spherified

Otherwise, they are confined to tasting individual components—a spoonful of sauce here, a ball of spherified currant juice there—to check for proper seasoning.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

They start with the gnocchi—a dish that looks like the traditional Italian pasta made from potatoes but is in fact made from spherified polenta so that its texture is lighter and its interior almost liquid.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

The stagiaires satisfy their curiosity by sneaking spoonfuls of porcini broth and discretely popping spherified lychees into their mouths, and occasionally using a detour to the freezer to beg for a chocolate or two from someone in Pastry.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

And Oriol convinced her to add, instead of the simple boiled potatoes that sometimes accompany the dish, three bacon-scented mochi, the slippery spheres made of spherified foam.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

If no one in a group has ever been to elBulli before, the table may get a dish or two from an earlier year—the spherified olives, for example, have made repeat appearances since their debut.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

There are no additives in the Montjoi lentils, and they are not spherified.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

The year before, when he was at elBulli for two months on that impromptu stage, he spherified too.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

Jorge raises his hand to suggest spherified beer but is cut off.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

From the intensity of their interest, you would have thought that Gaël was at work on an elaborate preparation of some rare and unprecedented dish, like spherified ortolans.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011

Their media are, of course, different—spherified olives and Parmesan air for one; sex, drugs, and neurotic women in stilettos for the other.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011