[liquid hissing] michael brenner: so we should start. so it's really a great pleasuretoday to have the voltaggio brothers. clap. [applause] it's really awesome. and as you see, they're going toput on quite an exciting show. but before we start, we have acouple of other items of business. and today actually, one of themis here we have professor rob
lue, who's in charge of harvardx. harvardx is the onlineversion of harvard. and it's one of our most importantsponsors in this entire venture. and so we're very grateful to you. and i just asked rob, since he's here,if he could say a few words to you. rob. robert lue: thank you, michael. it's really a rare moment in lifewhere you have so many favorites sort of come together in one room.
and i think for me this isone of those special moments. so science and cookinghas always been, i think, one of the paradigms for us trulyexploring the variety of places that learning can take place. learning takes place in the classroom. but as all of you in thisroom know, learning also takes place in thekitchen, in the workplace, while you're on vacation,at every moment of the day. so one of the issues thatharvardx really tries to tackle
is how can we creategreater opportunities for the world across every conceivableplatform, in every conceivable setting? so for us, it's been a great pleasureto work so closely with michael, pia, and david on theenormous sort of efforts that they have done in bringingscience and cooking to the world, but also bringing it toharvard students as well. so i think for us itreally represents one of those great examplesof the degree to which you can apply sort of learning ina very wide range of settings
and using a variety of approaches. so learning, i think, is one of thosethings that we care deeply about. and i think michael, pia, anddavid absolutely do that as well. as i think we'll see tonight, thevoltaggio brothers do as well. but the other thing that i think isincredibly powerful is creativity. and quite often when you think aboutscience, unfortunately many of us think of science as all factsand figures and nothing else. but what we also know is thatscience really depends on creativity. it depends on solvingproblems under constraints
and really trying tothink outside of the box. and i've had the privilege ofdining at both ink and volt, the two restaurants thatour master chefs represent. and i have to say becausei'm in california more often than i am in maryland,i've also had the privilege of eating the entireink menu, not at once, but over four sittings with friends. and so one thing that i can alsosay is that both of these chefs really represent, not just greatcuisine, not just a great opportunity
to learn, but as ithink we'll see tonight and as i've tasted personally,that burst of creativity, that pushing of the envelope, thatsurprise that always takes you to a different place andchanges how you view the world. so on behalf of harvardx,i'm truly honored and we're all honored tobe a part of this event. thank you. michael brenner: sonow what i'm supposed to do for the next severalminutes is talk about emulsions,
which is the scientifictopic of tonight, that you will see before you in spades. in the harvard class that accompaniesthis lecture, we have a lab. actually, the students did it last week. and the lab was basicallymaking mayonnaise and lime foam. and you will notice-- you all haveto clap-- this is our equation. and you see we have this bizarretradition, when we have these equations and people clap. and it's that much humor in this.
and so this is the limefoam that is created. but what i want to talkabout is something else, which is that yesterday was halloween. how many of you went trick or treating? audience: it wasn't yesterday. michael brenner: oh,no, it wasn't yesterday. recently, it was halloween. so actually because it washalloween, if you go to cvs, you can buy this candyvery cheaply, which i did,
in preparation for this event. and here i have candy. now, is the candy a solid or a liquid? audience: solid. michael brenner: whatabout if i pour it? michael brenner: now, it's a liquid. so you see if i can do thatto it, now it's a liquid. it flows. do you notice?
but now it's a solid. ok. so i'm going someplace withthis, so marbles, packing. volume fraction, that wasthe equation from last week. so the volume fraction is what you do isyou take the total volume of the candy and you divide by the volumeof space that it occupies. now, in this candy you see thetotal volume that it occupies is not equal to the total volume ofthe candy because there's gaps in it. there's air.
there's free space. so have any of you ever entered tocount the jelly beans in a jar contest? so the reason that youcan't win-- well, there are several reasonswhy it's hard to win. one is you have to knowthe volume of the jar. you're not allowed to weigh the jar. if you weigh the jaryou could always win. because you would weigh the jarand then you would weigh the candy. and you would win.
but you're not allowed to do that. and so what you have to do is estimatehow much free space there is in the jar because the jar is notdensely packed with candy. and it turns out there'sa rule of thumb that is very important in this regard,which is that it turns out that if the candy were spheres,they were spherical objects, then there's a number, which is64%, which is the volume of space that the candy occupies. so 36% of it is free space.
if it's m&ms, then itturns out it's about 70%. so somewhere around 30%of it is free space. now, this is very importantfor tonight's lecture. i'm going to convince you guys of this. you don't have to believe me. but i'm going to try to convince them. michael voltaggio: we're with you. michael brenner: andthis is very important. and i want to basicallytell you about this.
so the point is that when the volumefraction is less than 64% or so, then it's a liquid. that's why when i did this-- [rattling] --it flowed. when it's 64% or bigger, thanit has an elastic modulus. it's a solid. so you can plot the elasticityas a function of volume fraction. and there's a criticalvolume fraction, which
is 64%, where basicallythe thing becomes a solid. and as you continue to compress it abovethat, it becomes more and more stiff. the reason i'm telling you thisis that the physics of emulsions is exactly the same as what i just said. so what is the physics of emulsions? so now emulsions-- i mean we're goingto see lots of emulsions in front of us. i mean foams, cappuccino foam,whipped cream, mayonnaise, aioli, these are things that people, youall, many of us cook every day. and the way that you cook them isthat you take some elements, often
oil and water or water and air,with a little bit of chemical, stuff like that, and you put itin a jar and you mix it very hard, which is presumably why youguys have this breville mixture here because you're goingto mix it very hard. michael voltaggio: that justgive away the whole thing. no surprises now. michael brenner: and noticethey've got this attachment. there's this thing whichbasically is for whipping. so the question is why is it thatif you pour the stuff-- well,
i don't know what you'regoing to pour in there. but whatever it is, you'regoing to mix something. and what's going tohappen is that they're going to make a foam or an emulsion. and if you were to take a pictureit under the microscope, what you would see is this. this is a picture of hellmann'smayonnaise under the microscope. and what it consists of is droplets. there are little dropletsof oil and water.
now, we have a microscope here. so we're prepared for your lecture. but can anyone tell mewhat the volume fraction is of-- first of all, ismayonnaise a solid or a liquid? audience: it's a solid. michael brenner: it's a solid. i mean, it's not a very strong solid. i mean if you stood on, you'd crush it. i mean you can a paper clipon top of it and it'll be ok.
so it's sort of like a solid. and the reason that it's a solid isbecause there are those droplets. now, can anyone tell me what thevolume fraction is of those droplets? audience: 64%. michael voltaggio: 64%. so you see. so it's the same asthe candy in the jar. so what you're trying todo is pack things together. and by mixing your packing-- this is apicture of aioli under the microscope.
there are packings of little droplets. and you can have varioustypes of emulsions. there's oil and water emulsions,where there's oil droplets and water. there's water and oil emulsions, inwhich there's water droplets in oil. and there are variousquestions one can ask. how do you make the droplets? well, you're going towatch droplets be made. when that machine turns on, you canguarantee droplets are being made. it's actually amazing that itmakes them, that the thing works.
because the droplets arepretty small actually. and you just turn the damn thing onand then pretty soon thereafter you've got like 10 micron-sized droplets. and you can't even see them. bryan voltaggio: that'swhy your job's so easy. michael brenner: that'swhy-- well, i can't do it. bryan voltaggio: just turn your mic on. michael brenner: i mean,in fact, what color is it? so if you notice that mayonnaiseis white-- has anyone noticed that?
