Comments on: Hi-fi sci-fi food

Hi-fi sci-fi food

Tlogmer — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:17:47 -0800

It's the future. Now where's my fucking food?

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:41:29 -0800

It's only too bad it will be even further in the future before I could have such a meal myself.

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:50:44 -0800

Only a 4-hour drive for me. Maybe it's the 5 a.m. talking, but if it anything short of astronomically expensive I might book for my birthday next year.

By: sourbrew

sourbrew — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:41:23 -0800

After seeing this thread, chicago is certainly starting to look like the epicenter of a food revolution. Now I just need to get over being so po..... And i want one of those pb and j concoctions so bad i think im gonna have to make one myself just to try it.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:43:04 -0800

This is the most bizarre food-related anything I have ever read. Welcome to postmodern cuisine. wtf.

By: NinjaPirate

NinjaPirate — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:44:05 -0800

Boil in the bag broccolli stems in the second link... um... Did I miss the food revolution? Are pot noodles still bad, or are they good now? [chews pen]

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:49:31 -0800

No, we don't like pot noodles today. Ask again tomorrow.

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 02:49:33 -0800

this kind of stuff makes me wish i was rich.

By: TungstenChef

TungstenChef — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 03:30:18 -0800

This sounds like a ton of fun, you don't have to be rich to enjoy innovative cuisine, you just have to save up for it. Food inspires amazingly strong emotion, this made me wish death by Microplaning on the author: All that reverence for seasonal produce got so boring after a while that I wanted to round up every heirloom-tomato salad on earth and set them all adrift on an ice floe. If only I could afford to be such a spoiled snob!

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 04:46:55 -0800

I am speechless... and I desperately want to go to this restaurant. Also, he's bloody cute. *plots marriage proposal*

By: MsVader

MsVader — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 04:52:16 -0800

Did I miss it? Was there any mention of pricing for this place? I don't want to get my hopes up if I'll have to drop several hundred dollars per person.

By: LairBob

LairBob — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 04:53:17 -0800

"Now is ze time on Schprockets vhen ve EAT!!"

By: 13twelve

13twelve — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 05:01:24 -0800

Check out "Feast Of The Future" (the bus ride) at mrscruff.com (flash): the future of eating out Mancunian/Stockportian style.

By: LairBob

LairBob — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 05:12:09 -0800

More seriously, though, this definitely part of a wider trend, led especially by folks like Ferran Adria in Spain who's been doing this sort of thing for years. Wylie Dufresne's also doing deeply experimental stuff in NYC, but he's working more with the combination of ingredients, from what I can tell, and not so much with food prep and serving technology, like this guy and Adria are doing. All in all, I think it's interesting, but I've yet to see anything on this front that convinces me it's going to have any kind of direct lasting impact on the history of cuisine, like we'll still be eating food spiked on the end of wobbly wires 50 years from now. Like most avant-garde movements, it'll almost certainly open up new ways of thinking, but the long-term impact will be much less theatrical.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:00:40 -0800

So you eat a grape smeared with peanut butter all sprinkled with bread crumbs. And how much does this thing cost? Call me a Philistine, but thanks but no thanks. I'll get some chili at Wendy's. No really. /white trash

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:05:45 -0800

By: ChrisTN

ChrisTN — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:09:24 -0800

Also, he's bloody cute. *plots marriage proposal* Ooh, he is, isn't he? I wonder if he could work himself into one of his recipes? How hip!

By: casu marzu

casu marzu — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:12:37 -0800

LairBob: Jose Andres in the Washington, D.C. area, is a former apprentice of Ferran Adria. Among his mini-empire of restaurants here is one called the Minibar, a tiny six-seater (inside a larger restaurant) which specializes in this kind of theatrical dining. I pretty much agree with your thesis on the long-term impact of this, although it is interesting. I haven't been, but his more traditional restaurants (Spanish, Mediterranean, Mexican, and Latin American, each mostly specializing in small plates) are quite good.

By: Karmakaze

Karmakaze — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:29:27 -0800

CunningLinguist - could you be thinking of the guy that LairBob mentioned, above?

By: lucksmonday

lucksmonday — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:31:09 -0800

awesome post! the only thing that's missing is the zero gravity!

By: ScaryShrink

ScaryShrink — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:39:34 -0800

Is this the same chef, the one who has that restaurant in Spain, who deconstructs food? The food foam guy? All I can say about mini-food is, "I'm still hungry."

