Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Chefs As Chemists

Posted by kdawson on from the you-want-agar-agar-with-that dept.

circletimessquare writes "Using ingredients usually relegated to the lower half of the list of ingredients on a Twinkies wrapper, some professional chefs are turning themselves into magicians with food. Ferran Adrià in Spain and Heston Blumenthal in England have been doing this for years, but the New York Times updates us on the ongoing experiments at WD-50 in New York City. Xanthan Gum, agar-agar, and other hydrocolloids are being used to bring strange effects to your food. Think butter that doesn't melt in the oven, foie gras you can tie into knots, and fried mayonnaise."

11 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. How is this different than a food chemist? by schnikies79 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a couple friends that went into food chemistry after undergrad. I thought about it but decided to stick with organic chemisty.

    --
    Gone!
    1. Re:How is this different than a food chemist? by Curmudgeonlyoldbloke · · Score: 4, Funny

      About 50 quid a head.

    2. Re:How is this different than a food chemist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Remember, cooking is an art, baking is a science.

        And in the south, frying is a religion. Thank you! I'll be here all night.

    3. Re:How is this different than a food chemist? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

      That ice cream was spooky stuff though. We tried some at university at a meeting of the Socialist Workers Party. All the people who ate it now work for the Conservative Party. Some of the girls turned up with blue rinse hair and pearls before the end of the week.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. You know someone read your post by Dorceon · · Score: 3, Funny

    and immediately tried to brew basil coffee, right?

    --
    What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
  3. Re:Old old old by WombatDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

    I saw some of Heston's latest BBC series. Very entertaining but perhaps not entirely practical - in one of his recipes he made ice cream using liquid nitrogen, and his suggestion for the home enthusiast was to use dry ice instead. I like ice cream as much as the next man, but not to the extent that I'm willing to live through bad 80s disco all over again.

  4. What did you think of these "chemists"? by iminplaya · · Score: 4, Funny

    They were delicious!

    --
    What?
  5. WD-40 by davidc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Okay, hands up those who read that as WD-40.

  6. Re:Two cents worth... by UncleTogie · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's nothing but a new name for an age old process. The process of adding heat to reagents (a.k.a. cooking) is in itself a chemical process.
    The whole "molecular gastronomy" trend is simply applying the same strategy to "warm" dishes.

    ...which is why I included it in quotes as well. Slapping lipstick on a pig does NOT make it Natalie Portman.

    Paris Hilton, maybe, but not Portman.

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  7. I'm trying not to. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Think butter that doesn't melt in the oven, foie gras you can tie into knots, and fried mayonnaise.

    I don't want to think about butter that doesn't melt in the oven, or foie gras in knots ... and I especially don't want to think too much about fried mayonnaise. Cripes, talk about adding insult to injury.

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  8. TV Dinners by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny
    "I even like the chicken if the sauce is not too blue." -- ZZ Top

    For some reason, this is the first thing that popped into my head when I read TFA.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.