have you guys noticed that? bryan voltaggio: yeah. michael voltaggio: yeah. michael brenner: youknow why it's white? does anybody know whymayonnaise is white? bryan voltaggio: i've made ityellow with saffron though too. michael brenner: yeah. you can put coloring init and make it yellow. but does anybody knowwhy mayonnaise is white?
because you don't start outwith white substances, right? you start out with clear substances. it ends up being white. why is it white? audience: it bends the light. michael brenner: it bends the light. do you know what thewavelength of light is? audience: you're the teacher. [laughter]
michael brenner: does anybodyknow what the wavelength of the light in this room is? audience: 400 to 700 nanometers. michael brenner: what's the unit? audience: nanometers. michael brenner: well, nanometersis-- sort of hundred of microns, sort of hundreds of nanometers. but the point is that it hasto be that big to bend light. so these droplets aresmall to bend the light.
and so they're sort ofmicron-sized droplets. we'll see under the microscope,a little bit bigger than that. so, ok, packings of droplets--droplets, emulsion techniques. i'm giving away your lecture. sorry. droplets, moving-- bryan voltaggio: i'm just a cook. michael brenner: you're cooking. emulsions, droplets, i'mjust showing you pictures.
bryan voltaggio: we'reactually just cooking dinner. michael brenner: surfactants,droplets, mayonnaise-- mayonnaise, we had a mayonnaise making competition. this is cool. we asked people how much mayonnaisecould you make with a single egg? this was stealing an idea-- bryan voltaggio: i used to winthat in my kitchens, by the way. michael brenner: did you always win? how much did you make?
bryan voltaggio: oh, yes. i used to make a whole rib [inaudible]. i don't know if youunderstand what that is. it's like a cuisinart mixer. michael voltaggio: he's cheating. he's using a machine. bryan voltaggio: one [inaudible]. michael voltaggio: youdon't have to go to the gym. if you just make mayonnaise, you can--
bryan voltaggio: i would throw--i would throw-- i would cheat. i would throw xanthan gum in there. and i didn't tell anybody. michael brenner: andan interesting question is how does that make it better? but anyway, there aretoo many questions. i've said enough. you all know about emulsions now. i present you the voltaggio brothers.
michael voltaggio: normally, i thinkeveryone usually thanks harvard for inviting them. it's a huge honor. it is for us. but we want to thank the long listof people that weren't available to speak here tonight so that weactually got to come and do this. so thank you for those guys that are-- bryan voltaggio: not showing up. michael voltaggio: those ladiesand gentlemen that are busy.
good evening, harvard. i never thought i'd say that. my mom never thoughti'd say that either. bryan voltaggio: i neverthought you'd say that either. michael voltaggio: i didn't haveto apply or pay for it either. so that's good. we're going to try and do awhole six course tasting menu in however much time you say we have. how much time do we have?
an hour. so if somebody wants tovolunteer and tell us? because we'll get lost in this and thenyou guys will be here until tomorrow. so we want to make sure thatthis-- you'll let us know. so the first dish is going to be a foam. to me, a foam in scientificterms in the kitchen means a fancy word that you can use fora sauce and charge more money for it. it's called a foam,easily five more dollars. that's the science behind it for us.
so it's actually math. this isn't a math lecture. no. bryan voltaggio: economics. michael voltaggio: it's not. michael voltaggio: wrong class. you guys are in the wrong class yeah. how to take yogurt and turnit into a lot of money. for us, a foam, i think theeasiest way to understand
it is trapping a gasinside a liquid or a solid. so inside this thing is some yogurt,some buttermilk, some roasted garlic, and a little bit of salt.and then this is no2. you put that in, the gas goes in. and then when we shake it up andput it out, you get the foam. and so you're saying, well,why would you do that? why would you do thatfor this cucumber salad? this dish is based on a tzatziki,a normal dish of cucumber, yogurt, usually some lemon, some zaatar,a delicious dish, one of my favorites.
but we take dishes likethat and we try and add a little bit of that creativeprocess or creativity to it and figure out a way tomake it a little bit more unique, a little bit different. and so with this one, we'readding the no2, creating the foam. and that wasn't goingto be the end of it. and then we have to freeze everything. i mean now this stuffis available to us too. so this is at whole foods ithink, in the frozen food section.
you can buy liquid nitrogen.and so if you take yogurt and you just drop it into the nitrogen, it's going to freeze andturn into an ice cube. and then when you put it into yourmouth, it's going to crack your teeth. and then that yogurt that you chargedall that money for, you're now going to get sued, to pay somebodyback for the tooth that you just broke. so it's actually nota good way to do that. and so we had to figureout a way to not get sued when we put frozenyogurt in front of people,
without cracking their teeth. and so we add the gas to it. it turned it into a foam. we're going to extract thefoam into the nitrogen. and that's going to be thedressing for the cucumber salad. so the rest of it is pretty basic. we've got some cucumbers here. been vacuum packed to kind of takesome of that atmosphere out of it. is that pretty accurate?
take some of the atmosphereout of it, or not. it sounded fancy, right? so this is just a cucumberthat's been vacuum packed with a little bit of its own juice. i'm going to cut it up. this is oblique. did you know that word, oblique? bryan voltaggio: well, the cool thingis when you compress the cucumber, it changes the structure of it.
it actually gives ita different texture. it's not as crisp. but it actually has-- it's still crisp. but it still has a chew. and it's actually really delicious. it compresses the cellwalls of the vegetable and actually almost juices itself. when you cut into it, it startsto kind of ooze out a little bit. and so it just tastes morelike cucumber somehow.
michael voltaggio: ithink it just looks cool. bryan voltaggio: it looks cool too. it changes the color. who's ever seen a cucumberthat looks this color? don't look at the shape. this-- come on. this is harvard. so there's lemon oil inside thebowl, a little bit of lemon juice. we're going to add someacid to it, to season it.
a little bit of salt overhere, i've got some flake salt. and again, this is just abasic, simple cucumber salad you can make at home if you've gotliquid nitrogen, and no2, and all that stuff sittingaround in the cabinet, and a really great descriptionof what emulsions and foams are. if you have that too in your head,then you can put this together at home. so these are our cucumbers. it's seasoned a little bit of lemonoil, some lemon juice, some salt, and some zaatar.
so it's got that middle easternsort of flavor going on. and then i'm going to put a coupleof these into a bowl, like this. this bowl i actually madein the back with some clay that we took out of theground, underneath the school. oh, we went away to williams-somomaand actually bought then. and then here, i've gotsome charred shallots. and these are just shallots that i stuckonto a cast iron pan, charred slightly. and then basically just vacuum packedthem with a little bit of vinegar. and so it's like a quick pickle.
do you know this word, quickle? have you heard that? this is a quickle. bryan voltaggio: it's webster's2016 word of the year. michael voltaggio: and soif you look up quickle, you might not find it anywhere. and the last thing is our foam. so the foam, like i said, i've gotnitrogen here, liquid nitrogen here. and so basically because--
bryan voltaggio: oop, my fault. michael voltaggio: alittle bit more salt. you know, the foam, the gas that'sbeen trapped inside the liquid or the solid-- in this case,it's yogurt, buttermilk, a little bit of lemon juice,some salt, some roasted garlic. we're going to extractit into the nitrogen so that it's airy and light and fluffy. so that when we put itonto the plate, it's not just frozen ice cubes ofyogurt that break your teeth.
and i get sued and i don't get invitedback to talk about food at harvard anymore. so basically, righthere we've got our foam. we'll just do this. we're going to get a littlebit more air into it. how much of that is on my face already? not much. bryan voltaggio: oh, just a little bit. here, let me get you.
