There are several variants of this wonder—blueberry, carrot, basil—being cooked up in kitchens in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. Tuck in a spoonful and the globules will burst into flavours.
Along with fresh vegetables, chefs are stocking up capsules of aligate, agar agar, nitrous oxide and polysorbet to pull off these culinary stunts and trapping familiar flavours into jellies, powders and foams. “The molecular gastronomy theory applies science to cooking while trying to create new food textures and sensations. Which is why every spoonful brims over with flavour,” says Chef Dewan.
At the heart of this technique is showmanship—at its most outré. “Surprise is extremely important in this form of cooking. Wouldn’t you be flummoxed when you order orange juice and what comes to your table is an orange globule?” says chef Sujan Mukherjee of Taj Bengal, Kolkata.

If you are looking for shock value, you can’t beat Chef Brainard Colaco of Mocha Coffee and Conversations, who invites you to try out a soon-to-be-introduced menu at Mocha, Bandra, of cheesecake and pie drinks and fruit caviars. While you are at it, you can even chomp the menu—only if you reserve the chef’s table in advance. “A concise menu will be written with edible ink on a thin pastry-like base. If you pick up a carbonated mushroom soup as a starter, you break that portion of the menu and eat it with the soup. As the meal proceeds, you keep eating more of the menu. And with dessert, you finish eating the entire menu card,” says Chef Colaco. With help from a food technologist, Colaco has also transformed traditional Indian sweets. So, you suck in a powdered gulab jamun through a straw and pipe out a smooth jelly-like rabri from a syringe; the flavours are true to the original.
While the best of food, traditional or modern, appeals to all five senses, molecular gastronomy is an aesthete’s delight, seducing you with colours, textures and drama—without changing the taste.

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