Chefs as Chemists
In September, talking to an audience of chefs from around the
world, Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 in New York waxed enthusiastic about
a type of ingredient he has been adding to his restaurant's
dishes.
Not organic Waygu beef or newfound exotic spices or eye of newt and
toe of frog, but hydrocolloid gums obscure starches and proteins
usually relegated to the lower reaches of ingredient labels on
products like Twinkies. These substances are helping Dufresne make
eye-opening (and critically acclaimed) creations like fried
mayonnaise and a foie gras that can be tied into a knot.
Chefs are using science not only to better understand their
cooking, but also to create new ways of cooking. Elsewhere, chefs
have played with lasers and liquid nitrogen. Restaurant kitchens
are sometimes outfitted with equipment adapted from scientific
laboratories. And then there are hydrocolloids that come in white
bottles like chemicals.
Xanthan gum, for instance, a slime fermented by the bacteria
Xanthomonas campestris and then dried, is used in bottled salad
dressing to slow the settling of the spice particles and keep water
and oil from separating. Xanthan and other hydrocolloids are now
part of the tool kit of high-end chefs.
"These ingredients are finding more and more of a footing in the
traditional, free-standing restaurant," said Dufresne (pronounced
doo-FRAYN) at the Starchefs International Chefs Congress in New
York.
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Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/06/healthscience/06food.php
