The Chef Who Plays With His Food

If you think this is a picture of nachos, you'd be forgiven. That was most certainly the intention of Homaro Cantu when he created the dish. But the apparent chips with hamburger and cheese seen above are actually an elaborate dessert. The chips are actually candy. The beef is chocolate and the highlight of the treat is the mango sorbet that is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shredded to look like cheese. As the patron enjoys the dessert, the sorbet even starts to melt, resembling the melting cheese you'd expect to see on a plate of nachos.

Cantu is more of a scientist than he is a chef and his recent demonstrations at TED2011 helped show just how much chemistry can go into a great meal. Check out the whole story over on BoingBoing.