Ice Cream Bar in San Francisco serves old-fashioned soda fountain drinks. I never order off the menu because I prefer to experiment and create my own sodas using the many essential oils, tinctures, and syrups they have on hand. Try one of my creations if you’re in town: a phosphate soda with pineapple syrup, fresh…

Vietnamese compressed watermelon sashimi. That’s watermelon, not tuna, pictured below! Compressed watermelon is made using a chamber vacuum sealer. Under vacuum, the vacuoles in the watermelon cells expand like a balloon and eventually burst. After the watermelon is sealed and the vacuum is released, the liquid in the bag fills the ruptured vacuoles, transforming the…

Centrifuged Banana Juice Sorbet with Nutella Powder and Whipped Cream Jet City Gastrophysics recently photographed his 30 course dinner at the Modernist Cuisine Cooking Lab. Looking over the menu, I was curious about the centrifuged banana juice sorbet. How do you juice a banana? Unlike pea butter and caramelized carrot soup (both of which were…

Caramelized carrot soup. Coconut foam sprinkled with dried tarragon, thyme, and ground ginger. I bought a new pressure cooker and the first thing I made with it was Modernist Cuisine’s caramelized carrot soup. They suggest pairing the soup with a coconut chutney foam, but instead of using their recipe I went with the coconut foam…

Ron Swanson’s Modernist Birthday Dinner: sous-vide filet mignon vacuum marinated in Lagavulin 16 scotch, topped with bacon bits and whipped truffle butter Parks and Recreation is currently my favorite TV show. In season 3, episode 12, Leslie throws Ron a surprise birthday party. It’s a solo dinner consisting of an enormous porterhouse steak, a plate…

The Peaness Mightier: Pea butter spread on pea flour crackers, topped with pea water caviar. This dish is named after the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. I deconstructed a pea and put it back together to mimic the way caviar is served with crackers and lightly buttered toast points.  I used every part of the pea…