When we set out to the wine dinner of the Artesano restaurant, we did not know what awaited us. Enrique Sánchez Gutiérrez and his partner chef, David Miralles, the excellent chefs of Spanish-Andalusian molecular gastronomy had been in Hungary for a couple days already. They held a press briefing and had a whole day chef master course for the Hungarian chefs.

Places for the course had been filled within an hour. “Such courses always give an impetus to the development of local chefs. They come, learn and will have a broader view. And this is the best for us, the guests of restaurants. It is not for the first time that I experience: foreign chefs are radiating passion, the love of life, the love for their profession. It is very good to get to know this,” says Gábor Turóczi, the chairman of Lucullus Society, one of the organizers.

“Cube-shaped soup, edible plate… You can list for long the world famous creations of inventive chefs. What is molecular gastronomy? Let’s take an onion, disintegrate it into molecules and build from it something else that is still the original, like a glass-shaped onion,” speculates Túróczi. “The technology of molecular gastronomy is still very new for restaurant-goers in Hungary. My experience is that there is a great interest and most people who have already tasted such dishes were of favorable opinion. There are only 5-6 restaurants in this country where courses are prepared with such technology but the chefs seem to be very interested.”

By the time we arrived at the Artesano, Enrique Sanchez, David Miralles and their helpers had – for hours – been engaged in preparing the course of the wine dinner. Still, they had time to introduce themselves and greet the guests. “First of all, we would like not just to feed you but also create a pleasant atmosphere and give you joy. During the dinner, you can taste dishes prepared with novel cooking technology. With the help of the courses presented, we smuggle a little illusion onto your plates, and we would like to give you and radiate love and joy to everybody with the special textures and solutions. Enjoy the evening!” said Enrique.

Evolutionary gastronomy dinner
With Enrique Sánchez Gutiérrez and David Miralles

You can see the complete menu and the list of wines offered to the dishes on the menu card and wine list in the picture gallery.

First course: tapases

According to Enrique and every Spaniard, the basic concept of tapas consumption is that you can try, taste the most flavors through tiny portions of food.
Among the tapases served, the most peculiar was an olive placed on a spoon. Or, at least something I thought it was. In fact, it was spherified olive oil flavored with thyme and orange. When I put it into my mouth, the illusion that I would eat an olive evaporated completely and I became uncertain. And when it burst, I was sure that I became the ‘victim’ of a molecular gastronomy trick.

Mojito with liquid nitrogen

When we set out to the wine dinner of the Artesano restaurant, we did not know what awaited us. Enrique Sánchez Gutiérrez and his partner chef, David Miralles, the excellent chefs of Spanish-Andalusian molecular gastronomy had been in Hungary for a couple days already. They held a press briefing and had a whole day chef master course for the Hungarian chefs.

Places for the course had been filled within an hour. “Such courses always give an impetus to the development of local chefs. They come, learn and will have a broader view. And this is the best for us, the guests of restaurants. It is not for the first time that I experience: foreign chefs are radiating passion, the love of life, the love for their profession. It is very good to get to know this,” says Gábor Turóczi, the chairman of Lucullus Society, one of the organizers.

“Cube-shaped soup, edible plate… You can list for long the world famous creations of inventive chefs. What is molecular gastronomy? Let’s take an onion, disintegrate it into molecules and build from it something else that is still the original, like a glass-shaped onion,” speculates Túróczi. “The technology of molecular gastronomy is still very new for restaurant-goers in Hungary. My experience is that there is a great interest and most people who have already tasted such dishes were of favorable opinion. There are only 5-6 restaurants in this country where courses are prepared with such technology but the chefs seem to be very interested.”

By the time we arrived at the Artesano, Enrique Sanchez, David Miralles and their helpers had – for hours – been engaged in preparing the course of the wine dinner. Still, they had time to introduce themselves and greet the guests. “First of all, we would like not just to feed you but also create a pleasant atmosphere and give you joy. During the dinner, you can taste dishes prepared with novel cooking technology. With the help of the courses presented, we smuggle a little illusion onto your plates, and we would like to give you and radiate love and joy to everybody with the special textures and solutions. Enjoy the evening!” said Enrique.

Evolutionary gastronomy dinner
With Enrique Sánchez Gutiérrez and David Miralles

You can see the complete menu and the list of wines offered to the dishes on the menu card and wine list in the picture gallery.

First course: tapases

According to Enrique and every Spaniard, the basic concept of tapas consumption is that you can try, taste the most flavors through tiny portions of food.
Among the tapases served, the most peculiar was an olive placed on a spoon. Or, at least something I thought it was. In fact, it was spherified olive oil flavored with thyme and orange. When I put it into my mouth, the illusion that I would eat an olive evaporated completely and I became uncertain. And when it burst, I was sure that I became the ‘victim’ of a molecular gastronomy trick. Flavor and form match, texture and consistency don’t.
The process called ‘esferificación’ has been experimented by one of the fathers of molecular gastronomy, Ferrán Adriá. During spherification, the natural juice of fruits or vegetables is closed into bubbles that basically “explode” when reaching the mouth cavity.

Second course: tuna fish ‘brandada’ (tuna puree) on crunchy “coal biscuit”, with warm leek foam

Here also, everything was created in the spirit of evolutionary gastronomy. My favorite was the “coal biscuit”, which is a mixture of egg white and yolk, almond, anchovy, garlic and flour, painted dark with the ink of calamari, cut into shape and then baked.

Fourth course: Mojito Nitro-sherry with wine vinegar

This is the evolutionary version of Mojito – with liquid nitrogen. Enrique and David prepared the cocktail spectacularly in front of us. In fact, they made a Mojito sorbet – without ice. This specialty is prepared right before serving as its phase is quite unstable.
Maybe, the idea comes from the Formula One car race, maybe not, it is interesting, anyway. Nitrogen is a gas that needs to be cooled down to minus 180 degrees Celsius so that it turns into liquid phase. Enrique poured it from a big bottle into a smaller kettle.

The Mojito base had already been prepared, it was there in a jar next to the big cauldron-like dish. And then, the magic began: they had to achieve that the alcohol mix cools down to minus 114 degrees Celsius, to its freezing point. That is what you needed the liquid nitrogen for. From the left, the Mojito mix, while from the right, the liquid nitrogen was being poured slowly. In the meantime, David was continuously mixing the end result in the dish. Smoke came up as the nitrogen turned gaseous and froze the Mojito.
Then, the sorbet was spooned into lime peel and served in champagne glasses.
It was lickerish and divine. The sensation was shocking that that we were eating something of mush-ice texture, which actually was made without adding ice, and was soft, silky and puree-like.
Then, magic was over in within a few minutes. This sorbet also behaves like the ones made with ice, but since it contains only alcohol, it melts much faster. So, if you want to enjoy this course fully, you may not want to spend time talking while all this happens.

Sixth course: sweet French ham toast with Salmorejo ice cream, Arbequina (a kind of olive oil) flavor and vanilla.

Regarding the dessert, I would have never thought that I would eat toast with ham and ice-cream of soup material, and I would feel: this is perfect harmony, nothing should be added. You may only want to sip a little Málaga wine with it.

(Please, also read our first article in this theme: The molecules of a star chef – see “related topic”)