Foie grasThis has been a long time coming. But the experience was too great to pass up. It’s the beautiful Four Seasons hotel in Sydney overlooking the lovely Sydney Harbour bridge and the stunning pearly white Opera House. And the restaurant is Kables, their signature restaurant. It was my first introduction to ‘molecular gastronomy.’ For me molecular gastronomy conjured up images of Anthony Bourdain’s show ‘No Reservations’ and it was an episode, I think, on Ferran Adria (of El Bulli fame) and carrot foam. (His famous words: “For the first time in my life, I am inhaling my food,” or something to that effect, but I chortled). Back to Kables. The meal lasted more than three hours. Course after course (don’t ask me what they were: each was so good to look at and to eat, and I was going ‘Ummm’ to many times that I promptly forgot their names) arrived at the table, was admired and quickly imbibed.
SorbetBut some things really stick out in memory. Like the pasta made of chicken stock, champagne sorbet and light as rain foie gras. I can go ‘ummmm’ all over again. I can’t remember dessert, but the pre-dessert thingy sticks out: served on a little ceramic tile, it looked like a perfect bulls’ eye, but was in fact a clever assemblage of beaten yogurt and mango pulp. Oh yes, ummm.
Pre-dessertBut the highlight: the chef coming over to the table and demonstrating cooking with liquid nitrogen – it turned bread pieces crumbly, and they just melted on the tongue. The things chefs do !!
Cooking with liquid nitrogen !