Air Kisses

If you’ve been to a fancy restaurant recently, you’ve probably experienced foam. It’s light, it’s powerful, it’s almost like eating intensely flavored air. It can be velvety like whipped cream or sparkling like a cappuccino froth; it can be made from fruits, vegetables, even herbs. Served as a stand-alone starter or an accompaniment to the main event, foams add an elegant twist to a meal.

Restaurants all over Los Angeles are incorporating both savory and dessert foams (often called “froths”) as a way of adding texture and flavor. Grace offers chilled avocado soup with Dungeness crab and a lemon foam as a special. Bastide’s menu features a Maine lobster dish with lobster mushrooms and fava beans and topped with a sweet pea froth, and Sona has been known to serve a green tea foam with passion fruit and Santa Barbara prawns. Although chefs have been emulsifying or blending air into sauces for several decades, it’s chef Ferran Adria of Spain’s El Bulli restaurant who is the mastermind behind foam’s current incarnations.

Often referred to as a “mad scientist,” Adria introduced the idea of combining food, gelatin and nitrous oxide to create edible foams 10 years ago. His basic process involves filling a whipped cream siphon with a liquid, such as juice, stock or puree, and gelatin. He then loads the siphon with several No. 2 cartridges and sprays out the results. Adria discovered that just about anything can be turned into foam, and American chefs soon began using his technique.

But suppose the average cook wants to try foam at home? Without all the gadgets and ingredients of a well-stocked industrial kitchen, is it even possible? “It’s all so simple,” said David Bouley, chef/owner of Bouley in New York City and a close friend of Adria. Bouley uses foams extensively on his modern French menu. He describes three basic ways to create his frothy creations: a siphon, with or without the gelatin; a stick blender and lecithin; or the steamer on a cappuccino machine. The simplest method is to add lecithin granules, which are available at most health food stores, to warm juices or purees, such as carrot, asparagus, beet, corn or apple. Bouley then combines them using a stick or immersion blender. Lecithin, a natural emulsifier, adds body and helps warm foams hold their shape. “The best ingredients lead to the best results,” he explains. “But you can try anything.”

With a borrowed stick blender and fine metal chinois sieve, I attempted my first mushroom foam experiment. Not wanting to pay the high price for morels in case I botched things, I substituted shiitakes cut into quarters. Preparation was time consuming, but the foaming itself was easy and the results delicious. My creation looked like an airy, cappuccino-style froth, and its flavor was wonderfully strong. I drizzled the foam under slices of grilled steak and, pleased with my small success, took the rest of the night off.

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Morel Mushroom Foam

Adapted from a recipe by David Bouley, Chef/Owner of Bouley, New York City

Makes about 2 cups

1 pound white mushrooms

4 cups water

1 1/2 tablespoons shallots, finely chopped

1 tablespoon garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

1 pound morel or shiitake mushrooms, quartered 2 cups chicken stock

1 tablespoon lecithin granules

Dash of Tio Pepe sherry

Put washed white mushrooms into a stockpot, add water, bring to a boil, then simmer. Cook until half of the liquid has evaporated, about 40 minutes. Strain through a chinois and reserve mushroom stock. In a skillet, sweat shallots and garlic with butter. Add mushrooms and sweat for 5 minutes, then add mushroom stock and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Add lecithin and sherry and blend all ingredients together with an immersion blender. Pass through a chinois and blend again until foam is the desired consistency.