Lab Instruments Used in the Kitchen

When we talking about lab instruments, the first image came into our mind must be a science laboratory or production scene in a food plant. For decades of years, there has no way that combining various high-tech lab instruments with a restaurant kitchen, we even can’t imagine what’s the relationship between them. While everything is changing with each passing day, technology advancement promotes a new innovation in cooking area, the Molecular Gastronomy emerges at the right moment.

Molecular gastronomy: compressed watermelon, mango "egg", dehydrated caper

Molecular gastronomy, introduced by Wikipedia as “a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking. Molecular cuisine is a modern style of cooking, and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines.”

Beautiful "Paper Cocktails"

Molecular cooking developed on basis of a series of advanced lab instruments, such as rotovap cooking, vacuum pump, constant temperature water bath , vacuum pump ing plastic-envelop machine, etc..

Taking rotovap cooking as example, rotary evaporator is an instrument used to distill a solvent, generally is applied in chemical or medicine laboratory, now rotovap cooking are becoming more and more popular in molecular gastronomy for the preparation of distillates and extracts. For instance, Joan Roca, the chef and boss at world top restaurant “El Celler de Can Roca”, he adds distilled extract from forest soil to gel, and match with oyster into a peculiar dish, his unique idea can not come into being without rotovap cooking. Rotovap cooking used for separating and concentrating food molecule is the most popular cooking method among chefs. Rotovap cooking also applies to concentrate the purest and freshest flavors from a blood orange by removing the water, extract the desired flavors from a blend of alcohol, herbs, and fruit without heating the mixture up, extract brandy and syrup from wine, homemade aquavit, homemade chocolate liquor from the mixing liquid of chocolate and vodka, etc.

White Sangria in Suspension

Other lab instruments also accounting for a place in molecule cooking, constant temperature water bath, cooker use it for vacuum low temperature cooking, and for thermal insulation of siphon bottle.

Modern technology is changing the every aspect of people’s life, we’re in the best times, with the help of modern lab instruments, we have the chance to experience a totally different tastes from ordinary foods. The art of foods and the magic of modern technology perfectly mixed together, bringing us an unprecedented taste feast.