Gift Guides

Gift Lab: Molecular Gastronomy Dinner Party

June 21, 2012

Background Research
Wikipedia says that “Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general.”

Huh?

I have heard of this food science. I have heard of different restaurants in metropolitan areas around the world, maybe even in not-so-metropolitan areas. I have seen it done on one of those cooking shows. Many friends have gone to wd-50 in NYC and said it was interesting. My friend Stephanie had a 12 course meal of different foods reconstructed at a resort in Mexico. The pictures were awesome. I mean a lemon meringue pie that looks like a SOS Sponge awesome!

Walking at the NY Trade Show I see some fun pictures of crazy foods and then a kit. I can do this at home? Yes please! I couldn’t wait to try out this new product.

Hypothesis
I will be the new Wylie Dufresne, with the help of some friends, and make a meal that will impress the masses. This will all be accomplished in 1 night without a culinary class and with little cooking skills. My most impressive meal is chicken and rice.

Experiment
Materials Needed:
1 Molecular Gastronomy Kit with all its contents
Blender
Roomy Fridge and Freezer
Hand Blender
Lots of Bowls
Stove
Lots of Pots
Friends
Wine (just in case it all goes wrong)
Ingredients for all recipes (frozen chocolate wind, arugula spaghetti, balsamic vinegar pearls, goat cheese raviolis, raspberry raviolis).
Extra ingredients to pair with the yummy food
TV
DVD player
Timer
Scale if you want to be exact

Step 1: I watched the DVD to pick the recipes I wanted to cook and get all the instructions.

Step 2: I Gathered friends and all materials.

Step 3: Watch DVD of all recipes with friends and decide what recipe has the longest cooling time and do that one first. (FYI: Chocolate wind had to cool down in the fridge and then sit in the freezer for about an hour.)

Step 4: Start cooking/ being a scientist.

Goat Cheese Raviolis

Chocolate Frozen Wind

Arugula Spaghetti

Balsamic Vinegar Pearls

Step 5: Make everything look pretty for the cameras.

Goat Cheese Raviolis with tomatoes and basil / Arugula Spaghetti and Balsamic Vinegar Pearls with Tomato / Frozen Chocolate Wind with Raspberry Raviolis

Step 6: Enjoy!

Thanks for your help Nate and Stefanie and Morgan and Sorayah!

Conclusion
The kit has very thorough instructions that walk you through each step by showing you and some great music to keep cooks dancing. It makes the process easy and super fun! And the balsamic pearls and arugula spaghetti looked the best! But maybe I need some more snacks when things are cooling in case guests have not had a snack before the party. I think I just need one more party and a little less wine, and I can open my own restaurant! So fun!

10 Comments

  • Reply Mal June 22, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    Amazing!!! Way to go! Great pics too – love the ring! ; )

  • Reply Mary Theis June 26, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    Hi Candace!
    I saw you beautiful face and had to read the article.
    I love Uncommon Goods!
    Hope all is well with you…you look fabulous, darling!
    xox
    Mary

  • Reply melissa June 26, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    looks fun – i wanna join 🙂

  • Reply GrandChef Gerard July 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    Great products!!!! Totally uncommongoods style 🙂

  • Reply Stephen August 2, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    Hi,
    You definately need the wine!

    Hey a good tip is when you put result of your caviar balls in the water to keep changing the water and it gets chemical residue and affects the result.

  • Reply olga October 1, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    спасибо!

  • Reply Uncommon Personalities: Meet Candace Holloway | UncommonGoods March 27, 2013 at 9:29 am

    […] a hard one. I love them all! I guess I would say the MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY KIT – CUISINE. I did a gift lab on the product and had a BLAST making all the different dishes with my friends. I’m not much of a […]

  • Reply Pauline Fratantoni July 4, 2013 at 10:46 am

    Can you re-purchase new ingredients?

  • Reply cassie July 5, 2013 at 12:30 pm

    Hi, Pauline! We don’t have refills available at this time, but the original kit does come with 50 additive sachets, so you’re able to make 50 recipes. That should be enough Molecular Gastronomy exploration to keep most experimental cooks busy for a bit.

    Cassie | UncommonGoods

  • Reply Molecular Gastronomy Kit | inStash December 17, 2013 at 6:15 am

    […] a kit, so that makes for a lot of really creative playing with your food time. If you go to their official blog, you get to see the creation of goat cheese raviolis, chocolate frozen wind, and arugula spaghetti […]

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