Molecular Gastronomy

Often there’s nothing more satisfying and delicious than food in its natural form: an apple picked fresh from the tree, a sweet garden strawberry, eating a freshly harvested oyster on a boat, a quality grilled steak seasoned with only salt and pepper or nibbling on a locally farm raised carrot on my walk home from the Farmers Market. 

Nevertheless, as chefs, home cooks and lovers of food, we can also explore mixing flavors to create recipes, trying new techniques and presentations with the hope of adding to the pleasures of the edible.

The term “Molecular Gastronomy” was originally intended to refer to only the science and investigation of cooking. These days the term is used to describe a style of cuisine. Catalan chefs Ferran Adria and Jose Andres are the most well known among those working in this realm – even lecturing at Harvard these days – although any respectable food city now has at least one place exploring these techniques.

I enjoy playing with food, I did the research and did my best in searching recipes and gathering what supplies I needed. I have not broken any new ground but it’s a start in what I hope to eventually feel comfortable adding to my repertoire. 

Some experiments failed and some did not taste so great but after failures, I did more research and went back at it. It’s fun to play with food and it’s also fun to enjoy food that’s been played with. 

Some of the ingredients used

Sodium Citrate

Calicum Chloride

Sodium Alginate

Soy Lecithin (powder and liquid)

                                                Xantham Gum

                                                Agar Agar

                                                    

Photos

Wine ravioli bubble served on a cracker with my homemade goat cheese mozarella.

Carrot juice caviar in the making

A batch of carrot juice caviar

Carrot juice raviolis and caviar. cranberry caviar and wine ravioli

Pineapple foam

Frozen pineapple foam that we topped our rum cocktails with

Rum sheets