Not every home cook is content with working with the usual tools of the home kitchen, especially not if they follow the ideas and techniques of molecular gastronomists like Grant Achatz or Ferran Adria (or Steven and Marcel from Top Chef, for that matter). Wired has come up with a gift list for cooks interested in practicing nanogastronomy in their own home.
The first, and most obvious, gift that they suggest is a trip to one of the havens of molecular gastronomy, like El Bulli in Spain, Alinea or Moto in Chicago, WD-50 in New York, or The Fat Duck in England. Heston Blumenthal's Kitchen Chemistry includes a cd with video clips to help provide visuals for the technical information included in the book. Once the basics are in place, all the would-be chef needs are tools. Try an insulated whipped cream maker for experimenting with hot and cold mousses, a vacuum sealer for sous vide cooking or a dehydrator (also useful for raw foodists who need gifts) for turning otherwise wet foods into powders and garnishes.
Cheese Course: Brebis Pardou
A transcendent summer tomato salad
Sliced bread turns 80 today
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-06-2006 @ 2:09PM
Tobias said...
Cooking, like any science, depends on reliable measurement of fundamental phenomena.
Reply
12-06-2006 @ 4:53PM
Buck Q. Fitch said...
I have both also, and I wholeheartedly endorse the CO2 charger. In my opinion the whipped cream from it is vastly superior to hand or mixer whipping. The cream is extra light and fluffy. I can see a problem with texture if you shake the canister too much before dispensing.
Reply
12-06-2006 @ 7:02PM
rainey said...
Love my vacuum sealer but I've found that the CO2 cartridges that you have to use in the whipped cream spritzers give the cream a weirdness. It's not awful or anything but it's definitely inferior to hand or mixer whipped cream which, after all, isn't very hard or time consuming to do.
Reply
12-06-2006 @ 8:04PM
Mike said...
CO2 (Carbon dioxide )is used for making seltzer water, N2O (Nitrous oxide) is used for making whipped cream.
I've never had whipped cream made with CO2, but that might taste odd.
http://www.isinorthamerica.com/foodservice/chargers.shtml
Reply