there you go. michael voltaggio: do we get introuble if we make a mess up here? we can do whatever we want? really? bryan voltaggio: no. no, no, no, no. i already know where that's going. michael voltaggio:you'll see [inaudible]. bryan voltaggio: i'vedone this way too much.
michael voltaggio: oh,you'll get in trouble. did you watch gallagher, the comedian? the front row-- i had thisconversation with him earlier. he made everyone wear trash bagsin the front row for his show because he was alwaysexploding stuff [inaudible]. bryan voltaggio: don'tshoot them with your foam. michael voltaggio: the only problemno one brought trash bags tonight. audience: [inaudible] michael voltaggio: so asyou can see, that's a foam.
and so i did my job. i can leave. you see, i made a foam. michael brenner: i can't wait. michael voltaggio: there'sa foam right there. bryan voltaggio: do you wantto put that on a microscope? well, not in that bowl. here, i'll get a spoon for you. michael brenner: here we--
michael voltaggio: while they'redoing the unimportant stuff-- bryan voltaggio: here-- michael voltaggio: --i'mgoing to finish my dish. bryan voltaggio: i'll come around. michael voltaggio: sowe're still on the air. we're not paying attention to them. bryan voltaggio: you got it? michael brenner: this is so great. michael voltaggio: is that evencalibrated, that microscope over there?
do you calibrate microscopes? michael brenner: absolutely. michael voltaggio: ok. so now the foam is inthe nitrogen. there's gas trapped inside ofthat liquid or solid. and so now i can just break that up. [chopping] and it's a lot lighter than just ifi were to put the yogurt straight in, right out of the container.
and so then you end up with rocks thatare edible because the air is-- right? am i pretty close? you're good. michael voltaggio: and so i'm goingto break them up, take these rocks. bryan, you're very quiet tonight. what's going on? usually you're, like,critiquing me by now. bryan voltaggio: i'llsave that for later. we got a lot of courses left.
michael voltaggio: and theni've got some fresh-- i know we're not doing too well on time. i just took up half the-- bryan voltaggio: oh, we're good. michael voltaggio: some fresh mint. bryan voltaggio: i'mgoing to step ahead, chef. michael voltaggio: i've got some dill. i've got some parsley. why is everybody so quiet?
is that good when peoplearen't talking in class. i mean if you're teacher and everybody--that means they're listening. they're listening. they're fascinated by what you're doing. michael voltaggio: i'mfascinated by what i'm doing. these are cucumber flowers. we call them cuke blooms inthe street, just so you know. bryan voltaggio: the mystery. yes.
michael voltaggio: mom, i'membarrassing you at harvard. and was that everything? yeah. i mean it's like a tzatziki. it's cucumbers. it's a frozen yogurt and garlictzatziki foam and some cuke flowers, cuke blooms in the street,some dill, some fresh mint, a little bit of parsley. and again, i mean it'sjust a cucumber salad.
but that's the first dish. so we've got a couplemore, a couple more to go. michael brenner: so weshould show-- so now look, here's your foam under the microscope. watch. did you see that? it's a bubble. it's sort of a thick foam. michael voltaggio: that'swhat it's supposed to be.
that's exactly what it'ssupposed to look like. michael brenner: but you can see. michael voltaggio: i was going for that. bryan voltaggio: so i'm goingto jump into the next dish. and actually before we get started,i think it might be curious. i have a broken emulsion here. so i'm going to startwith a broken one and then try to repair it and see if it works. so i was wondering if youwant to take maybe some of--
we want some emulsion. bryan voltaggio: --this andput it on-- i don't know what the-- is that the petri dish, right? michael brenner: just a little bit. michael voltaggio: i knowit doesn't look like food. but it tastes it tastes like food. it does. bryan voltaggio: and it mightbe difficult to get that. oh, i think you got both.
michael brenner: [inaudible] bryan voltaggio: we'll just see. because then i guess you couldtell if i do my job or not. so the next dish is-- ithink i'm going to talk a little bit about my childhood. when i was growing up, i usedto love oatmeal in the morning. but i used to take oatmeal andpour brown sugar, and more sugar, and cinnamon, and all the thingsthat are really not good for you. and just put more and moreand more of it on there.
i liked it really sweet. so obviously, when you're a child,you're craving carbohydrates and sugar. and as i grew up, i still love that ideaof that really luxurious porridge that was luxurious to me when i was a child. but then as i got older, iwanted something super-savory. so i made the complete opposite of that. so this is a very savory porridge, madewith mushrooms, and kombu, and soy, and all of those things. do you need some more?
bryan voltaggio: thisis definitely broken. you can tell by looking at it. michael voltaggio: do youguys all know each other? everyone is just-- bryan voltaggio: there you go. it's horrible. michael voltaggio: cambridgeis a small town, huh? everyone just-- bryan voltaggio: so to get to camera,right, i need to move over here.
so in here, what i have in the porridgeis some shiitake mushrooms; again, some steel-cut oats. it's been pressure cookedwith some milk too, as well. just to crack the grain and to make itlike a really great savory porridge. and that's part's been done. and it takes about 18minutes in a pressure cooker to make the whole thing. and then basically that part is it. so my breakfast takes alittle bit longer now.
i can't do it with quick oats. then what i have hereis we have an emulsion that we make with yeast, beer, lemon. and then we use two hydrocolloids toactually help emulsify and stabilize a sauce. and what it is is we take brownbutter and we start with that first. and we roast yeastbecause i love the aroma and the flavor of fresh baked bread. and yeast is something thatobviously plays a big part in that.
but as a sauce, it'scompatible with beer. because beer, obviouslyfermentation and the yeast that's developed in the beer process. by taking cake yeast or soft yeastand roasting that in the butter, it just really helpsto accent the sauce. now, it's naturally startingto come together on its own because actually it willemulsify on its own. michael brenner: look. michael voltaggio: oh, that'scompletely broken, right?
michael brenner: oh, his isway cooler looking than mine. bryan voltaggio: so nowwhat i'm going to do is-- michael brenner: and he's [inaudible]. bryan voltaggio: i know. i came prepared, chef. michael brenner: there's evenan arrow in the middle of it. audience: is there really? michael brenner: how did you do that? bryan voltaggio: oh, iplaced that in the bottom.
and so over here i have soy lecithin,which works as not only an emulsifier, but also it helps suspend air. so i want to make bubbles. i want to create bubbles in my sauce. but i also have xanthangum too because i want to thicken it slightly so ihave a better viscosity in the sauce. so that way i can get a greatmouth feel and a finish. so i'm going to try to hold thiswith my belly and then-- oh. [grinding]
and then i'm going to use theimmersion blender to help emulsify the hydrocolloids into the sauce. right now, you can'tsee this, right, at all. so i need to maybe come to here. can we see this? audience: yeah. bryan voltaggio: ok. there we go. so now you can seeit's becoming a thicker
sauce as the xantham gum is startingto bring the emulsion together. obviously, the agitation is alsohelping in the emulsion too as well. and i'm creating little bubbles. and then that's going tobe almost mayonnaise-like. so i'm going to add a little bitof stock to that just to thin it a little bit. michael voltaggio: i'm justdoing dishes, cleaning up. bryan voltaggio: there we go. so the emulsion is all together now.
and i'm going to start to platebecause what i'm going to do is i want to froth this right beforei plate it because obviously it needs to look good whenit goes out to the table. so i want to have this bubblesuspended in the sauce. so it's more of an a la minute finishthat we do it at the restaurant. michael voltaggio: thatmeans at the minute. bryan voltaggio: at the minute. i also have some mushrooms too. michael voltaggio: speaking,today is his french class too.
