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.

Is it bad that I haven't visited any of the top 50 restaurants in the world? Not even once?

I guess it's not surprising, considering only 8 of the top 50 are here in the United States and none are near me. Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville, CA is the top U.S. restaurant at #4. Other U.S. spots include Per Se, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Charie Trotter's, Daniel, Alinea, and Chez Panisse. The top restaurant is El Bulli in Spain (the site also lists restaurants 51 to 100).

I really have to get out more.

[via Gastronomic Fight Club]

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.

Espesso is here.

No, you're not reading incorrectly and I didn't make a typo. Espesso is a creation of El Bulli chef/alchemist Ferran Adria and it is solid coffee. It is not frozen, but is made by combining "espresso and an ingredient [Lavazza, the company offering the product,] won't divulge, combined in a pressurized canister and left to set for 12 hours." The product is then sprayed out into cups, where it is so thick that it can be turned upside down and needs to be eaten with a spoon, much like a mousse with a strong coffee aroma. It is available in espresso, espresso macchiato and cappuccino flavors and the latter two flavors use milk that is solidified in much the same way.

Espesso was introduced at some locations in Europe in 2002. For the moment, it is available in three Chicago-area coffee shops - the only stores that Lavazza runs in the US - but if it is successful, we could see it spread to other coffee shops around the country.

Update: Dominic Armato, one of our busiest commenters, said that he had a chance to try this already at one of his local coffee shops. He noted that the espresso flavor "was POTENT. It had sort of a dense, wet mousse consistency" and that the macciato version, made with half-milk, half-espresso, was the best of the three espessos he tasted. Take a look at his full report, with great pictures of the product.

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?

Is it a close-up of a cornflake? Or a piece of coral from the bottom of a tropical sea? Perhaps a tiny nugget of 24 karat gold?

No. No. No. It is from Ideas in Food, and it's what you might call a "cracklin' " - something like a fried pork rind, but better. It is made from kimchee. Inspired first as a child by Cheetos, then "puffed" Japanese snacks and chips, and now professionally by puffs/crisps produced by Grant Achatz at Chicago's Alinea and Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Ideas in Food has created a Kimchee "Cracklin" made from tapioca flour, kimchee, and kimchee juice.

Hey it might not be a real nugget, but kimchee to snack on sure sounds like pure gold to me.

Getting a reservation at El Bulli, rated as the best restaurant in the world, can be very difficult. The restaurant not only has limited seating, but is open for only 6 months out of the year. Most diners have to plan at least 6-12 months in advance just to try to get a reservation - and once you have it, you're going at whatever time it's for.

Oh, you didn't know that Aunt Bessie was going to be ill when you made your resevation last July? You can't make it to dinner?

Just sell the reservation on eBay.

Evidently, one member of a party of four diners could not make the trip, so the remaining three are auctioning off the final seat at their table on eBay. The winner of the auction must find their own travel to Barcelona and accomodation while there, but they get to have dinner at El Bulli  - which normally costs €170/$215, without wine - on June 17th at 8pm. Bids start at $1,000 and the auction ends on June 14th.

You can view a photo set of a recent meal at the restaurant here to get an idea of what you're in for.

[via eGullet]

Nestlé, the world's largest food manufacturer, has hired the three-star chef of the world's most popular restaurant to help raise the profile of its chocolates. Ferran Adrià's El Bulli, located on Spain's remote Costa Brava, receives 300,000 reservation requests annually though it takes only 8,000. 

Nestlé is hoping that Adria can help bolster the sales of its chocolate in the face of competition from private-label makers and small premium chocolatiers reports Bloomberg News. Adria will help introduce new varieties of Swiss Cailler chocolate such as jasmine tea. No word yet on whether the wildly creative Adria will help create a confection that involves a blast of liquid nitrogen when the wrapper is torn open.

Before the jump (into 2006) we saw how food trends go from introduction to assimilation into the mainstream. Nicole showed us a few predictions of foods that will take off in 2006, and Sarah Gilbert gave us the ratings on last year's most popular trends.

But there are a few trends that either only started or hung on for dear life through the end of 2005. These are the bottom five food trends (trend, not people) I hope to see completely suffocate and fizzle out in 2006.