Molecular Gastronomy

 Molecular gastronomy is the next big thing and it's also known as the modern cuisine, but what is it really?  Molecular gastronomy is a food science that changes the physical and or chemical component of the food.  There are three parts to molecular gastronomy including, social, artistic and technical.  This style of cooking, that is now its own cuisine, is used to trick the mind.  From chicken that looks like rice, and cherries that taste like strawberries, molecular gastronomy deceives your mind to think you're eating something, but it ends up tasting like a completely different food. Molecular gastronomy isn't the same as food science, which is analyzing the chemical makeup of food and developing a method to make or process the food on an industrial scale. Molecular gastronomy may be considered a branch of food science though, as it uses the same study of chemical makeups of food, but uses it on a much smaller scale, to change the foods physical form, for a mouth punching flavor, and amazing visual appeal.  

Albert Adria is one of the best molecular gastronomy chefs.  "El Bulli" was the restaurant that began the modernist cuisine.  It was opened by Albert Adria and his brother.  For 23 years, Albert was in the background as the pastry chef and received little to no credit, when the restaurant found fame.  Once he found passion outside of the pastry kitchen, he got the voice to become Albert Adria and not "the brother of."  He then opened a now famous restaurant named "Tickets".  His whole goal when he opened it, was to blow your mind with food, he wanted reactions; "face pauses, maybe there's a frown, there's moments hesitation, moments of confusion and then there's this explosion of delight." (Matt Goulding, Editor of Roads & Kingdoms)  Tickets is still open today in Spain, and has one Michelin Star as of 2018.  Albert Adria is by far my favorite chef, I find his story inspiring and of course I love what he does with food!

There are a lot of things you can do with molecular gastronomy from foamed potatoes to frozen parmesan air.  I think the most common and also the easiest form of molecular gastronomy is known as "caviar."  No fish eggs involved, this just refers to the spherification process, that looks like caviar.  This is done using a unique powder similar to gelatin, called Agar Agar.  This powder is made from a red algae, and begins to gel when boiled with a liquid.  I've done this many times before in competitions, but if you just want to impress some house guests, this is actually super simple to do!  In the past I've made spherified honey, raspberry puree, and just recently, deconstructed peanut butter and jelly, where the jelly was spherified using this process.  I'll post the recipe for the spherified honey below, but the technique is pretty much the same for all spherified foods.  This can be done to anything that can be made into a liquid.  I find that sphered foods are good for a burst of flavor, and presentation.  On a dessert you could use spherified raspberry puree, with a dark chocolate mousse or cake.  For a dinner plate you could spherify a sauce perhaps to go with the protein of the meal, but whatever it is should be very flavorful so it has a purpose on the plate.  The process is done by using a syringe or dropper to drop the Agar Agar mixture into VERY cold oil, which will cause them to set into a somewhat solid sphere, then remove them from the oil and place them in VERY cold water, to remove the excess oil.  The Agar Agar, works like gelatin when it's boiled it will begin to thicken and become a gel like texture.  Then the syringe will cause it to come out in single droplets, making them the perfect sphere shape. 

The method is simple:
Start by adding 1/3 cup water and 2 grams of Agar Agar powder to a small saucepan and bring it to a boil, while stirring. 
Once it comes to a boil, transfer it to a small bowl and let it cool, this should cause it to thicken, it should still be thin enough that you can draw it into a syringe. 
In small batched draw the mixture into a syringe or dropper, and let it slowly drip into cold oil, it should fall to the bottom and in seconds become a somewhat solid sphere. 
Once it's set, about 2-3 minutes, using a slotted spoon remove the spheres from the oil, and place them in cold water to remove the excess oil.
Be sure to stir them a few times in the oil as they drop, and also after you've placed them in the water.  If you don't they may stick together. 
Again I'll have the whole recipe for the honey spheres below, but that process can be altered to make anything into a sphere by adding, fruit or vegetable puree, liquefied jelly, sauces, stock, sugar, chocolate, anything you can make a liquid, you can make a sphere. 
This is the video of a sophomore making spherified jelly using this process,  the video isn't great and there's a lot of background noise, but he explains how the agar-agar powder works.

Complete Recipe Click Below

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Spherified Honey

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