The Art of Cooking
Rambutan
I took this photo on the first day we began testing the stacked focus technique, which digitally combines multiple shots at varying focal points to extend a photo’s depth of field. The result very clearly shows the odd, soft-spined exterior that is characteristic of a rambutan, a tropical fruit of about five centimeters by two inches in diameter that is native to Southeast Asia. Beneath this unusual skin, the translucent flesh has a sweet, floral, lightly acidic flavor akin to that of a lychee.
Levitating Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Once we had worked out the basic techniques for vertically separating the layers of our ultimate cheeseburger in Modernist Cuisine, it seemed the fitting way to illustrate our ideas for various riffs on the grilled cheese sandwich. In Modernist Cuisine at Home, we presented six such variations, including some unconventional combos such as Camembert and Gruyère with sautéed mushrooms and a fried egg (shown here). The visual style of these images is not only functional—like the exploded diagrams in the repair manuals—but also engaging as it reveals familiar objects from unfamiliar points of view.
Crystalized Vitamin C
Under a microscope, a crystal of vitamin C shows the intricate geometry of the micronutrient when it solidifies.
Steaming Broccoli Cutaway
This was the first cutaway image we ever attempted. It was shot in my garage in 2007, even before the first chapter of Modernist Cuisine was written or the research kitchen was built. We had to solve many technical challenges: how to machine the pot in half, perch the cut broccoli florets in a stable but natural-looking configuration, capture side-on shots of boiling water, and composite all the elements together. But the result was so successful, so magical at revealing cooking as it happens, that we went on to make dozens of such cutaways.
The Hidden Garden
Of the many thousands of photos in our two previous books, this image was among the most technically challenging to set up, shoot, and edit. But the rare glimpse it provides of what is normally hidden from us in the garden—the circus-like range of colors of those roots and tubers nestled beneath the surface—was worth the effort. Shown, from left to right and top to bottom, are: a purple carrot, two radishes, a watermelon radish, yellow and purple potatoes, a celeriac, a leek, two kinds of carrots, a candy-striped beet, a Jerusalem artichoke, and a yellow beet.
The Innards of a Household Stove
Fred Carl Jr., founder and C.E.O. of Viking Range Corporation, joined us at the Cooking Lab for one of our 30-course dinners and was so taken with our projects that he generously donated a Viking stove for us to use in the photography for Modernist Cuisine at Home—and ultimately to cut in half. Because we used the oven for many of the cooking shots, we sent it to the machine shop at the last possible moment. It was something of a mad scramble by our talented machinists to tear this complex device down, slice it in half, and then put it back together. But they finished the job in the nick of time.
Translucent Leeks
As many of the photographs in the book attest, we like seeing the inside of things, the part normally hidden from view. For foods, such as sliced leeks, that allow some light to pass through, the technique of transmitted lighting commonly used in microscopy can also reveal illuminating detail at a macroscopic scale.
Mussels in Mussel-Juice Spheres
This image is a little disconcerting at first, so unusual is it to see mussel meat floating, free-form, in this way. It is among the more striking examples of spherification, a modernist technique for which Ferran Adrià is a clear pioneer. The dish, inspired by a recipe of his, combines cooked mussel meat with mussel jus to which calcium gluconate and xanthan gum have been added. Carefully tipped into a sodium alginate bath, the reaction produces a thin membrane that encases the mussel and its jus.
From Liquid to Foam
This cutaway reveals how precision valves allow a chef to make delicate, flavorful foams having a wide range of properties, from dense and homogenous to fluffy and separated. The montage shows some of the results from experiments in which we mixed beet juice with various foaming agents and then used several different tools to inject the gas.
Popcorn on the Cob
Who says corn kernels have to be stripped off the cob before they are popped—or even that the cob must be fully shucked? We used a blowtorch to pop this corncob, but you can also do it in the microwave. The hard part is finding dried popping corn still on the cob; farmers’ markets are probably your best bet. Just stick the cob in a small paper bag, microwave it for about two minutes, and watch as the bag expands with popped corn. Some of the kernels will blow themselves off the cob, but enough usually remain attached that you can eat the popcorn much as you would a cob of freshly boiled sweet corn.
Tomatoes to Puree
It takes a lot of copper wire to produce the electromotive force needed to make a smooth puree, as we found when we cut this blender in half. We used hidden needles to prop the peeled tomatoes in our model precariously at the edge. They still fell out now and then. Needless to say, we shot this photo without the blade spinning—the whirling blur was added during editing.
Yolks in White
The egg is compelling on many levels, not the least of which is the fact that is comprises two elements having wildly different structures and chemical makeups. The bright, fatty yolk contributes color and a flavorful richness to dishes, while the proteinaceous white is lean, elastic, and sticky. When they are combined, we get the best of all attributes, whether in an omelet or a cake batter. When they are separated, we capitalize on their individual qualities. The albumin of egg whites is an essential ingredient in meringues, whereas eggs yolks in a crème-brûlée custard assure a rich flavor and silky texture.
Water-Vapor Oven
Unlike a conventional oven, a water-vapor oven can control the humidity of the air inside as well as the heat. By changing the temperature of the reservoir of the water at the bottom of the oven, the device tailors the rate of evaporation to produce wetter or drier air. Humidity is crucial to baking because it affects the temperature the food actually experiences (compare a summer’s day in dry Phoenix with one in sultry Washington, D.C.). This CVap model was provided to us by Winston Shelton, the founder of Winston Industries, which was for many years the sole supplier of pressure fryers to Colonel Harland Sanders for use in his Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Exploding Eggs
Once we had used our high-speed camera to make ultra-slow-motion videos of ballistic gelatin in action, we naturally looked around the kitchen for other items that might make good target for small arms. To the naked eye, a .308-caliber bullet passing through a half-dozen eggs is just an instantaneous mess. But at 6,200 frames a second, the detailed structure of the sequential explosion is apparent. The entire sequence of images shown here was captured in a span of less than one-thousandth of a second.
Wok Stir-Fry
Stir-frying is one of the most dynamic of cooking techniques because you control the heat of the food by changing its height—by tossing the ingredients into the air. To capture the photos of rising pad Thai we needed for this composite, Maxime Bilet swung the wok with both hands. At one point, oil sloshed out of the cut wok, landed in the burner, and started a small fire. The blaze was extinguished quickly and we got the shot we needed.