Foam, Air, and Anti-Foam

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

As this decade comes to a close, it might be nice to look back on some of the most influential cooking trends of the last ten years. Whether or not you realized it, not so much a trend as a revolution in cooking began over twenty years ago across the pond in a little town called Roses on the Costa Brava in Spain. That revolution was called molecular gastronomy, a phenomenon that wouldn't coalesce into a movement until this decade.

Its headquarters was a seaside restaurant called El Bulli. Like any good revolution, the movement had a leader and his name was Ferran Adria, now considered by some to be the best chef in the world. Every yin needs its yang, so as the revolution’s star has risen so too has a counter revolution, but we’ll get to that later.

Act 1: Foam: Foodies, fine diners, or simply devotees of Top Chef would all agree that “foam” might be the culinary trend of the last decade. To find the roots of this sometimes gimmicky, sometimes sublime technique one must go back to the source, none other than the leader of the Spanish culinary revolution, Ferran Adria. Adria assumed the position of head chef of the then well established restaurant El Bulli (now called elBulli) in 1987, a move that would prove pivotal in his ability to expand creativity in the kitchen. Working under the maxim “creativity means not copying” the El Bulli team worked toward a method they eventually titled technique-concept in the early nineties, the idea that new recipes should evolve from the creation of new techniques and new concepts, not just reworking existing ideas already put forth by others. Foam was born of this movement.

I distinctly remember my first encounter with foam. It was at a special dinner overseen by then executive chef of Lespinasse in New York City, Christian Delouvrier. As part of a small group of vegetarians (a six year personal phase) at this dinner, in lieu of the meat course we received a special creation of cauliflower ravioli in curried foam. It was by far the most unique and memorable dish of the eight course meal.

Foam is a technique of taking a concentrated flavor such as a stock reduction, espresso, or vegetable juice and making it, well, foam. This can be done by whipping the liquid with a tool like an immersion blender and using the resulting foam. For most chefs, this technique is applied by mixing the liquid with a stabilizing agent like agar and then putting it through a siphon bottle outfitted with nitrous oxide cartridges. At some point in the past few years foam has become trendy to the point of becoming a punch line, as with the case of Marcel from Season 2 of Top Chef who used foam in nearly every dish he produced.

Act 2: Air: Molecular gastronomy is defined as the discipline of the studying the scientific processes that occur when cooking. Although the term, as coined in a paper published in 1988 by scientists Hervé This and Nicholas Kurti refer only to the science of cooking, in the last decade as chefs began to embrace the Ferran Adria style of using science to enhance technique, the term molecular gastronomy has also been used to describe the culinary movement of cooking with science.

As the movement spread round the globe, forward-thinking chefs have fought to be the one to invent the next “it” technique. After tackling foam, Adria had to move on to a technique that would produce a result that could only be lighter than foam: air. “Air” was created by mixing the emulsifier, soy lecithin (think the element that makes mayonnaise thick) with a liquid such as unsweetened hot chocolate. The liquid was foamed up, spooned into a baking dish, and frozen. The frozen foam was rich in taste yet so light in texture it could only be called one thing: air.

Act 3: The Anti-Foam: Any good revolution is bound to inspire a counter-revolution. The molecular gastronomy revolution is no different. With all the Marcels of the world trying to out-do each other with cleverness, there are bound to be those like Kevin from this past season’s Top Chef who are going to go up against the molecular movement in favor of bold flavors cooked classically. The counter revolution is out to prove now that cooking complex interesting food does not require mail ordering chemical compounds.

The counter revolution, or anti-foam movement as I like to call it, is a time for the home cook to rejoice. Foams are interesting but impractical for everyday eating. The anti-foam movement reassures us that we can still enjoy the wonder of cooking and the pleasure of eating with pure flavors and fresh ingredients.

In conclusion, the evolution of gastronomy will continue. The breakthroughs of science will continue to wow us food lovers and but at the end of the day all those foams and airs might just send us back to the place we love the most: our own kitchens. Where food is familiar, but small innovations in our understanding of cooking can lead to personal culinary revolutions every day.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/2 pounds cod fillets
• salt and pepper