Culinary foam: Groovy or gross?

[Robin Garr]

<table border="0" align="right" width="410"><tr><td><img src="http://www.wineloverspage.com/graphics1/foam.jpg" border="1" align="right"></td></tr></table>One of the hottest food trends today has to be culinary foam, one of the many "molecular gastronomy" inventions of Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià of the fabled El Bulli, outside Barcelona.

Delicate in flavor, ethereal in texture, these flavored foams are aerosol-squirted over dishes to add subtle tastes and, probably, to signal that the chef is with-it and trendy. Of course it has come to Louisville, two, at one or two of our cutting-edge spots.

It's an intriguing concept, I'm sure, and I've had some good ones, not least the white-chocolate-orange foam shown here mounded up on a chocolate semifreddo on a chocolate trio dessert plate at the Seelbach Hotel's Oakroom.

But why, why does it have to look so much like an unwanted gift from an angry waiter?

Does anybody but me see a slight grossness quotient here that's faintly at odds with the idea of delicate subtlety?

I don't see a "slight" grossness quotient.... I see a HUGE grossness quotient. Being a visually-oriented person generally speaking, I find it very off-putting.

[Robin Garr]

I don't see a "slight" grossness quotient.... I see a HUGE grossness quotient. Being a visually-oriented person generally speaking, I find it very off-putting.

Thank you, fellow visually oriented person. :-p

Robin and Cynthia...I am so glad I am not the only one! I think it's just foul looking. I just watched an Iron Chef episode where the chef against Bobby Flay (I forget his name but he was Spanish)...used foam on EVERY dish....ugghh!!

Not a big fan of passion fruit used to garnish food either...I won't tell you what I think it looks like...LOL!

[Jenise]

Add me to the list!!!!! Robin, your description of it as a "gift" really made me laugh out loud. I hadn't quite thought of it that that way, but 'gross' is precisely the word I've used to tell a waiter in a favorite Vancouver lunch spot why they must not put the foam dressing on my salade nicoise.

I recall a review I wrote about Auberge du Soleil where I described a foam exactly that way.

Ikkkh-ptoooi!

[Jenise]

My cats make foam all the time.

It's always looked like opaque spittle to me.

I have a hard time when they purée soups and sauces with a hand mixer. This stuff looks a science experiment gone wrong.

Speaking of which, does anyone remember that additive "Frothee, the All-Purpose Creamy Head for Cocktails?" My parents used to keep a bottle of it in the liquor chest. We used to use it to make the dog look rabid.

"Frothee, the All-Purpose Creamy Head for Cocktails?"

Not. Going. There.

Robin, I thought foam sauces were so yesterday!
Sometimes they can be ok if done well with minimal foam, but the one in your picture looks gross.

Robin,

DELICATE SUBTLETY?? That is one of the most revolting food photos I've ever seen.

It reminds me of a slime mold emerging from a log, except that slime molds are prettier.

From an aesthetics point of view, this rates 0 out of 100. Am I allowed to go into negative numbers? Please??

Triple Joe Besser on the Stooges scale of visual aesthetics.

My cats throw up better looking things.

I don't care what the texture or flavor might be. I'm never eating anything that looks like that.

I refuse to eat rabid food.

-Paul W.

One of the hottest food trends today has to be culinary foam, one of the many "molecular gastronomy" inventions of Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià of the fabled El Bulli, outside Barcelona.

El Bull$*it, more like it.

He can take his "molecular gastronomy" and put it where the sun don't shine. Excuse me . . . I see he already has.

-Paul W.

To the right and above the foam, sitting on the brown log (more bad connotations), is something that looks like bird doo. What is it? As if the foam weren't bad enough. And then there are those gross orange splotches of something on the plate. And the brown, crumbly stuff that looks like a mold gone to sporulation under the log.

I used to get this sort of thing in bacteriology, on petri dishes on the first culture, before I'd isolated each individual bacterium species onto its own plate.

