What happens when the head chef of the UO’s central kitchen meets a lecture demonstrator in the chemistry department?
Molecular gastronomy – spreading the good word of chemistry through the scientific side of cooking.
Doug Lang, head chef of the UO's central kitchen, has teamed up with Randy Sullivan, a lecture demonstrator in the chemistry department, to advance this concept on campus.
Molecular gastronomy refers to the process of taking ordinary ingredients, such as carrots and beets, and shape-shifting them with a chemist's potions, supplies and techniques, changing their molecular structure. In the kitchens of high-end restaurants that feature such cuisine on their menus, dehydrators, immersion circulators, and centrifuges – even a cauldron of –195°C liquid nitrogen – share counter space with more traditional cookware, like roasting and soufflé pans.
Sullivan's demos are a hit with students because they bring abstract scientific processes dramatically to life. To demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure, he poured a bucket of water into a 55-gallon steel drum and boiled it until the drum filled with steam, then sealed the drum and doused it with cold water, causing the steam inside to condense. The audience gasped as the steel drum collapsed like a flimsy soda can.
On a recent evening at the new Global Scholars Hall, Sullivan, Lang and sous chef Shawn Savage prepared a three-act menu.
Dinner began with a plate of salad greens dotted with caviar-like spheres of carrot and beet juice. To create these spheres, Lang added calcium lactate and agar-agar to the juices, then piped drops of the liquid into a sodium alginate bath—"reverse spherification," Sullivan explained. The result is a gel capsule that pops in the mouth, releasing the vegetable juice.
Savage made a straightforward scallop ceviche (see recipe below) while Sullivan described the chemical process that allows lime and orange juices to denature the scallops' long chains of molecules, "cooking" the seafood without heat.
For dessert? “Cryogenic custard." The chefs dunked chocolate Pirouette cookies in brandy, and Sullivan obligingly flambéd them with a blowtorch. Lang used liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze a vanilla custard base, and the resulting ice cream had a silken-smooth texture from setting up so fast.
Lang and Sullivan put on the first of these science shows in 2011, their presentation one of several Community Conversations, a series of events brainstormed and organized by students and held in the UO's many residence halls.
The demonstration was a far cry from Lang's usual duties overseeing 35 cooks as they slice, dice and steam $3 million worth of groceries every year for the university's dining halls. "I have a lot more experience with egg cookery than reverse spherification," Lang said.
- abridged from a story by Paige Parker, for Oregon Quarterly
Scallop Ceviche
Shawn Savage, sous chef in the UO's central kitchen, offers this basic recipe as a simple and succulent introduction for DIY molecular gastronomes. The ceviche is delicious on its own, but if you're feeling adventuresome, recipes for the dish's other components—avocado espuma and LN2 dust—may be found at OregonQuarterly.com.
1 pound bay scallops, cleaned and chopped
2 shallots, minced
½ jalapeno, minced
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
¾ cup orange juice
cilantro for garnish
Mix all ingredients together and marinate in the refrigerator for four to six hours. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve chilled. Serves four to six.