I've always been fascinated with how interconnected science is with food. I read blogs that deal mostly with "molecular gastronomy" and all these new techniques. The modern pantry will have sodium alginate and maltodextrin side by side salt and pepper. I have some access to a few of these chemicals and I'm trying to teach myself how to properly use them!
One of the food blogs I read is Hk pastry kitchen by Chef Ryan Zimmer. He's the pastry chef at Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel and likes to do modern pastry! Since I was going to be in Hong Kong for a few days and staying at the same hotel, I decided to email him and ask if I could spend some time in his kitchen to learn a few molecular gastronomy techniques. Fortunately, he agreed and we found a common time to meet.
brought my notebook and pen to write down notes
He first showed me reverse spherification. In a pot, he heated the Algin bath which is Sodium Alginate+H2O+sugar. The red sphere you see is strawberry puree with Gluco. He said you can spherify more or less any liquid you want with the proportion of Gluco changing based on the liquid's acidity or calcium content. Also, you may have to add some Xanthan to make it more viscous depending on your liquid.
photocredit: amazon.com
He used silicone hemisphere molds to get that perfect sphere shape and froze the strawberry puree. Once you put it in the heated algin bath, the chemical reaction causes the strawberry puree+Gluco to create a thin gel or membrane creating the sphere.
After a few minutes, he took it out and rinsed it in water. There you go, a sphere! I was quite surprised at how resilient the membrane was and it can also withstand a good amount of heat.
Jiggle. Jiggle. Slice. Burst!
The next thing he taught me was spherification (flipside of reverse spherification). He made some espresso caviar! It's called caviar because of how it looks like. Basically the same technique, but now the setting bath is the one with the calcium chloride while the liquid has the sodium alginate. However, this will continue to gel inwards so it can't be done too much in advance.
(photocredit: http://mcc-metropolis.com/) this is not chef Ryan in the pic.
He used a "caviar box" to drop the espresso liquid into the bath. This seems like the fastest and easiest way. Note to self, must buy a hemisphere mold and caviar box!
Chef Ryan also showed me the other chemicals he uses and how they can be manipulated. He had a good number from the texturas line! Will definitely be trying out spherification and other things.
I really appreciate the time he took out to do this! How great to actually meet someone from a blog I was reading. Thanks chef Ryan!
Don't forget to check out his blog!