Are there really chefs so removed from Real Food that they think this is aesthetically pleasing?

-Paul W.

P.S. - Shouldn't there have been something colored blue in there somewhere?

Did I make it clear that I don't care for how it looks?

Thanks, Robin, for giving me the opportunity to pour so much vitriol. I haven't had that much fun for some time.

-Paul W.

because I didnt know that foam can be used as decorative features on food..

But, yeah it does looks gross. It looks like as if something that Rexton my cat drool out from her mouth everytime she eats the grass..

Did I make it clear that I don't care for how it looks?

Paul, next time don't hold it all inside and let us know how you really feel!

The foam thing is so 1995. Every run-of-the-mill chef has this in her/his repertoire these days. It is no longer au current in higher culiary circles.

The one you show in the pic is a pretty heavy-handed version - the bubbles are too large and the placement on top of the cake lacks imagination and aesthetic coherence.

There are lots of techniques that can be abused - consider the Prudhomme Cajun blackening method that he popularized 30 years ago. I've had so many piss poor blackened dishes that I forever swore against the technique. Does that mean that it can't be done well?

There are lots of techniques that can be abused - consider the Prudhomme Cajun blackening method that he popularized 30 years ago. I've had so many piss poor blackened dishes that I forever swore against the technique. Does that mean that it can't be done well?

I have yet to be served a foam dish, so I am reserving judgment for the above reason. Maybe somewhere, someone can do this is a way that works well. How this could happen isn't obvious to me, but there's a lot that really good chefs do that's beyond me.

And I trust that if Robin says the white chocolate orange foam was good, then it was. But the photo does sort of look like some invertebrate has been frightened enough to resort to chemical defenses before vacating the semifreddo.

Mike

I've seen this guy on Diary of a Foodie. Prior to that, I didn't know anything about him. There are those who take great pleasure in the science of mixing food items together for the sake of experimentation (they call it pushing the envelope) but, in my estimation, have little respect for food. Personally, I have a really hard time even watching movies that must have an obligatory food fight scene (any comedic movie with kids, a fraternity, a vixen who can't cook or Chevy Chase), or where food is used as foreplay (9-1/2 weeks). I don't find the picture disgusting -- but I definitely don't find it palatable and wouldn't consider it food. H-u-u-m-m-m-m-m! What some people won't do!

Yeah...but what does it taste like? A lot of foods are not visually appealing. Like oysters...I won't go into what they look like, but you catch my meaning.

If it tastes like warm spittle, then I'll be grossed out. But if it tastes really good? Then I'm interested in the technique and the dish.

Richard

[Robin Garr]

if it tastes really good? Then I'm interested in the technique and the dish.

It tastes pretty good, Richard. It's very ethereal and light, almost disappears in your mouth, but it had nice clean flavors of white chocolate and bitter orange. The same flavors also appeared in a warm "shooter" on the same dessert plate, but that was creamy and rich and delicious, sort of a grown-up version of hot chocolate.

Another "foam" on an amuse bouche (a shiitake cap stuffed with spinach and shallots) was truffled ... it tasted great with the shiitake, but looked even worse, very much as if someone had spat on the oyster. :p I didn't get a picture of it, unfortunately.

I have not tried making foams, but as I understand it, Ferra-style foams are made with liquid, flavors and a gelling agent (gelatin? dunno), foamed by blasting them out of a restaurant whipped-cream dispenser with whatever gas is normally used in those things.

Yeah...but what does it taste like?

I'll never know, unless I eat it with my eyes closed. I have to be able to get past the look of things before I can consider tasting them.

A lot of foods are not visually appealing. Like oysters...I won't go into what they look like, but you catch my meaning.

I don't eat oysters either.

It looks like vomit on a plate, and I bet it is muy caro to boot! I would not, ever ever ever! If one is chasing the latest fad, and wants this then power to him or her. Sorry, but I didn't evidence subtle elegance.