The Fat Duck

The Fat Duck is a restaurant run by chef Heston Blumenthal in Bray, Berkshire, England. The restaurant is known for its menu of unusual dishes, created following the principles of molecular gastronomy: examples include "snail porridge", "sardine on toast sorbet", "bacon and egg ice cream", and "salmon poached with liquorice".

Style

At The Fat Duck, Blumenthal exploits psychology, experimenting with the diners' perception. Among the starters in the restaurant's tasting menu is a "jelly of orange and beetroot", a serving of two separate jellies, where the red has been made using blood oranges, and the orange from paprika beetroots.

Food scare, closure, and reopening

On 27 February 2009, Blumenthal closed his restaurant temporarily after a number of customers reported feeling unwell at different times. By 3 March the source of the outbreak was still unclear but sabotage had been ruled out. A spokesman for the restaurant said "All this leads us to believe that it [the health scare] has not come from the restaurant and we expect to be given the all clear."On 6 March it was reported that 400 people had stated they had felt unwell after eating at the restaurant. Boxing promoter Frank Warren said he was "very disappointed" with his treatment after becoming sick following his visit. He said "Everything was fabulous about the evening - the food, the setting, the service, it was unbelievably good but unfortunately, afterwards, all of us were ill".

Is the life

Ingredients:    
 Sphere of candy:
 500 gr. isomalt
 10 gr. waters down
 Air of maracayá and thyme:
 350 gr. milk.
 150 gr. juice of maracayá.
 C/n lectina of soybean.
 C/n lemon-flavoured thyme.
 Creamy of maracayá:
 500 ml. milk.
 500 ml. juice of maracayá.
 250 gr. sugar.
 12 one. Yolks.
 80 gr. starch of maize.
 Gel of maracuyá:
 8 gr. gelatine without flavor.
 200 ml. juice of maracuyá.
 40 gr.de waters down.
 Crocante of chocolate:
 100 gr. fondant.
 65 gr. semibitter chocolate.
 65 gr. glucose.

Procedure:
 Sphere of candy:
 To take the isomalt and the water to the fire until it reaches 170ºC. To stretch on silpat in order that the tºC descends, to do folds with the help silpat and gloves of candy, up to forming a homogeneous mass. To stretch again with the help of gloves until it takes sheen. With a pipette to incorporate the air up to forming the wished sphere (in case of the candy be cooling during the process, to warm in microwave).
 Creamy of maracuyá:
 To take to boiling the milk and juice of maracayá with the half of sugar. In a bowl, to mix the yolks with the sugar and the starch of maize. To mix in the fire with previous preparation as soon as it reaches the wished texture to withdraw of the fire and to reserve.
Gel of maracuyá:
 To hydrate the gelatine with the water and to add the juice of maracuyá. To place in the mold, to stop to cool.
 Crocante of chocolate:
 To cook the fondant and the glucose up to them 156ºC. To incorporate the chocolate and to stop to cool. As soon as tºC began to go down to place in a sleeve, to stretch on silpat and to mold in the shape of spaghetti (in the moment of service to dust with the bitter cocoa).
 Air of maracuyá and thyme:
 To realize an infusion with all the ingredients. To place the preparation in a glass, with the help of a mixer to work up to obtaining the "air". This preparation is realized in the moment to serve.

Presentation:
 In the base of the plate to place a sheet of gel of maracuyá. To realize small hollows to introduce the creamy one of maracuyá and thyme. To decorate with the crocante of chocolate.

El Bulli - Desserts

Ferran Adrià Acosta (Hospitalet de Llobregat, on May 14, 1962) is a Spanish cook considered for several years as the best chef of the world. The North American magazine Steals it included Adrià in the list of the 10 most innovative prominent figures of the world in the year 2004. Adrià is chef and co-owner of the restaurant The Bulli, placed in Cove Montjoi, in Roses (Gerona, Catalonia, Spain), which has received the maximum gastronomic distinctions.

Chefs recognized in molecular gastronomy

The molecular gastronomy probably is more known by the chefs that use it of practical form in some restaurants. The most famous are Pierre Gagnaire (Paris, London, Tokyo) and Ferran Adrià (known internationally by his restaurant " The Bulli " in Roses, Spain). Numerous chefs of the world have started using some technologies of the molecular gastronomy in his kitchens and of this form Heston Blumenthal is known in The Fat Duck, Ariel Bramuglia in Antica Restaurant Gourmet , Homaro Cantu in Motorcycle (Chicago), Wylie Dufresne in wd-50 (NYC), Grant Achatz in Aligns (Chicago) and others.

 

What is molecular gastronomy?

It is the application of the science to the culinary practice and more concretely to the gastronomic phenomenon. The term was invented by the French scientist Hervé This and the Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti. The investigators worked on the scientific preparation of some food.
The molecular gastronomy has relation  with the properties physicist-chemistry of the food and the technological processes to which these surrender, like they are the batter and the increase of the viscosity, for mentioning only some.
All this is going to depend on the ingredients that are selected, the mixtures that are done between them and the technologies that are applied. The food is organic compounds (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and vitamins) and minerals, which when they are submitted to processing are capable of demonstrating his properties transforming in foams, emulsions, gels or other structures that can be infinite in gastronomy, provided that in her it is introduced constant.