"FerranAdrià" news and stories

At El Bulli, Spanish chef Ferran Adrià became known for his chemistry-aided feats of culinary daring, creating dishes such as frozen foie-gras noodles, Parmesan "snow" and meat foam.

But lately, Adrià has undertaken his most challenging project to date: creating a Spanish beer that actually tastes good.

While Spain may excel at soccer, it lags behind in brewing: The lion's share of Spanish beers are light, easy-drinking lagers, the sort of hot-day brews that we buy in a 30-pack and bring to a backyard BBQ. Thirst-quenching quantity, not quality. In other words, beers that didn't do justice to Adrià's jaw-dropping foods.

To rectify the situation, Adrià and El Bulli sommeliers, along with Spanish brewers Damm, devised Inedit as an ideal dinner-table drink. Brewed with a blend of malt and wheat, Inedit is flavored with licorice, orange peel and coriander, which is the normal ingredient bill for a Belgian witbier. Furthermore, Inedit's profile -- faint fruit flavor, yeasty bouquet, subtle sweetness -- is surprisingly standard fare. Is it as paradigm-shifting as Adrià's eats? Not even close. It's drinkable, sure, but not worth a double-digit price tag -- or a seat at dinner.

Frankly, Adrià, after creating frozen chocolate air, I expect a bit more innovation. For that, I guess I must rely on American brewers like Dogfish Head.

Move over Ferran Adrià. Northern China has its own version of molecular gastronomy: hand-pulled noodles. Well not quite, but the above clip of Chef Mark Pi is fascinating not only because of the sheer craftsmanship required to, er, pull off such a feat, but because of the science lesson the narrator gives.

Physicist Philip Morrison gives us noodle making as a way of discussing the size, particularly the thickness, of atoms. He states: "We approach the division of matter...by halving and halving and halving it again." This point is clearly demonstrated by Chef Pi's demonstration of hand-pulling dragon's beard noodles. After folding the noodles a dozen times he's created 4,096 ultrathin strands. Morrison points out that if the venerable chef had managed 42 times his noodles would have reached atomic thickness.

Incidentally, this vid comes from a 1987 PBS program The Ring of Truth: Atoms. I found another great and hilarious clip featuring Julia Child. Without giving too much away, all I'm going to say is it involves her isolating pure carbon.

Black sesame seeds, long a staple of Chinese and Japanese cuisine, have become the darlings of top pastry chefs around the globe, ranging from New York and Los Angeles to Barcelona.

I've had the privilege of tasting them atop such dim sum items as chicken pies in New York City. To be honest, I didn't detect any peppery, smoky flavors. Maybe my palate wasn't sophisticated enough at the time.

All I know is I'm going to have to bring my big wallet if I want to taste these shiny, black nuggets of flavor as deployed by the world's best pastry chefs. In my hometown, Johnny Iuzzini, pastry chef at Jean Georges blends, them into the ganache for his chocolates.

At temple of molecular gastronomy El Bulli in Barcelona, Chef Ferran Adrià's brother, Albert, has found a use for them, too. He's concocted a spiral of black sesame brittle, dehydrated raspberries and lime gelatin, capped with coconut ice cream. Back in the States, Ron Mendoza, pastry chef at Sona in West Hollywood, uses black sesame for a brittle and an ice cream.

Here's what I'd like to know: Have you tasted them, and can I borrow your credit card? Seriously can anyone who's tasted black sesame in a high-end restaurant chime in? Even better, can anyone tell me how to use these little gems at home?

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