantastic food blog). This yielded a great, firm, custardy interior, but I think I should've cranked the heat higher in the searing process, as I would've liked more browning. I guess I was a little anxious and wanted to start eating. As others have notes, this salmon was very, very interesting. As you can tell, the cooked version doesn't look that different than the uncooked version. Still, it flaked very, umm, seductively. I felt the pepper I added somewhat overwhelmed the fish and it needed some soy sauce to round out the flavors. In general, the sous vide seafood turned out pretty well. I very much enjoyed the results, though my tasters, while loving the pure flavors, were ambivalent toward the textures that the process provided. For now, I'm blaming their subpar, uneducated palates, but I suppose I probably should consider catering to the tastes of others I was thinking that a really cool idea might be pre-slicing the salmon and scallops into nigiri zushi-style pieces and then cooking them sous vide in that form. The seafood on beds of vinegared rice might be more accesible to diners unaccustomed to slicing into a piece of salmon or scallops sous vide. Dressing this neo-sushi with a little sea salt and yuzu would be very, very tasty, I think. Finally, the eggs didn't quite turn out exactly how I wanted them to. They were still damn tasty but just not as gelatinous and runny as I had wanted. Next time I'll try poaching at 130F instead. Regardless, I used the eggs to top a kick ass salad of baby frisee, crisp bacon, and a dressing made from maple syrup, rendered bacon fat, and apple cider vinegar.

An interesting discussion has grown out of the topic on the restaurant Gilt in the New York Forum. stemming from the use of pine in various ways amongst contemporary avant-garde restaurants like Gilt, Alinea and WD-50 and past uses by people such as Michel Bras and Ferran Adria amongst others. This topic has been spun off to allow for further and deeper discussion about the development of these movements and similarities and differences between the Adria school of avant-garde cuisine as represented by the Adrias, Grant Achatz, Jose Andres, Wylie Dufresne, Homaro Cantu and others and the Molecular Gastronomy movement as evinced by people such as Herve This, Michel Bras and Pierre Gagnaire amongst others. Any insights into the history and development of these movements as well as similarities and differences will be appreciated and should allow for some interesting discussion. Specific written sources would be handy as well.

I'm willing to make some chocolate truffles - both white and dark - which I wanted to slice in very thin layers like if they were Alba or Perigord truffles. So I need to find a way to create either dark rays on the white ones and white rays on the dark ones. Anyone has a good idea to achieve that effect? Mixing ganaches like in a marble cake? On the other hand I would like to use the spherification procedure that Ferran Adriá's uses to make his melon fake caviar or his coffee fake caviar to do some "chocolate fake caviar". For that purpose he uses calcium chloride. Has anyone tried this with chocolate? At the end I would have a truffle and caviar desert, all made with chocolate (but without the truffle aroma...). To me it sounds funny anyway

Not long ago, a woman in front of me at the butcher shop asked for her purchase to be sealed up for sous vide. Apparently he is equipped for this and will seal it up if you ask. I hadn't known that my butcher offered this service. Can anyone tell me how common this is? I know that at the fois gras shops in Les Halles, they do this for you if you ask, but I'd never seen it at the butcher.

Can anyone illuminate me on the appeal of cooking meat by putting it in a plastic bag and boiling it? I've had this at many a (fine) restaurant and I fail to appreciate the ecstasy at which some seem to undergo when encountering (or offering) this preparation... Short of sounding absolutely ignorant, I realize that the technique affords great advantages to some products (like foie gras), but chicken? pork? Tender as they may be, I prefer a more natural way of "sealing" food - perhaps the age-old bladder or other non-porous offal I ask only because I wish that I could be "enlightened" and join the swooning masses when offered this preparation at a restaurant... U.E.

I've noted your three recipes in the new book that utilize the sous vide technique. There is also a rather active sous vide topic on the cooking forum. Was sous vide evident when you wrote the first edition of your book? Is this technique gaining momentum in the Southwestern France region? Is method employed in home cooking in the region, or is it still primarily a restaurant technique? Do you often use sous vide at home?

There seems to be a new TV program in the making as I bumped last week into Heston Blumenthal at lunch time in Katz's Deli in New York. He was accompanied with four cameras and all the paraphernalia and was having a lunch interview there. Hummm, let's see, so whats coming up on the menu: - Pastrami Ice Cream? - Corned Beef poached with peanut butter? - Salami Sorbet? Remember, you read it here first!

Potato Salad a la Zeughauskeller Serves 4 as Side. The Zeughauskeller (http://www.zeughauskeller.ch), located in the heart of Zurich, Switzerland, successfully straddles a very difficult divide between "tourist destination" and "locals' hangout". Once the cantonal armory, it now serves as a restaurant happily positioned just off one of the world's great shopping streets, the Bahnhofstrasse, and right by the busy Paradeplatz tram junction. Tourists probably know it best as the place with menus in nine languages -- a haven of big beer mugs and a wide spectrum of sausages, grills and Swiss specialties. Locals usually know it best as the kind of place where, when the furor of lunch dies down, you can sit and have a beer or a wine with a friend and gossip the afternoon away. But members of both groups may well know it for its potato salad. Though this recipe does contain mayonnaise, it doesn't need as much as some, since the mayo gets thickening assistance from the potatoes' own starch, drawn out of them by a dousing with boiling stock. The restaurant goes through approximately twenty tons of this potato salad each year. The Zeughauskeller's boss was kind enough to give us the recipe some years back...so here it is. This is an adaptation of the original, as most of us do not normally want to deal with twenty kilograms of potatoes at once. 3-3/4 lb Mealy potatoes 1 c beef stock 1 c chicken stock 1 small onion 1/2 oz fresh parsley Salad dressing 1/2 c Mayonnaise, fresh if possible 1/4 c Brown or yellow mustard, as you prefer (more if desired) (Because this preparation involves a prolonged session at room temperature while the stock and potatoes come into equilibrium, special attention must be given to making sure that the pots and pans involved are scrupulously clean. I normally freshly wash my pots and then scald them out with boiling water.) Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks -- quartering them seems to work well with smaller potatoes: if you have big ones, it probably makes more sense to chop them into eighths. Cook in boiling salted water until "almost ready". (This is obviously very subjective: I go for the equivalent of "al dente".) Drain, trying to retain in the pan any starch that has come off the potatoes while boiling: but get rid of as much as possible of the water. Bring the stocks to boiling and pour them over the potatoes. Allow the potatoes to rest in the stock for 45 minutes. Finely chop the parsley and onion: add them to the mixture and toss them together, letting them sit for five or ten minutes further to bring out the flavor. Then mix in the dressing. Serve faintly warm. Keywords: Side, Intermediate, Potatoes, German ( RG1429 )

I was in Australia earlier this year and did a few wine tours over there and not one winery charged for tastings, from the big Aussie wine conglomerates down to the mom and pops, every tasting was free. Some had limits, like 3 tastes per person, but they were still free. However, in Niagara, they charge a "nominal" fee (at least the ones I visited). But if you think about it, it's not that nominal. For example, I visited Chateau de Charmes and they charged $1 for about 1 oz of wine. A 750mL bottle has about 25 ounces so you're looking at an equivalent of about $25 bottle for that $1 tasting, which is more than the retail price the wine! Not very good QPR.

Can somebody shed some light on this subject for me, please. Ive seen that Ludavic at Bastide also does it. Any comments will help -

The time is coming... Anyone know for sure the date and time yet? Can't wait and it's probably what... a year away from actually eating the food (if I get lucky).