My first experience with molecular gastronomy was like so many of life’s great initiations: by definition, the first time can only happen once. Even before I got to Chicago, my anticipation was matched by a twin disappointment, a lurking acknowledgement that once I had experienced Alinea, I could never eat like a virgin again.
The difficult thing about Alinea is that for someone like me, someone who’s relatively used to judging food, it’s a little weird to be dropped into a situation where I can no longer tell whether something looks or smells or tastes right because I have nothing to compare it to. How am I supposed to know if a horseradish-infused cocoa butter ping pong ball has been well executed?
Click here to read the rest . . .
Click here for my own slideshow, or here for Alinea’s online photo gallery.
6 Comments
April 20, 2007 at 5:49 am
GOOD LORD! I’m exhausted just reading that. Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
September 23, 2007 at 7:43 pm
[...] remember that piece on Alinea from my trip to Chicago in April? I’ll be reading a (very) condensed version at Talking With [...]
November 14, 2007 at 12:41 pm
[...] piece called Waiterly Conduct. It’s a shortened version of something I posted here in April. Click here for the original (and outrageously long) [...]
October 31, 2008 at 9:10 am
[...] to Cookthinktanker Jess Thomson, of hogwash, whose Waiterly Conduct been featured in the Best Food Writing of [...]
November 3, 2008 at 12:40 pm
[...] year’s Best Food Writing is out, and guess what? I’m in it, for the piece I wrote on Alinea last year, right here on [...]
November 8, 2008 at 3:44 pm
[...] curious about the experience of eating at Alinea, check out Jess Thomson at Hogwash’s article about her visit. Her hilarious piece was included in “Best Food Writing [...]