Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

Some are recent inventions. Others are already part of the history of the kitchen. They are all necessary for handle contemporary cuisine with ease and feel comfortable in trendy restaurants.

Today Summum We explain how and where to savor the dishes that have revolutionized and continue to revolutionize traditional cuisine.

This is how the “living salt” of Aponiente works

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

It is one of the newest cooking techniques. Last January, Angel León, chef of Aponiente (3 Michelin stars), took the stage of the gastronomic summit Madrid Fusion willing to surprise the public. Once again, he succeeded. Its “living salt” gives a definite twist to the traditional salt cuisine. It is a mixture of four different salts that make up sea water.

A supersaturated salt with a peculiarity: when it comes into contact with food, changes from a cold liquid to a solid (salt crystals) hot. The temperature, which can reach 135ºC, cooks any type of ingredient instantly. A magic that takes place in front of the diner’s eyes. To savor this magic, obviously, you have to go to Aponiente. There are two tasting menus: Calm sea (195 euros) and Sea in the background (225 euros)

Contemporary kitchen is a sphere

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

La spherification It is one of the landmarks of contemporary cuisine. This technique, which came out of the Bulli de Ferran Adrià For more than fifteen years, he continues to enjoy himself in an extraordinary way. Spherification is a controlled gelation of a liquid preparation. In the process, alginates are used, gelling agents based on brown algae that form gels only in the presence of calcium. To the liquid, of the desired color and flavor, a percentage of alginate is added and then it is immersed, with the help of a syringe or a spoon, in a bath of water with calcium. This is how they are formed those little spheres surrounded of a fine gelatinous layer, which explode in the mouth releasing all the flavor.

A very TOP address to relive this trail of elBulli: Tickets, in Barcelona, ​​one of the group’s restaurants elBarri, led by Albert Adrià. It has 1 Michelin star and its Olives are legend.

From traditional Korean cuisine to haute cuisine with ‘OCOO’

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

It is very common in Korean houses to make traditional dishes. OCOO is a kitchen robot that combines different culinary techniques, subjecting food to double cooking: at controlled pressure and temperature. Without letting the steam escape, keeping all the aromas inside the pot and cooking at a low temperature with total precision.

Two years ago, Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, former chefs of the Bulli, now together in command of the restaurant Enjoy (2 Michelin stars), they began to experiment with this machinery. Black cauliflower with coconut and lime béchamel is one of the restaurant’s dishes that uses this technique. The cauliflower undergoes a total of 17 hours of cooking divided into three different cycles of the “black egg” program. No, it does not burn. What changes radically is its texture and taste. A surprise for the diner.

Liquid nitrogen – pure magic

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

If there is a standard bearer (or a target, for naysayers!) Of techno-emotional cuisine, this is the liquid nitrogen. Its characteristic is that its boiling point is at -196, that is, it remains in a liquid state with very very low temperatures, quickly freezing food. In haute cuisine it is widely used to obtain ice cream and sorbets with a filigree texture. With the plus of the scenic effect that the smoke provides.

The chef Dani Garcia, one of the benchmarks of this technique in Spain, continues to use liquid nitrogen to surprise its guests. Nitro Almadraba Tuna Tataki is on the menu both from BIBO Marbella as in Madrid.

Enigma: what does the glass taste like?

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

They say that they have been improving the recipe for a few months and that they finally have it. The Enigma team (another establishment of elBarri, also with 1 star) officially welcomes the “Glass bread”. This bite, which makes a nod to the traditional Catalan pa de vidre, is crunchy, completely transparent and has a neutral flavor.

It is made with water and potato starch. And, at least for now, we have no further details. It is served with ham fat and black truffle and is one of the 40 passes that make up the exclusive tasting menu from the Barcelona restaurant.

Sweet, salty, cold, hot

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

Foams They are another hallmark of techno-emotional cuisine. These are hot or cold preparations made from creams, purees, liquids to which a little gelatin is previously added. The liquid is introduced into a siphon that works with nitrous oxide cartridges under pressure that pressurize what is inside the bottle once actuated.

The result is a light cream that gives a lot of play in the kitchen. !Including yours, because the siphon is very easy to use! To try: the Cream of seafood with cauliflower foam from Zalacain.

Visually playing with the diner

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

A “rubber” duck that tastes of tangerine and gingerbread ice cream (made with a siphon). What would contemporary cuisine be without trompe l’oeil?

This is how the chef plays with the diner Samuel Moreno in the boutique hotel restaurant Relais & ChâteauxAlcuneza Mill. A gastronomic space in Sigüenza that looks for the first time this year 1 Michelin star. Fun is a must in haute cuisine.

Perfection simmers

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

La low temperature cooking It consists of subjecting the food to mild temperatures, between 50º C and 100º C. Another determining factor is time. A precision game that for some years now we can also practice at home with tools such as Rocook.

This technique allows to achieve the optimum cooking point for each food, enhancing its flavor, preserving its properties and achieving a surprising texture. The Girona restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, where they shine 3 Michelin stars, is a pioneer in this technique. Without a doubt, the most TOP address to savor it.

The kitchen blows up

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

It was the year 2003. Ferran Adrià appeared on the cover of the Sunday supplement of the New York Times holding a carrot look just above the headline ‘The Nueva Nouvelle Cuisine’. The rest is history.

Carrot, tangerine, strawberry. We can turn a liquid or juice into soap-like bubbles simply by adding the phospholipid lecithin. Is about a natural emulsifier (found in egg yolk or soybeans) that reduces the surface tension of one liquid dispersed in another. This results in a stable, light and creamy fat droplet emulsion. Cobo Vintage, Michelin star located in Burgos, makes an air of sea fennel for its roasted Cantabrian Norway lobster.

From tradition to the future through vacuum making

Ten Haute Cuisine techniques that will surprise you

The only flamenco tablao in the world with a Michelin star, the Corral de la Morería offers every day and only at night a tasting menu for eight lucky diners.

One of his most incredible dishes is a radically contemporary version of the Intxaursalsa, the sweet nut-based soup typical of Basque cuisine. Is a iced mousse that uses the vacuum technique to achieve a unique texture, similar to a frozen sponge that melts once in the mouth like cotton candy. First prepare the foam, then vacuum packed to aerate it and finally deep-frozen with a blast chiller at -30º C. An ethereal elaboration with an intense nutty flavor.

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