Flavored Icicles

I grew up in Breckenridge, Colorado. I have many memories of grabbing large icicles off of the roofs as I walked to school. The ice was so clear and clean. I have always thought about how I can use nature in my cooking. I have made pine needle caramel and buried potatoes in the earth to cook them. What about a flavored icicle. My kids eat flavor pops, a kind of man made icicle. How could I make one in nature. My own Cloudy with a Chance of Meat Balls?

An icicle forms when snow or ice melts and continuously drips off something sloped, such as a roof or a bridge. The thin layer of water draws heat away from the ice inside, through diffusion, and transfers it to the air next to the icicle. This thin blanket of slightly warmer air, called the boundary layer, rises and is replaced with colder air. The cold air further cools the icicle and turns some of the liquid water into a layer of ice, and the icicle becomes thicker and longer.

If I take a flavored liquid and put in a large 20 gallon bucket with a small hole in the bottom, I can mimic a natural thaw. I will have to make a heat source towards where the liquid comes out so the hole does not freeze shut. What if you could walk out of the Inventing Room and pick your favorite flavor off our candy roof for the ride home.

Edible chalk line

I was building a shed out back yesterday when my father in law pulled out his chalk line. I asked him," What about putting edible powders inside and snapping perfectly straight flavored lines." He looked at me like everyone else does and just laughed and shook his head. Back to the hardwood store!!!

TV Show Idea

Two words Chef Swap. Take a fry cook and put him on the line at the French Laundry or put Thomas Keller in a Elementary school cafeteria for the day. That would be good TV

Are You A Supertaster

I first heard about this when I did the miracle fruit demo at the New York Academy of Science. The premise is simple, some people have more taste buds then other people. It is believed that 20% of the population are super tasters, 60% are regular tasters and another 20% are non tasters. I have really never thought about the fact that a customer might not have the biological make up to enjoy a meal. Super tasters are believed to be attracted to the food industry either working in it or being a foodie. It would be interesting experiment to take a picture of all of the great chefs tongues to see if the theory is correct. My other thought would be to have a scanner at the host stand when the guest walks in. A kind of molecular finger print to determine someones taste profile.

Absolute Zero

I have been fascinated with this subject ever since I wanted to learn how liquid nitrogen was made. Absolute zero is a temperature around -273 C. It is the point when temperature meets pressure. Heat can go up and up but absolute zero is believed to be the coldest point that can be reached. When temperatures almost reach absolute zero, atoms behave in a very weird way. A new matter that is not a solid, liquid or gas is created at this temperature. Atoms no longer have a individual quality to them. They actually mix together and become one wave like structure. I have been trying to think how absolute zero could be used in foods. Imagine isolating atoms of flavor and being able to mix them together, a kind of molecular mixing bowl. Actually building a flavor on a molecular level. I theorize that this is how food could be replicated. If you had a machine that had 100's of different flavored atoms and a process of mixing and emulsifying, you can replicate anything. Absolute zero is not something that I could do in my kitchen today. Only about 10 years ago at a lab 20 minutes away from me in Boulder was absolute zero almost achieved. They had to use lasers and magnetic fields to cool heavier periodic elements to come within a billionth of a degree. It took centuries of scientist and chemist theorizing and experimenting to get where we are today. We take for granted many useful products that were invented because of mans quest for absolute zero. Items like walk-ins , flash freezing, and air conditioning. Without these inovators pushing their boundaries, we would not enjoy the common conveniences of today.

The Vertical Table Prototype

I received my rare earth magnets in the mail the other day for our superconductivity dish. As I was playing with these extremely power full magnets I wondered how else I could use them. I decided I wanted to build a table setting that did not take up a lot of room. I found a metal rod and attached it to a wood base. (For the finished table setting, the rod would be drilled into the middle of the table). We first melted a candle and reformed it with a magnet inside. We also moved the wick so it would burn on a angle. I then filled salt and pepper shakers with nuts so they would stick to our pole. In my next design I will have little metal bowls with tiny wooden spoons to remove the salt and pepper. I then attached some fresh cut flowers and some flat bread. Think about how much room is taken up by all these items. You could have smaller tables in your restaurant, more seats, more revenue. The downside- anyone with a metal plate or a pacemaker.

How To Make Food Float

Ever since I read this article
http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2008/11/geek_in_the_galley.php
I have been researching a food technology fantasy of mine. Floating food. My first thought was superconductivity. I wanted to find a food that was naturally high in metal. Would the small traces like Mercury in tuna be enough to hold the food up in a magnetic field? I then found out that a rare earth magnet is really what levitates. My thoughts of floating tuna or building a hallow metal container that would float and could be opened up to reveal a dish were out. Another down fall to the superconductivity dish is rare earth metals cannot be heated. They release harmful toxins that can kill you. The only option with superconductivity is to use the magnet as a cold "plate". After doing a little more research I came across Sulfur hexafluoride. This is a colorless odorless non-toxic gas.What makes it so interesting is that when you fill a glass with sulfur hexafluoride the molecules are so large that air will float on it. What does this mean? If you made a air texture which we can do with lecithin or egg white powder, it would sit on top of the gas in the glass and have the illusion of it levitating. The problem- it is very expensive and is the most potent of the green house gasses. Next time a get a little time in a lab I will test my theory.

Lego dish

I build blocks a lot with my 2 girls. I was imagining how interesting it would be to give a customer a plate of different flavors of blocks. Different flavor combinations of dishes could be presented like whats on the back of a jelly belly box. 1 red+1 orange+ 1 green= Shrimp cocktail. I like serving dishes that the guest has to use all of there senses to consume a meal. I ordered some silicon today to make a mold that looks like a Lego. If it works I will want my kids to play with their food.