Well My time is coming to an end here in the Casino de Madrid. It is my last day today as I have many exciting challenges I need to be sinking my teeth into and now I have the time to focus 110% on there progression.
I will be staying in Madrid for the coming months as I need to build my consultancy and production company until it functions by itself with a minimum of maintenance.
I am sure you all know who is Dani Garcia! Just in Case you don’t know (http://www.restaurantecalima.com/) Definitely worth checking out!
He is a Friend and a very good Chef here in Spain! He is definitely one of the top creative Chefs specializing in Progressive cuisine and one of the guys evolving the cuisine as we know it on a daily basis.
This week he was in Madrid for a marketing exercise for the region of Andalucia cooking a special media breakfast. While he was here he did a filming with Telemadrid in the Lab.
As always it is great to see Dani here in Madrid and we hope to see him back soon!
Check out this amazing story on the study of plants and how “Alive and aware” they really are………………….
I was about to eat a bowl of Brussels Sprouts, but now I might eat a roast chicken instead as I can’t bring myself to eat these intelligent little fighters. Might leave a few vegetarians with no options on what to eat for dinner tonight 
Christmas is here again!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year!
Madridlab has seen a huge growth in 2009 with an immense amount of regular readers from more than 92 different countries. 2010 promises to be an amazing year for madridlab with the website team becoming bigger and the development of 2 sister sites which I will announce at a later date.
2010 Is also going to bring some amazing new projects which is sure to have an impact on the food world.
Thank you for continuing to read the stories of my work here, it is because of you that this website exists.
Feliz Navidad desde España!
This is actually an evolution of many other techniques all rolled into one.
Imagine being able to eat all the ingredients from Scrambled eggs and mushrooms all inside of a “Poached egg”, well now you can.
Well it’s Brussel sprouts season again and let’s just say i’m happy about this!
You might remember the story I wrote last year about them but just in case you didn’t get to see it let me do a recap with some added goodness.
Last year when cooking brussel sprouts for my dinner I found a way of cooking them that was amazing! It is the most simple and time efficient method of cooking them but the proof is in the pudding and let’s just say I have converted a record amount of people who tell me they hate them.
While passing through the restaurant kitchen I noticed how wonderful the smell was coming from the Bulls tail which was cooking in the pressure cooker. This smell was the steam coming from the blow off valve in the top of the pot, or another way of looking at it is these are the Volatile molecules escaping without being utilized……………
Imagine going to the supermarket for 5 days in a row to buy all the stock they had (200 jars in total) of 1 particular type of Yogurt just for the glass jar. Well I did and it was all because I really liked the shape of the glass jar as it was a good quality glass and the absolute stereotype of what a tub of yogurt should look like. Symbolism is a very powerful thing to use when you want to guide the way people perceive something when eating your food, it allows you to be suggestive and build familiar expectations before they even open their mouths to taste what you have prepared. Although the Risotto was made only using the Whey from yogurt (then the solids at the end to add the fresh yogurt touch) it is still a hot risotto. The first shock that you get is the fact that it is hot whereas your mind tells you things that normally come from a yogurt jar are cold, the second shock you get is that it is savoury and not sweet and the 3rd is an obvious one but the fact that it is a risotto in a yogurt jar still surprises people.
I said I would not write about yogurt again (or at least for a period of time) But realistically this story is about using yogurt risotto as an example and not actually about yogurt itself……………………
For those of you who don’t already know the blog whitejacket.net it is well worth a look. Ben used to work for me during my short time in Burj al Arab in Dubai, he is a very well accomplished Chef with a similar philosophy to food as I have.
Below you will find a link to a professional review he gave my career and my site, Check it out.
I promise this is the last story I will write about Yogurt!
While I was making the yogurt for the Michelin event I decided to leave a part of the mix to ferment longer than the rest. The part I left was the top part which I removed from each yogurt which contains the most air.
Ever wondered how much yogurt it would take to make 150 portions of Yogurt risotto for the Michelin red Guide Gala dinner………….
Yeah I agree, Who wonders things like that!
Well just in case you ever wanted to know or had a crazy thought to try and do it let me tell you what it takes.
Sometimes some tests can go really well and only take a few days, other times you can be stuck on something and the test can last for years without a result. After only 3 months of marinating the flowers then 3 days of work I have my first result!
This story is a continuation from the discovery in amongst my tests yesterday.
When I was studying the flowers I realized that they could be divided into a perfect 5 point star which was beautiful. So I put them in between silicon paper and applied a little pressure on top so they would stay flat and not curl. I dried them at 65 degrees for 36 hours so as the crystallize them perfectly and also keep the full intensity of the color. Read the rest of this entry »
With a second story about things that I have dug out of my fridge in 2 days you are going to think that I must be just hoarding everything in vacuum bags for a rainy day! As I will be leaving my lab soon, I have started wrapping up all the outstanding tests which I need to log a result.
I admit I do love to observe the changes food undergoes as it is preserving in sugar. It takes on a translucent appearance and it’s light refraction and transparency makes it look like plastic. Plus of course there is the flavour which becomes so much more rich and intense. And the 3rd and somewhere most interesting thing with fruits preserved in Sugar syrup is there ability to perfectly caramelize when pan fried.
You might remember more than 3 months ago I was doing many tests on Aloe Vera. At the time I could not find anything to do with it that was as good as my favorite way of eating it with Greek yogurt. So I left it in vacuum bags until now.