Making Ferran Adria's Mango caviar with Texturas from El Bulli Taller - The equipment

The world at large probably first heard the name Ferran Adria in 2003 because of Anthony Bourdain's TV show called "Decoding Ferran Adria" which was the first primetime look into Adria'a world of molecular gastronomy. On the show he made a green pea “ravioli" that was made from seemingly nothing but pea purée and at the time they kept the process and ingredients a secret. Since then they have realized that the demand for the knowledge and ingredients was high enough that could


Albert Y Ferran Adria DVD
If you are thinking about getting into molecular gastronomy or ordering any of the Texturas chemicals I really recommend you start by getting the Albert Y Ferran Adria DVD. It is extremely valuable because it quickly and clearly illustrates 84 recipes and techniques that can by applied with their Texturas, LyoSabores and Ingenios lines from El Bulli Taller. The problem is that the DVD is really hard to find. The only place I was able to find it in the U.S. was through a company Koerner that is in New Orleans and sells it for about $32 plus shipping. I have done a lot of research and this is far and away the easiest ad cheapest place you are going to find it.

By getting the DVD first you can explore all the possibilities of all of the chemicals quickly so you can decide which ones you want to order. I liked taking this approach because it is much cheaper for you than buying something like their Spherification Kit which is even harder to find and can cost as much as $400.

There is one potential problem you should be aware of that is the DVD was produced in the standard for European television called PAL which is different from the standard most U.S. DVD will play. So you will need a DVD player that can play PAL disks or most laptops with the right freeware can play these DVD's but make sure you have a way to play it before you order it.


The overall quality of the DVD is honestly much better than I was expecting. The menus are easy to navigate, very well designed and you can quickly find what you want. All 84 recipes are just video of the preparation with graphical overlays that outline the ingredients, preparation, equipment, timing, etc. The video are a few minutes long, with a good amount of detail and end with suggested serving options which is a nice touch. The only real problem I found was that some of the videos show the preparation of something like a simple sugar syrup but they don't tell you the amount of sugar or water they are using to make the syrup. That can be overcome the the DVD also has has a 105 page PDF that details all of the products and recipes found on the DVD.

Texturas chemicals and equipment
The Texturas chemical are broken down into SFERIFICACIÓN, GELIFICACIÓN, EMULSIFICACIÓN, ESPESANTES and SURPRISES. For this everything you need falls into the Sferificación category. I ordered Algin, Calcic, Citras and the Eines tools from Koerner. You get a good amount of each chemical as the containers are larger than I thought they would be. The Eines tools really aren't worth the money because all you get are a set of measuring spoons, two plastic syringes and two of their special straining spoons. The quality of all the materials aren't great and you are paying for the name on the container since you could buy all the parts individually and unlabeled much cheaper.

With all of the materials in hand the next installment will be seeing how it all works.