bryan voltaggio: sooriginally what i do is i cook the mushrooms enpapillote, which means in paper. and it's a classic frenchcooking term that's used to describe just putting abunch of things into some paper, rolling it up, andputting it into the oven. i don't have an oven here today. so what we did is we justpreroasted some mushrooms. and i'm going to warm uplightly with some butter. and then we'll place it over the top.
michael voltaggio: sothis is that cheating. bryan voltaggio: it's called cheating. you see, i cheated. you see there, i cooked. michael voltaggio: man, lookat the paper and the way it's like it's popped in the oven. bryan voltaggio: it's beautiful, right? michael voltaggio: en papillote,we could say in the papillote. bryan voltaggio: in the papillote, yes.
michael voltaggio: no. you guys laughed. so i mean-- so i'm going to come over here andplace some of the porridge right in the middle of the plate. i have enough for theentire crowd it looks like. some more butter, some pepper. we'll add a little stock here and we'llmake a quick emulsion or pan sauce. i read a little bittoday about emulsions
obviously because i wascoming here to talk about it. and milk, milk is an emulsion. did you know when you drink milk,you're drinking an emulsion? i thought that was pretty cool. i just thought it was milk. so every time i'm going to have it now,i'm going to have a glass of emulsion every time. like, yeah, i'm going to havea cold glass of emulsion. put some emulsion on yourcereal, chocolate emulsion.
i mean, think of all the thingsyou could-- milk, it's an emulsion. bryan voltaggio: i cooked the oatswith an emulsion, right, with milk. so placing some of themushrooms over the top. it does look a little bit-- thepresentation is a little bit greater coming to the tableand cutting the paper. so i do apologize about that part. in fact, there's now-- michael voltaggio: you're actinglike there's 300 people watching you. michael voltaggio: ithink it looks amazing.
bryan voltaggio: some more water. right there, yup. michael voltaggio:while he's doing that, i didn't have any-- ihaven't had dinner yet. so i'm just going to-- canyou guys smell this out there? you can, right? it's really good. here. wait.
are you guys hungry? it's like dinner time right now, right? and you're here, sitting down,watching us cook, and smell our-- yeah. bryan voltaggio: it's not fair. so this is savory oats,with roasted wild mushrooms, an emulsion of beer, and yeast, andbutter, and some tatsoi over the top. and then that's it, as simple as that. now, you want to put some of the sauceon-- i mean we'll see if i did my job. michael brenner: i admire the bubbles.
we could try to put it under. but you can see the bubbles. we don't need a microscope. michael brenner: we don'teven need a microscope yet. bryan voltaggio: good. because if i did it wrong,i don't want to get-- michael brenner: i don't we'regoing to be able to see through it because it's too thick. but you can see them.
bryan voltaggio: well, i can actually-- michael brenner: do you want to see it? bryan voltaggio: let us see. michael brenner: oh,they want to see it. bryan voltaggio: i'm curious. michael voltaggio: wait. oh, yeah. bryan voltaggio: we can see that? michael voltaggio: oh, they're huge.
bryan voltaggio: perfect. michael voltaggio: ibrought my own microscope. bryan voltaggio: hey, it worked. all right. i made bubbles. michael voltaggio: he made an emulsion. i am good at what i do. michael voltaggio: whenyou learn how to do that? bryan voltaggio: i had no idea.
thank you, harvard. michael voltaggio: igot them to eat my meal. they ate my meal faster. they should put it upon that [inaudible]. bryan voltaggio: the hastags are goingbe like-- oh, they're going to be good. they're going to be good. i can make bubbles. michael voltaggio: all right. are we-- we're still cooking.
bryan voltaggio: yes, we are. michael voltaggio: and they'restill watching us cook. the next dish. we do a dish at therestaurant, egg yolk gnocchi. it's a gnocchi without starch. everyone's gluten free now. so we needed to solve that problem. and in la, they pretty muchdon't eat anything anyway. we're working on a water gnocchi.
but no one thinks that sounds delicious. so for now, it's egg yolk gnocchi. so i've got here inthis bag-- temperature for us is somethingthat i think is crucial, understanding how different temperatureswork with different foods and things like that. and so in this bag, we've got egg yolks. they've been cooked at 67degrees celsius for an hour and then blended with some olive oil.
the olive oil is emulsified into it. and the only thing that's inside of thisis actually egg yolks and olive oil. so it's been cooked and thenblended into, like, a pudding. and that sounds good. i mean that's actuallywhat we made first. and so that was the basis for, like,a bearnaise sauce or something. i thought i was cool. and i was spreading, like, allthis yellow stuff onto a plate and putting pickled shallotsand tarragon on top of it.
and again, calling it bearnaiseand charging a lot of money for it. and so i wanted tofigure out how i could charge more money for the egg yolks. eggs are expensive. bryan voltaggio: six cents. michael voltaggio: so wemade gnocchi out of it. and basically what we'vegot here is, like i said, the egg yolks and the olive oil. i've got a pot of boiling water.
and i'm going to getto that in a second. but the sauce-- we'rein massachusetts, right? i was going to say mainebecause it's lobster. but lobster in massachusetts, it'spopular here because it's delicious. and so i wanted to addlobster to the dish. and then for me, lobster and drawnbutter, those two things like that's like peanut butter andjelly or brian and michael. like those things just go together. we're more like an emulsion.
we're an emulsion. michael voltaggio: two things thatdon't belong together that are just-- bryan voltaggio: best. michael voltaggio: --together. thanks mom. this guy-- all right. so normally with stocksor sauces, you have to reduce the sauces to be ableto emulsify the fat into it. sometimes you have toplay with the temperature,
add a little bit of cold cream to it,get it down, or find that sweet spot to get a perfect emulsion. now, by using xanthan gum, we can cheat. and so basically this power-- whatdo you call it, a polysaccharide? am i saying thatcorrectly, polysaccharide? it's a polysaccharide. it's a powdered form. and when it's hydrated,it turns into like a gum. and so that gum enables usto stabilize the emulsion.
therefore, we can do things. for instance, make a beurremonte, basically emulsified butter that we hold above the line and service. and so that every time youorder something from us, we soak it in butterbefore we serve it to you. and so the butter will usuallybreak halfway through the service. and then the chef comes by. he starts yelling at you. and so we found a wayto do it by stabilizing
the emulsion with xanthan gum. and so this is aconcentrated lobster stock. if you want the recipe-- bryan voltaggio: who'd youserve your cucumber to? michael voltaggio: [inaudible]. i don't know. we'll write a book, or no. but it's-- bryan voltaggio: who didyou serve your cucumber to?
michael voltaggio: i gave it away. somebody wants my dish. michael voltaggio: roasted lobster-- bryan voltaggio: i don'thave a spoon though. michael voltaggio: thisis roasted lobster shells. we've started making all ofour stocks in pressure cookers. we get a lot of the clean flavorout of the shells faster that way. it's a purer flavor. but now, instead ofhaving to reduce this--
bryan voltaggio: i don't have a spoon. michael voltaggio: --oh, bryan'splaying, trying to make friends. bryan voltaggio: [inaudible]. michael voltaggio: hehanded a dirty spoon out because somebodyused the spoon water. i'm going to take that same-- bryan voltaggio: there's one in back. michael voltaggio: --immersionblender that bryan was using. bryan voltaggio: it's clean.
