At the party that I attended at Krabi, (in Thailand),the
highlight of the evening was the dessert on a cold plate. Now this was the
first time I was to witness the art with food on the table, a kind of Rangoli
with different kinds of dessert plated on the table to be scooped off directly
with a spoon.
The chef and his assistants started decorating the
cold-plated table with desserts of different shapes and sizes making
spectacular designs that didn’t bleed but remained fixed to that spot forming
the most spectacular design on the table.
From a distance we could only see the black plate, but
there has to be some kind of grid pattern on the plate for them to do so
symmetrically.
The chef came with a tray of different desserts in small bowls and started to drizzle the blobs on the cold plate
He worked with much concentration, spooning the blobs forming the symmetrical design on the board.
Everybody stood there transfixed, admiring his art
there were nuts and pretzels, liquid nitrogen frozen mousse
It reminded me of the Rangoli, the only difference that this was the food and we could actually eat it…..
small glasses containing flavored desserts were placed in symmetrical pattern around the flat designs and that gave it 3d effect
Would I be able to make such dessert at home? I was not sure, because first, I should have a cold plate or a silicon mat and secondly, I need to learn the science behind molecular gastronomy.
But the final effect was wonderful. Everybody rushed to table, especially children who were anxiously waiting for the chef to finish his art so that they could just try different combinations of such great variety of desserts.
Later, I learnt that the sauces are actually a gel of
different agar concentrations that has been set into solids and then blended to
form viscous fluid to form the required shapes.
This dessert is never boring because everybody takes the
spoonful with different combination and every bite has a different experience.
