Where Food Meets Science

Where Food Meets Science Ashley: Ever think of having a liquid nitrogen soup or smoking a chocolate cake? Hi, and welcome to watchmojo.com. I’m your host Ashley and today, we have the chance to speak to the world renowned Chef Marc Lepine which is going to show us all of his unique cooking methods. So, can you please tell us a little bit about your methods? Marc: We like to use methods done that are not traditional for the reason that a lot of the new technologies that are coming out are a lot more efficient and what we’ve been used to working with in traditional kitchens. So we prefer induction burners or gas burners, small pieces that we can move around the kitchen. Ashley: And for the first thing that you made us, what was that called? Mark: That was a white beet soup with nitrogen patches and patches are made using the nitrogen instead of boiling water and a little bit of water cress and salami. Ashley: Can you give us the reason and why you used liquid nitrogen? Mark: Liquid nitrogen is minus 200 degrees celsius. There is nothing that is that cold that is attainable for use in a kitchen. Traditional freezers about minus 40 maximum so we can do things like freeze alcohol where is never could before. We can freeze things that are really dense like maple syrup or honey where we could never do that before. Ashley: And the process that you did was? Like liquid noodles and then you froze it right? Mark: Usually when you make especially would be a butter that you would cook in the boiling water but this butter was already cooked and then we pass into the nitrogen freezer. Ashley: And what about the dessert that was called the— Mark: The virtual chocolate cake. So we make a cake pattern instead of cooking it into a pan. It's just a different experience of smoking it instead. Ashley: I have no idea what I’m doing. Mark: And it's meant as a pre-dessert just a warm up to an actual dessert course, almost tease kind of thing. Ashley: And how did you come up with the idea of the virtual chocolate cake? Mark: We kind of get the idea that we wanted to something that is not actually eaten but experienced. I think I just walk by a pipe store and then it kind of click. And I was like, oh, that would be fun. I’m not a smoker but I thought that I would probably enjoy doing that with cakes. We’ve recently discovered in the last 10 and 20 years that 85 to 90% of what were tasting, we’re actually smelling. The dishes is kind of based on that and then we wanted more to be smelling something and in return, you would be tasting it just from the aromas that we get from lighting the cake better. Ashley: So how did you get into the different methods? How did you think of all this? Mark: I just paid attention to some of the new things that are coming. I guess it appeals to me more because I like to try things out when their new. And when you’re cooking everyday with frying pans and pots and traditional ovens and grills and you know when something else comes out naturally, you’re going to be excited about trying it out. Ashley: Thank you very much. Mark: Thank you.