Figurative progressive cuisine is still one of my favorite forms of cooking (one of the best Chefs in the world for this style of cuisine is a friend of mine named Paul Pairet). It can show a great sense of humor in a dish from the moment it is put in front of the guest. It also gives you a pre-conceived notion of what it’s going to taste like, and this is generally where the biggest surprises come from…………. When you are anticipating one thing and you get another.

So today I finished the ‘Watermelon “Tuna Sashimi”‘, which is basically as figurative as you can get, it is the classic stereotypical slice of watermelon you would imagine every time you think of watermelon. But what you see and what you taste are light years apart! It has been vacuum infused with many products normally associated with tuna and/or Sashimi in general. As it has had all the air removed it is dense and flexible like raw tuna and even the exact same color. So before you even put it in your mouth you are totally confused as your eyes are telling you it is watermelon but your common sense is telling you it must be tuna as watermelon will break if you bend it. The moment you put it between your teeth you realize it is watermelon for sure as it has that characteristic crunch, but still you are confused as it now tastes like tuna and even has the background flavor of Wasabi…………….. But you don’t eat watermelon with wasabi! The fake seeds are basically a soy fluid gel and the Peel is a combination of nori seaweed and wasabi mixed with Koopi mayonnaise. To highlight the tuna flavors some points of sesame oil and maldon sea salt have been used.

So the humble watermelon is not so humble after all

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 09:26 and is filed under Food, Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.