Morning Fresh

IN Salvador Dali8217;s Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, two tigers pounce out from a large piranha-like fish which, in turn, has popped out of an outlandish pomegranate. Four discordant characters and an even more incongruous title later, what you have is a masterpiece. Works for food too.

Seemingly incompatible ingredients, when forced to cohabit, may occasionally give birth to something several notches above unique. Test this for taste8212;egg whitegreen teavodkasugarleaf gelatin drum roll, please liquid nitrogen. It8217;s a combination of food and science that Ananda Solomon, head kitchen protagonist of Mumbai8217;s Taj President, plans to serve up soon as a palate cleanser.

Palate cleansers, as the name suggests, clear out old tastes and prepare the palate for the next set. These stopgap bites are usually a part of set dinners. There are, scientifically-inclined chefs will tell you, physiological reactions to prove their effectiveness. 8216;8216;Any food that has a bit of acidity cuts through heavy tastes that coat the tongue, refreshes it and makes it more receptive to the dishes that follow,8217;8217; says Solomon.

In a simpler time, yogurt, papaya and mint served the same purpose. So a breakfast of boiled eggs would have been broken with some grapefruit, or the unflattering smell of onions subdued by some mint; raita, kulfi, saunf and sherbet are also part of the cleansing family.

At the Paris Four Seasons lobby cafe, breakfast begins with a creme bruleacute;e cleanser. Even a plate of crisp greens can lighten the load of a cutlery-laden dinner. Bill Marchetti, executive chef of ITC8217;s West View chain, serves a salad of cresses as a cleanser for banquet dinners.

The class graduated when international chefs began punctuating multi-course meals with cold, zesty sorbets. It is still one of the most popular cleansers around. A favourite with Chef Saby Gorai of the Capital8217;s Olive restaurant. His creations are refined crystals of ice, usually flavoured with seasonal fruits or liqueurs. Whether Blue Curacao, green apple or strawberry, each version is churned in-house to produce tiny shots of preservative-free cold washes. In the summer, there8217;s the orange, kafir lime or fennel options.

8216;8216;Our version is almost like the Chowpatty beach gola. For a recent luncheon, we created a kokum and tamarind sorbet that was tangy and sweet,8217;8217; says Gorai. At the West View in New Delhi, Marchetti picks champagne sorbet as his favourite pre-dinner preparation. 8216;8216;Some champagne, egg white and a little sugar syrup. It8217;s simple but totally refreshing,8217;8217; says Marchetti.

Back to Dali. Or someone rather similar. Chef Ferran Adria of El Bulli, a restaurant two hours north of Barcelona in an unlikely seaside town called Roses. The difference between Adria and a madman is also that Adria is anything but mad. In 1994, he combined various flavours with nitrous oxide to create sauces that float like a gaseous tag team. The flavours varied from lime and carrots to salmon and cod.

Adria8217;s airy-fairy blobs are now the most popular palate cleansers in the market. At Asiate, the Asian-fusion restaurant at New York8217;s Mandarin Oriental, there8217;s asparagus and cider foam. Somewhere else, green tea and lime have taken over the stable. On the tongue, the substance which resembles shaving cream, dissipates to leave behind a cool tingling sensation.

While not many Indian chefs want to marry chem lab and kitchen, chef Solomon8217;s wish list of additions to next year8217;s menus includes a popular green tea and vodka infused foam. 8216;8216;We8217;re trying to get the liquid nitrogen right now. Once that8217;s done, we will offer it on all our hotel menus,8217;8217; says Solomon.

While the rest of the world catches up with his canister creations, 43-year-old Adria, whose restaurant is shut for six months of the year to conduct food experiments, has moved on to one better than foam: Air.