[Blogger's note: This post was originally written on February 19, 2010.]
The production of foams in the pastry kitchen takes up at least an hour daily. As a diner, I’d had the only dessert that doesn’t have any foam on it; all the other desserts do. There are six different ones used on the current menu: lemongrass, argan oil, apricot seed, pear, chicory, and yuzu. All in all we use about 14 quarts of foam per dinner service. I wonder what a bathtub-ful of yuzu foam would feel like.
Except for the argan oil and apricot seed, all the foams are made pretty much the same way. Take some amount of water (x grams… say, 100) and infuse it with a flavor. Buzz it up in a blender and add .20x in sugar (i.e. 20g) to sweeten the liquid. Then add 1% (1g) versa whip and 0.5% (.5g) xanthan gum. Blend until thick, then whip it in a stand mixer until it quadruples in volume. Tada! Foam. They usually remain stable up until the end of the evening before collapsing overnight, only to be rewhipped (if there are any left over) the following day.
A lot of the classically trained externs are not feeling too happy all the different powders the restaurant uses. For some reason, I am unphased so far. I’m just learning about what all of our different chemicals do, but I will try to post about each one as I learn more.