michael voltaggio:bryan, this is harvard. is this on low? because if i turn this onand it explodes, [inaudible]. i sabotaged you. it's on high. i'm just kidding. michael voltaggio: does itgo-- man, this thing is-- bryan voltaggio: they'reactually annoying. let me assist here.
michael voltaggio: so you just-- if youcan just-- see what i'm doing, do that. bryan voltaggio: yes. i got that. like that. michael voltaggio: i'm goingto create a little vortex. bryan voltaggio: actually,you have to lose a lower one. michael voltaggio: how didyou turn it down like that? bryan voltaggio: youuse the other button. michael voltaggio: so the xanthan--
bryan voltaggio: so you wantto create a vortex in there so the hydrocolloid actuallygoes down and the power goes down into the emulsion, so none of it sticksto the side of the immersion blender. michael voltaggio: wow. that's-- bryan voltaggio: because thathappens and it won't work. michael voltaggio: isthis your dish or my dish? bryan voltaggio: this is our dish, chef. so while bryan's stealingmy ideas over here.
so-- bryan voltaggio: see. some of it didn't get in. michael voltaggio: so as you cansee, the stock now is thicker. bryan voltaggio: it'scoating the blender. michael voltaggio: and so it'sgoing to be a lot easier for me to make the emulsion. i don't need to reduceit, reduce it, reduce it. bryan voltaggio: let me clean this.
michael voltaggio: andso even in the old days, you had to sit there and like do alike a tablespoon of butter at a time. and stand over it and do this. and it took forever. and then if it didn't work, it broke. you got yelled at. and then the wholething was just horrible. and so we figured out a wayto just sort of eliminate that part of it by-- xanthan gumis like-- it's like baby's tears.
they're something like-- bryan voltaggio: what? michael voltaggio: it's like a gift. i don't know it's just like somethingso-- not that baby tears are-- no, that's horrible. bryan voltaggio: there. it's one of those hashtags i wastalking about earlier, right? hastag, baby tears. let me put that up.
michael voltaggio: andas you can see, i'm pretty sure if you putthis on the microscope that emulsion is going to be waymore stable than bryan's and have a much bigger airplane arrow thingin the middle of it than bryan's did. bryan voltaggio: oh, yeah? michael voltaggio: so are yougoing to hit me with that? michael voltaggio: so i've got mylobster butter emulsion right there. i'm going to add this lobster meat. i just blanched it lightly.
i'm going to warm itup inside the sauce. and then the next thing is the gnocchi. so, like i said, i've gotmy egg yolks in olive oil. and when i was making that bearnaisesauce or the hollandaise sauce on the plate, we cleaned thespatula off one night with hot water to make the next dish. and all of a sudden, it got hardon the outside of the spatula. and the first thing i did wasget upset because i'm like, i need the spatula right now.
and the guy's cleaning it. and the egg is juststicking to the outside. and i'm like, wait a second. he's heating it. it's overcooking it more. and now it's sticking to the spatula. go get me a pastry bag, and atip, and a pot of boiling water. he goes. and this is how a lot ofthe creativity happens.
bryan voltaggio: by accident. michael voltaggio: thenby accident, i came up with this thing, which is just ouregg yolk-- is that on the-- can you? oh, man, that's terrible. that's really embarrassing. they can't see what i'm doing. bryan voltaggio: ah,yeah, we can do that. just give me one second. michael voltaggio: so just pretend likeyou're seeing it turning into like--
bryan voltaggio: we can move this in. i'll take it over thereand show them after. they'll believe me. it'll will be finished. trust me. and so basically the eggyolks, now what i'm doing is just overcooking the outsideof it and leaving the inside of it like that nice kind of pudding texture. and that's going to be my gnocchi.
and so it's just egg yolks--again, egg yolks and olive oil. we're going to-- these look pretty good. i know you can't see it. except that one doesn't look good. michael voltaggio: sothat's going to get hot. i've got my bowl here,all this pretty stuff. these are sea beans, very good. have you ever had a sea bean? best thing in the world,it just taste like-- what
do you think it tastes like? audience: salt. michael voltaggio: it tasteslike salt. it's the best thing. and so these gnocchishave like another minute. and like this sauce over here, thething about the xanthan gum stabilizing the emulsion is that if it gets hotand it starts to fall apart again, you can just bring itback together again. because again, we've stabilized it. you're not just relyingon the temperature
and getting that perfect marriageof fat going into the liquid and trying to do--you're not doing this. because it's alreadystuck together like this. so then when it starts like, oh, wedon't want to be together anymore, you just kind of heat it upand blend it back together. and it just goes back like. and it's an amazing thing. i'm going to get our lobster. i brought some tweezers.
bryan voltaggio: over here. michael voltaggio: do youguys eat lobster here or no? a little bit. so these are ready. and you can see it works. it did work. ok, i was nervous becauseif it didn't work, i'm was going to blame it on bryan. and that would havebeen awkward for him.
and like the sauce isgetting pretty hot. i'm going to take itover-- how are we on time? bryan, we have 15 minutes. michael brenner: you have half an hour. michael voltaggio: half an hour. how come you didn't put my-- yeah. why didn't you-- michael brenner: wewant some of that stuff. michael voltaggio: oh, this?
we want some of that. michael voltaggio: i mean as long asyou set something of mine on the-- michael brenner: yousaid it was an emulsion. michael voltaggio: you cantouch it with your fingers. bryan voltaggio: oh, it is an emulsion. i mean-- audience: oh, it cracked. michael brenner: ok. michael voltaggio: isthat going to work?
michael brenner: i don't know. let's see. what do you think? bryan voltaggio: well, lecithinis present in egg yokes. michael brenner: may i taste it? um. michael voltaggio: i was actually goingto make you the whole dish right now. michael brenner: oh, wow. michael voltaggio: so i'mgoing to take the lobster.
hey lobster, where did you go? oh, there you are. so the lobster-- andif you look at this, it's glazed insidethe lobster stock too. and so that emulsion and thefact that it's together-- let's take the pot away, fold it over this. the meat's perfectly glazedinside the sauce as well. so now it's coated in,like, that drawn butter. but the drawn butter or now themelted butter, tastes like lobster.
so it's like lobster, coated in lobsterbutter, which-- i mean, come on boston. i might come and open arestaurant here and make this. they're lovely. bryan voltaggio: are they? michael brenner: [inaudible]. michael voltaggio: does thatmean i did or did not do my job? michael brenner: you did it. michael voltaggio: ok, perfect, michael brenner: you did.
michael voltaggio: becausethat would have been awkward. so a few pieces a lobster. i cooked only two wholelobsters for the demo. i brought the knuckles tonightbecause i think it's the best part. i saved the tail for tomorrow's class. don't tell them. honestly, i think theknuckles are the best part. so we've got some lobster knuckle. we're going to-- do youhave a spoon i can borrow?
bryan voltaggio: i do. right there. michael voltaggio: mayi use one of yours? bryan voltaggio: uh-uh. they're not mine. they're ours. audience: ah. michael voltaggio: ah. and so we've got some egg yolk gnocchis.
now, we've got that lobster emulsion. it's so fancy. i think we're makingfancy food right now. you know, i said earlier thati was going to say um tonight. and i've said like a hundred times. these are sea beans. so michael, if you want to-- can youhelp me out for one quick second? if you could just-- afteri'm finished with this, just eat it and look at everyoneand pretend like it's really good.
this is egg yoke gnocchis with a lobsterbutter emulsion and some sea beans. it's nice. michael voltaggio: it is? i'm just going to have one biteand then we'll give it out. michael voltaggio: yeah, perfect. let me see if he's telling the truth. michael brenner: no. michael voltaggio: ohyeah, you're right. it is.
