Will Spanish avant-garde cuisine, as epitomized by the creations of legendary El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià, stand the test of time? Lisa Abend ponders spherified mango "caviar" and Parmesan "air" in Slate. Some critics criticize the reliance on form over substance, Abend writes, and feel that intellectually-driven, techno-heavy cuisine has gone as far as it's going to go.
Abend catalogers the signs that's Spanish molecular gastronomy is, like, totally over: foams are everywhere (when nondescript hotel restaurants are serving chorizo foam, it's probably not cool anymore); new kits of algin and xantham gum allow home cooks to make their own solidified squid ink (some logic: mass accessibility = no longer cool); popular chefs like Mario Batali and Mark Bittman are into it (same logic again).
I don't know, I suspect if the foodie elite is tiring of laser-caramelized paper and liquid nitrogen beet "balloons," chefs will just come up with something more innovatively weird. Abend also thinks so, but she doubts that diners are game for platinum-coated oysters, and may be ready for some real food.
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