These top chefs create some crazy dishes.
FISH WRAP. Chef Homaro Cantu serves sushi that includes no fish and has almost no calories…because it’s made out of paper. Invented in his Chicago restaurant, the paper is made with soy and cornstarch and then run through a printer that imprints it with photos of fish, rice, and seaweed—all in vegetable-based ink. Result: edible, three-dimensional sushi paper crafts. Cantu’s plans for the future include using helium and superconductors to make levitating food.
MASH-UPS. At one of the world’s finest restaurants—Fat Duck, located near London—head chef Heston Blumenthal practices molecular gastronomy, which combines chemistry and various scientific processes such as flash-freezing and crystallizing food with nitrous oxide, or turning alcohol into vapor. Some of his bizarre new dishes: sardine-flavored sorbet, bacon-and-egg ice cream, and chocolate infused with leather, oak, and tobacco aromas.
FOAMING AT THE MOUTH. Ferran Adria, head chef at El Bulli in northeastern Spain, also dabbles in molecular gastronomy. His most famous achievement is food foam. In order to enhance or concentrate a flavor, Adria condenses the ingredients down to an airy foam that melts in your mouth. Using a special bottle charged with nitrous oxide cartridges (similar to a whipped cream container), Adria has concocted such culinary treats as espresso foam, mushroom foam, and beef foam.
AN UPLIFTING MEAL. For the Gastronomy 2009 avant-garde food festival in Bogotá, Colombia, two students from the Quindio culinary school made a dessert out of Viagra. Their passion fruit pudding (garnished with whipped cream and chocolate and served in a parfait glass) featured a dissolved pill for erectile dysfunction. Co-creator Juan Sebastian Gomez said the idea was to “reinvent Viagra as an aphrodisiac.” (What was it before?)
Some Japanese restaurants practice nyotaimori: serving food on human bodies (usually naked).