wow, this emulsion is-- michael brenner: can i give it out? michael voltaggio: that's really good. michael brenner: you have to comeback and see these people next week. do you want to give it out? michael voltaggio: youguys have a better view. how did i cook the lobster? it's a very good question. old school, i put theclaws into a container.
audience: it's really good. michael voltaggio: isit cooked perfectly? so i blanched the claws and thetails, six minutes on the claws and three minutes on the tail. so basically what i do is i putthe claws into the bowl first. boil water, pour it over top of it. wait three minutes. and then the last three minutes, addthe tails to it, cover it back up. and for some reason, i was shownhow to do this like 12 years ago.
and it still blanches lobster perfectly. then i take it out of it's shell. so i just want to cook it enough tobe able to get it out of the shell. and then i finished it inthe lobster butter sauce. so it's warming up andfinished the cooking, without overcooking it,right inside the sauce. bryan voltaggio: becausethis emulsion isn't done yet, all the pepper oil fromcooking jalapenos is on top. and i just took a spoonful of that.
and it's really hot. did you see that, all theoil droplets on the top? you could see it a little bit. so since michael went lobster,i wanted to bring crab. because we're from maryland andwe have the best blue crabs. michael voltaggio: boston. you're in boston right now. michael voltaggio: you got to fightfor your ingredients, jonah crab. there's some good jonah crab here.
we had some today. it's really delicious. but the blue crab-- michael voltaggio: i'm only doingthis because you needed the gasket out of this. michael voltaggio: if this explodesall over the place, i'm blaming you. there's a little gasket inside here. we only brought one. so actually there's a goodchance this might explode
and stuff is going to go everywhere. if that happens, it'sbryan's fault. good. bryan voltaggio: so i want to dosomething that looks very, very simple. because i think fora lot of us, we don't realize that we make emulsions everysingle day, every time we cook, or at least a lot of times. so a pasta dish, just thinkingspaghetti and a marinara sauce. but if you're adding olive oil, andbutter, and some pasta water to it because you're making it correctly,we want some of that starch water
into there. that starch is going tohelp create that emulsion and make that suspended sauce that'sgoing to coat the pasta all over and make it really delicious. that way every time you're grabbinga noodle-- i mean i know some of us take the jar of spaghettiand you boil the pasta. michael voltaggio: didyou say grabbing a noodle? bryan voltaggio: well,yeah, you eat a noodle. and you boil the pasta right, and thenyou put it in the middle of the bowl,
and then you pour the sauce on the top. that's not how we do it inmy house or in a restaurant. so what we do is we take-- thepasta always goes into the pan. it gets tossed together. the agitation is one thing thathelps to create the emulsion. but then it's also the starchthat's coming also off the pasta into the sauce, that's helping to makethat really luxurious mouth feel they we're looking for. so what i have here, i startedwith was just some garlic
and oil, a very, verysimple preparation; some jalapeno for some spice. and then i'm reducingdown the crab stock lightly, which we justmade with some crab bodies after we picked all the crabsand made a stock with that. i have a few minutes to kill. that's why i'm talking becausei have to cook the pasta. and i have a minute and 44 seconds left. michael voltaggio: what are you goingto do for a minute ad 44 seconds?
bryan voltaggio: hm. michael voltaggio: you'regoing to look at me. there's all those good looking peoplethere and you want to look at me. bryan voltaggio: oh, that's right. i do have other ingredients. so i have some butter that--i took uni or sea urchin roe and basically just pureed thetwo together, equal parts. michael voltaggio: so that's uni butter. bryan voltaggio: so a hundred gramsof uni, a hundred grams of butter.
and that's going to goright into the sauce because i'm just trying to make myemulsion that much more difficult. but what's going to happen there too,now agitation is occurring in the pan. there's boiling that'soccurring in the pan. so that's going to help actuallybring the emulsification together, and the reduction of the stock. so i don't really haveto do a whole lot. michael voltaggio: how muchdo you-- that's uni and crab. how much do you charge for that?
bryan voltaggio: oh, a lot of money. so as you can see, naturallythe two are starting-- michael voltaggio: this is likethe most expensive emulsion. bryan voltaggio: that's right. michael voltaggio: [inaudible] in there. so right now it's broken. we went through thatwith the other sauce. you can see that the oil is floating. it looks like an oil slick.
michael voltaggio: you call it broken. i call it like not getting along. bryan voltaggio: not getting along. michael voltaggio: ok a littletherapy, a little emulsion therapy. it's not broken. you can fix it. it can be fixed. but we're intentionally breakingit to bring it back together. so it's just not happeningas fast as i want it to.
but the pasta is almost ready. so now, the reduction is occurring. the fat is emulsifying into the liquid. i'm going to add some blue crab. i'll add that right to the pan. [beeping] oh, there's my timer. michael voltaggio: it's ready. bryan voltaggio: my timer is done.
what i'm going to do is i'mgoing to take the pasta. and so this is a squid ink tonnarelli. so i extruded this using adye with a pasta extruder. so basically what we do iswe take a liquid and a solid and we push the two togetherand push it through. you know, like we have play-doh. you're pushing it throughand it makes the hair. that's kind of like the same thing. but it's an extruder.
so this agar pushes the pasta through. so we can make any shape wewant and we can change it. we can control the textureof the pasta too, as well. this is squid ink. michael voltaggio: if you put thaton the menu, black hair pasta, you think they won't buy that? it would not sell. michael voltaggio: hair pasta? bryan voltaggio: so i'm going toincrease the temperature of the pan.
can you-- yes, i need my pepper mill. we're going to let this allcome together to form the sauce. we're also finishing-- michael voltaggio: maybe you call it-- bryan voltaggio: --thecooking of the pasta. michael voltaggio: --like dolly pasta? like-- no. bryan voltaggio: i bet we could. we call it--
michael voltaggio: no art? no one likes art in here? who took a picture? no. no. there's no evidence, never happened. bryan voltaggio: all right. patience is key. so reducing this down. also i took-- well, this isone thing that it's actually
interesting to talk about. so this is called "arbe." here's it's "obay," right? well, i made "arbe." actually i had it on the menu. michael voltaggio: is that argh, likea pirate, or "ar," "ar" or "argh?" bryan voltaggio: and i'msure there's probably-- because your legal school here isobviously one of the best in world. so i'm sure it was probablysomebody was a graduate here,
told me to stop calling this"arbe." [interposing voices] michael voltaggio: he got acease and desist for that. that's true. bryan voltaggio: yeah, i did. that was very true. i listened. i'd took it get off the menu. so now the reduction is occurring. you see-- or, well, you can't see it.
so i'm agitating the pasta andstarting to bring together the sauce. reduction occurred. so we've evaporated some moistureand water out of the dish. but then also, theemulsing has occurred. you can see it's suspended now. it's not broken anymore. the starch from the pastastarted to help thicken it or thicken the liquid together. but then also, the factthat we made that reduction
of that protein-rich stock and thenwe emulsified that uni butter into it, it created the emulsion in the pan. michael brenner: so i just can't resist. i have to comment on something else. bryan voltaggio: well, youhave come up and try this. actually, that's what i really wanted. but i also wanted topoint something out. when you were reducingthis, what left the pan? so what went up?
remember the equation. audience: the volume fraction. michael brenner: the volume fraction. bryan voltaggio: i did something ididn't even know i was supposed to do. michael voltaggio: so what happened waswhat went up was the volume fraction. and, um-- --you get it. so let's plate it. i may have longer tongs.