By: tidecat

tidecat — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:40:03 -0800

Fabulous post, Tlogmer. And very inspiring. Time for some creative cooking this weekend! Does anyone know of any "cookbooks of the future" that might walk a relative novice to these types of cooking technologies through the steps/tools needed? Are there any classes out there on cooking by flame torch and seal-a-meal methods?

By: growabrain

growabrain — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 06:53:02 -0800

Info about El Bulli: - Inside the mad professor's lab - Adria's cookbook - A visit to El Bulli - What happened when five great writers dined at the world's five best restaurants? - 'The best restaurant in the world' - How the pursuit of novelty has caused haute cuisine to go mass market

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:13:34 -0800

No, wasn't him Karmakaze......I'm going nuts on google and nothing so far.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:23:30 -0800

Does anyone remember the name of the guy in NYC who did weird ass stuff somewhat like this without the equipment? I ate at his restaurant twice and can't remember his name or the name of the joint, and it's driving me a little nuts. He was one of the first to use foams, and I remember an amazing beef with coffee sauce and also mushroom tea and tomato gumdrops. You don't remember because this kind of crap is nothing but a trend. Let the 'in crowd' blow their dough on this shit...you'll have to go to Wendy's for that chili anyway afterwards cuz I guarantee it won't fill you up. Long after places like this are gone, Mario Batali and the like will still be turning out the best, down to earth, filling food. Keep your atomizer, I'll take a nice fat bouillabaise any day.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:32:16 -0800

I'll pick a bouillabaisse over an atomizer almost any day, but now and again, it's fun as hell to try something weird. I'm dying to go to the Chicago place. It's got nothing to do with being in the "in crowd" - oh please - it has to do with being adventurous. Don't you want to know what aerosolized shrimp tastes like? I do. I still remember the tomato gumdrops at that NYC place, even though I can't remember the name of the restaurant.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:34:53 -0800

I so want to eat there. And Grant Achatz is hot. He can cook for me any day of the week. : )

By: ChrisR

ChrisR — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:03:52 -0800

Do they serve Pepsi Blue?

By: kenko

kenko — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:12:05 -0800

Did I miss it? Was there any mention of pricing for this place? If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Though one of my friends who certainly couldn't afford it (since his sole source of income was a lousy research assistant job) went to Moto and seemed to like it. Seems a little too conceptual for my taste but what the hey.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:24:23 -0800

casu marzu, I posted an account of my visit to MiniBar in the earlier thread.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 08:34:16 -0800

Between this and the "Pimp My Burger" thread, I'm starving. While hi-tech cusine sounds tastier, something tells me that the burger is more filling. Of course, thirty courses of peeled grapes and single serving scallops could be potentially filling, but it seems like it would also be incredibly time consuming. I guess I am one of those people who just misses the point of fine dining. Call me when my burger in pill form is ready.

By: dmt

dmt — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:03:33 -0800

Sounds like a more extreme version of what Heston Blumenthal is doing at the Fat Duck.

By: liam

liam — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:45:59 -0800

I'm betting if Wendy's could work out a cheap way to recreate the 'Smoked bacon and egg ice-cream' off the Fat Duck menu, they'd have it on theirs.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 11:36:36 -0800

You are entitled to ask: What's going on here? You had fun picking up the PB&J. But now they want to take away your hands? And put a sharp spear in your mouth? Here you have reached the core of what Achatz wants to accomplish at Alinea: You are feeling something. You're not judging the technical execution of the food anymore. The food may, in fact, be judging you. Achatz, for all his interest in chemistry, physics and mechanics, only views them as means to an end. And that end is you. When he manipulates a shrimp or a tomato, what he's really thinking about is how that manipulation is going to play out in your head. Ooooh, S&M dining.

By: bbrown

bbrown — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 12:27:44 -0800

I want my People Chow.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 17:00:39 -0800

Those of you who are blithering on about Wendy's are missing the point entirely. Food like this is not about being full, just as drinking a really good wine is not about getting drunk. This sort of cuisine is solely about flavour and texture, and nothing more. Also.. ladies, back off. Achatz will be bringing me deconstructed french toast and frozen chips of orange juice in bed. I've decided it shall be so :D

By: gesamtkunstwerk

gesamtkunstwerk — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 17:52:28 -0800

sharesies, dirtynumbangelboy... sharesies with stonerose too!

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 08:06:53 -0800

I called dibs. It's just that simple :P