deVine Table

Maxime Billet Prepares Green Pea Veloute with Coconut

Have you heard of the Modernist Cuisine “cookbook” yet? I put cookbook in quotes because the work is actually a six-volume 2400 page cookbook with a price tag of $625. It is dedicated to the science of cooking. Some say the work will reinvent cooking as we know it.

When I received my information packet for the International Food Bloggers’ Conference I saw a paragraph offering a visit to the Modernist Cuisine cooking lab, a rare opportunity. I put in a request to attend immediately. I waited for over a week. No word. Then while checking e-mail Wednesday morning there it was. A confirmation notice. I have to admit, it made me gloat.

Lab Food

Upon arrival at the lab I am reminded of the time I worked at a biotech. This place really is much more laboratory than kitchen. We are promptly served food samples. This is the first time I’ve ever tasted deep fried watermelon chips. They remind me of Terra Chips, sweet and crispy. The ultrasonic fries don’t look much different than a regular thickly cut French fry, but fries aren’t typically served with a beautiful bright green ramp dipping sauce. We enjoy 12 different snacks and small bites. My favorite is the sweet pea velouté with a touch of cinnamon and topped with coconut. The peas have been through a centrifuge, separating all the components. Take out the most concentrated portion and the end result is an ultra fresh tasting pea velouté. The cocounut looks like meringue. I would have never thought to pair the two together, but it’s like a chilled sweet soup and it goes down easy. Not being much of a meat eater, I pass on the Wagyu beef cheek pastrami served with tongue and beef marrow mousseline (tongue and cheek, get it?). However, I hear Seattle Food Geek say that it is most enjoyable. He describes the mousseline texture as being like the most decadent mayonnaise.

Deep Fried Watermelon

The research done in this lab has revealed that foods that we think are best cooked by steaming, grilling, or baking are actually better when cooked with other methods. The chefs on the project challenge each other to think beyond what they’ve previously been taught. If you cook greens sous vide won’t they lose their bright color? Even these chefs thought that might be the case. Yet, they gave it a try and it turns out that it’s not.

While at the Modernist Cuisine reception, we meet the three authors Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Billet  and the team behind the forthcoming book. I overhear someone refer to Nathan as one of the greatest scientific minds. When I hear him speak, I detect not only a sense of pride, but also great joy and enthusiasm. He points out that a huge amount of cooking has been empirically driven because we didn’t know how things work. This book is to inform people. It’s an intriguing place, this culinary lab. In Nathan’s words, “We’re way beyond sustenance here.”

Hyperdecanting Wine

The Modernist Cuisine Team

What do you ask one of the greatest scientific minds? How about, “Do you really use a blender to aerate your wine?” You see I had just heard a story from Chris Young, one of the book’s co-authors, tell a story about how Nathan had the staff at El Bulli bring a blender to his table to aerate the wine. Hard to believe, right? So I had to ask. Apparently Nathan can do that kind of thing in a revered restaurant and have people take him seriously. What amuses me most is that when Nathan tells the story, a great boisterous character comes out and professes he loves to see the looks on peoples’ faces when he presses the frappé button on a blender full of wine. He says it’s like they’re thinking “What a philistine!” So, why put your wine in a blender? Chris says that it’s outgassing the surface compounds. Nathan calls it “hyperdecanting.” Interesting, but I’m not giving up my Riedel decanter just yet.

The Solution for Corked Wine

Chris also shared with us his solution for corked wine. The trick is to shake it in a polyethylene bag. The TCA (the offender resulting in the wine fault) binds to polyethylene thereby removing the compound. He admits that the wine still won’t be as good as if it hadn’t been corked, but it will be drinkable. If you’ve spent a fair amount of money on a bottle, isn’t that better than pouring it down the drain?

Modernist Cuisine is full of such lessons. So, would you aerate your wine in a blender?

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Tags: IFBC, Modernist Cuisine

This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.