but i got little short ones here. this will work. so i'm just going tospoon some of the pasta around a little nest andplace in the center of-- michael voltaggio: isn't that hot? that's like got to burning your fingers. in front of all thesepeople, that's awkward. bryan voltaggio: it's hot. michael voltaggio: are you ok?
bryan voltaggio: yeah, i'm fine. michael voltaggio: poursome liquid nitrogen on it? i'm good. so i overproportioned a little bit. and that's fine. because no one's going to eat it. actually, can i have a littlebit of stock because i think that overreduced myemulsion a little bit. it's actually to the pointwhere it starting to break.
but we'll bring it back together just byadding a little bit more liquid to it. and there we go. and then because everythingtastes better with pepperoni, at least in my mind. this isn't really called an emulsion. but it's just called damn good. michael voltaggio: i'm hungry. bryan voltaggio: so i'd saytake pepperoni and grind it. and take the fat from the pepperoniand toast bread crumb in it
and then put the two together. so i call it an emulsion because you'retaking two things that normally don't go together and you put them together. so then we put that over the top. and we have squid ink tonnarelli,with blue crab, jalapeno, and pepperoni crumb. oh, my arugula leaves. i want that. and arugula, sorry.
michael voltaggio: and arugula. well, this looks stingy. bryan voltaggio: so this sauce wouldonly look maybe a little bit-- well, i don't know it would be interestingor not because actually there's some of the starches in the pan too. what would that like? michael brenner: oh,should we look at it? bryan voltaggio: i'm just curious. michael brenner: well, i--
bryan voltaggio: i just want tosee all my sauces on a microscope because i just think that's cool. so i was just tryingto come up with like-- michael brenner: well, whathappens to starch when you heat it? does anybody know? michael voltaggio: we shouldmake a business out of this. michael brenner: does anybody knowwhat happens when starch [inaudible]? bryan voltaggio: well, it gelatinizeswhen they come together with a liquid. michael brenner: but did you know howmuch it expands by, what fraction?
that i don't know. michael brenner: does anybody know? how much does the volume of a starchgranule go up when you heat it? by a factor of-- audience: 30. michael brenner: i think it's 30. michael voltaggio: it's 30. michael brenner: it's 30. bryan voltaggio: it's 30.
that's right. michael brenner: that's huge. that's a good way to get thevolume fraction to go up, right? michael voltaggio: the volumefraction goes up to 30. michael brenner: thevolume fraction goes up. that's why starchworks when you heat it. audience: oh. bryan voltaggio: ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. wow!
hey! huh? look at that. it's moving. oh, she's just moving it. never mind. oh. so what did we do there? but it worked.
michael voltaggio: does any know-- it did. it worked. michael voltaggio: --how muchthe volume fraction went up? 30. that's why you're sittingthere and i'm standing here. bryan voltaggio: anybodylike to try a pasta? i hate to give out food. all right, my man.
michael voltaggio: hebrought his own spoon. bryan voltaggio: he'sbeen to these before. he had a spoon in his back pocket. he was ready. michael voltaggio: if you could--you want to sear the beef? bryan voltaggio: i've got that. michael voltaggio: it'snot going to be a big deal. it's just wagyu beef,short rib, pastrami, that was cooked at 56 degreescelsius for 48 hours in a bag.
it's no big deal. it's just like a chunk thatwould fit inside there. bryan voltaggio: you got it. michael voltaggio: a little bit of oil. i mean because we're here totalk about foams and emulsions. so that delicious piece of meatreally is not important right now. my next foam is madeout of sauerkraut juice. and so this is-- you know whenyou get like a jar of sauerkraut and you eat all the sauerkraut andthen you're left with all that liquid?
you can make a martini out ofit, which is delicious too. it's a dirty sauerkraut martini. you guys don't drink here at all? audience: no. or you can make sauerkraut foam. bryan voltaggio: [inaudible] michael voltaggio: finished. and so if you want to get mostof my work done over there, i'm just going to make this foam.
bryan voltaggio: i am. that's what i'm working on right now. michael voltaggio: justdon't burn my sauce. but butter, like could you emulsify alittle bit of butter into that for me? michael voltaggio: perfect. make it look like the last one thatwas on the screen that was all-- bryan voltaggio: i was goingto say i have actually proven i'm really good at it, by the way. michael voltaggio: um-- said it again.
this is gray poupon. i found it in the student cafeteria. bryan voltaggio: i thoughtthere was a guy who was driving down with a bigfancy bentley, who passed it out of the window. michael voltaggio: stole itfrom the student cafeteria. i'm just going to--this part's technical. i'm going to say roughly about threestolen packages of gray poupon. sauerkraut juice-- and for this foam,because sauerkraut juice is basically
just water at this point,i want to get it foamy, and thick, and beautiful, and fix myhair with it, and stuff like that. so what i did was i scaledout some versawhip, which is basically soy protein. it was created to eliminate theuse of egg whites and gelatin and be able to make meringues. and so this is going to be a sauerkrautmeringue that's actually vegan, that i'm going to puton top of red meat. i fixed that problem real fast.
and so i added a littlebit of mustard to it, just to add a little more flavor. what i made here was whatbrian has in his hand. if you look at the marblingin that, it's pretty good. but we're talking about this. so that doesn't matter. but that's a pastrami--yeah, the marbling is just-- bryan voltaggio: oh, i'mdoing a bad job with that. michael voltaggio: --so good.
maybe next time we do a class about meand i'll make you guys some of that. so that's been cooked fora couple days in a bag. you guys all do that at home now too. you know, it's funny. the other night, a regular ofours comes in the restaurant. and he loves our short rib. and so i asked him, do youwant to take some home? and i gave it to him in a bag. and i started say to him,just put it on the stove
and heat it up with a littlewater, drop the bag into the pot. and the guy looks at me. he's just a customer. and he goes, can i just heat itup in my immersion circulator? and i'm like sure you can. this is the versawhip. out of this, on that is goingto be like-- but not yet. so that's my sauerkraut juice. are you burning something over there?
michael voltaggio: it smellslike really delicious pastrami. bryan voltaggio: i'm not burning it. michael voltaggio: andso-- that's not ready yet. bryan voltaggio: what did i miss? michael voltaggio: it's not ready. i'm not done showing off. so now it's going to get whipped. and hopefully it's going to turn intolike a sauerkraut and mustard meringue that i'm going to put onto my beef dish.
and so-- yeah, can you justbaste it a little bit with-- just like-- and then-- yeah, perfect. bryan voltaggio: thank you, chef. [whistling] michael voltaggio: idon't really-- yeah. i don't have anything to saywhile this is-- all the work is happening in the mixer right now. i guess i'll start plating. so these are cabbage pickles orfermented cabbage, lacto-fermintation.
it's just some raw cabbage thatwe cut out with a fancy cutter, put it into a bag, 2% salt. letit hang out in a dry storage room at work for a couple days. hope the health departmentdidn't come by and find it. and these are really delicious. and so that will beone if the garnishes. bryan voltaggio: ah,i want to push that. i'm going to put meat there. michael voltaggio: and so now i'm goingto take this really inexpensive meat--
are you guys hungry? bryan voltaggio: that's harsh. michael voltaggio: that'sdisgusting-ly good. i did good, right? michael voltaggio: man, see--i just want to talk about that. i can't talk about it. i want to. but i can't. it's not that fresh.
bryan voltaggio: who'sthat guy who refilmed that? woo, man. michael voltaggio: how's that? bryan voltaggio: that was me. well, my mic's not working. we did that on purpose. a little bit of beef jus. bryan voltaggio: now, i have tosee this under the microscope. i've actually never seen-- no, justbecause i've never seen-- well,
i've never seen any of thisstuff under a microscope. but i'm really curious whatdoes beef jus look like. michael voltaggio: how wellyour brother can make sauce? put that thing on the microscope. bryan voltaggio: i added thebutter, just pointing that out. michael voltaggio: can youguys see what's happening here? can i move this without hurting myself? it's just sauerkraut foam. they were just talking about the--
michael voltaggio: nbd,that means no big deal. bryan voltaggio: oh. michael voltaggio: andblowing your mind right now. [cheer] bryan voltaggio: there you got on. michael voltaggio: oh, yeah. i made that. bryan voltaggio: and thearrow is not on it either. michael voltaggio: becausethere's too much going up there.
bryan voltaggio: i don'tknow what i was looking at. but it looked good. michael voltaggio: these are thoselacto-fermented petals of cabbage. i've got some cabbage chips here. these are fun. basically, those are tattoos. those are disgusting. oh, hold on. can you-- perfect.
see that? these you just fry. take raw cabbage, fry it like 300degrees fahrenheit in oil, dry it. and then stick it in thedehydrator for a few hours and you get thesedelicious cabbage chips. you're not going to get eat any of this. so i shouldn't useadjectives like delicious. it's probably just going to upset you. i mean it's class about foam, a lectureabout foam, lecture-- class, lecture.
we're just talking about foam. it's a talk. ted's not here though. where's ted? i think that's pretty foamy. bryan voltaggio: idon't know where ted is. michael voltaggio: and so that'ssauerkraut juice and some versawhip. that thing's going to go nuts. that's it?
that's going to make the whole thing? bryan voltaggio: it's a microscope. it looks at small thingsand makes it bigger. michael voltaggio: brrh. so we're going to just put alittle bit of that sauerkraut. bryan voltaggio: he got oohs and awes. hey, look at that. there it is. look it.
check it out. you got big bubbles in there. michael voltaggio: meat likes pepper. nasturtiums tastes like pepper. chefs put pretty flowerson stuff because they just put pretty flowers on stuff. this is intentional. these nasturtiums actuallytaste pretty peppery. and so beef and peppergo really well together.
i mean you're not going to know becausei'm not going to let you eat this. somebody is going to eat it. i mean you brought your own spoon. but you don't bring a knife and fork. so you're not getting this one. who has a fork? i'm bringing it right to you. michael brenner: maybe you shouldgo to somebody in the back corner because they haven't got anything.
michael voltaggio: i'lltake them some beef. she has a fork. and so that's waygu, short rib,pastrami, with sauerkraut foam. michael, this is all back row. dibs, back row right here. michael brenner: thisis for the back row michael voltaggio:that's for the back row. this is for the lady with the fork. man, you have 300 peoplehating you right now.
how does that feel? turn around, bow. it's like when you seesomebody win the lottery, like you want to be happy for them. but it's just like, ah,why didn't i bring a fork? we have five minutes, one more dish. we're going to do six dishes inone hour, if we get these done. bryan voltaggio: i cando this in five minutes because i already prepped an area.
michael voltaggio: we need likea countdown or an official-- i feel like you shouldfeel the pressure. you have five minutesto get this dish done. so this dish-- audience: top chef. michael voltaggio: top chef. bryan voltaggio: i'mvery prepared everything. so this dish-- well, you said that. now, i got to tell astory about this one
because there's always a story to it. so during a holiday season,you're shopping in a mall. and you walk by and you smell, like,this strong slap in the face of, like, vanilla, and cinnamon, and,like, cider, around the holiday season, around this time of the year. it's normally a bath and body works orsomething like that because it's so. so this dish is literallyinspired by me going shopping for my wife for christmas. and so what it is is coconut,lavender, and vanilla.
so three flavors you wouldn't normallyexpect to go together on a plate. but they work really well. and one of the cool thingsabout it is i wanted to make this dish becauseit was the holiday season and i wanted to make it look like snow. so i wanted to make it looklike a snowball, and snow, and like all of those things. and it's dish that we've been runningat the restaurant for a long time. but i had no idea that we used foams,and emulsions, and all of those things
when we made the dish until we filledin for somebody else in this lecture and we had to send some recipes up. and i started to realize that actuallythere was a little bit of science that went behind creating this dish. so much like michael,in the dish that he did earlier, the firstone, the cucumber, i made a foam using coconut, some milk,some yogurt, and, oh, some xanthan gum. and so that was used to suspend itand then charged it again with no2 to make a foam texture.
you don't have to work anymore. so i'm going to charge itwith two of these chargers and then let that sit for a minute. i already put one in. you have to tap that bottom. michael voltaggio: that's ok. tell them. so the first component, whatthis is, this is not an emulsion. but what this is we used a starchand took oil made with lavender
and turned it into a-- michael voltaggio: what are you doing? bryan voltaggio: shejust stole the beef. michael voltaggio: [inaudible] bryan voltaggio: she'sallowed to have it. michael voltaggio: this is harvard. they don't feed you at harvard? bryan voltaggio: so this is actuallyoil that's been turned into a powder. and so that's the lavendercomponent to the dish.
then what we're to do is we're going totakes some of this liquid nitrogen. oh, we're not going to pour it on our hand. pour it into the bowl. where's that ladle at? so i let the ladle get really cold. so the lavender, coconut, andvanilla, what this is, these are little meringues that have been madewith vanilla, vanilla syrup, and sugar. i made this one easy, this one we'rejust kind of talking about here. let's place that on.
michael voltaggio: ittastes like lucky charms. bryan voltaggio: coconut pudding,it does taste like lucky charms. michael voltaggio: i love lucky charms. oh, wait. that was on camera. bryan voltaggio: so thisis a coconut pudding, which is made with xanthan gum. so we make a gel withcoconut milk and steep it some lemon grass and some lime leaf.
and then make a pudding withthat and then puree it smooth. so it's a set pudding first. and we set to the point where it'salmost like the texture of hard candy-- not hard candy, but kind of like[inaudible], almost like a soft candy. and then we puree it smooth. and it gets a really great texture. then lastly, i'm going totake nitrogen and a ladle. michael voltaggio: youshould put your tongue on it. bryan voltaggio: and we'regoing to make a ball of foam.
now, we're going to placeit into liquid nitrogen. i know around here you're supposedto wear gloves and eyeglasses. michael voltaggio:goggles, eye protection. but it's ok. michael voltaggio: easy. bryan voltaggio: you can touch it. michael voltaggio: just like that,he like puts it behind his ears. bryan voltaggio: and then what wehave here is a shell on the outside. so everybody likes amagic shell and ice cream.
it's gross, actually. michael voltaggio: i think it's gross. bryan voltaggio: i don't know. there's all kinds of weirdthings in that stuff. but basically that's what we're doing. michael voltaggio: like xanthan gum? bryan voltaggio: we have thisreally great dome that's frozen. the foam is suspended and frozen. but then the foam is in the center.
so when you crack it, itopens up and oozes out. michael voltaggio: prove it. bryan voltaggio: sothen goes onto the dish. well, somebody else is goingto come up here and prove it. audience: throw it. bryan voltaggio: throw it? is that allowed? ok, go ahead. [tapping]
michael voltaggio: oh, oh. just kidding. bryan voltaggio: it will crack. so it cracks open. and then you have this reallygreat aerated foam texture in the center and sort of like-- michael voltaggio: it died. bryan voltaggio: --this frozenice cream on the outside. so that's coconut,lavender, and vanilla.
michael voltaggio: andthat was number six. so we did it. we did it in-- thank you, guys. thank you very much.
