a book that I've contributed an article is published!

A book that covers the whole evening of memorial dinner event Open Sauces is finally published.

Open Sauces Book
ISBN 978-90-810733-0-1

• with full recipe of the evening
  
• with full recipe of Edible Perfume Workshop
  
• with full recipe of "green peas and mint soup - gaseous, fluid, solid -"
• it's a MUST have book for those who are interested in molecular gastronomy, food art, and cooing with scents in priority

From the introduction...
This book is designed as a collection of the “toasts” and their
accompanying recipes from the Open Sauces dinner. It is a scrapbook – a
“common-place book” in the parlance of earlier centuries – and a book of
commons. Commons, a term denoting shared public resources, can be traced
back to the sharing of provisions, of rationing limited amounts of
foodstuffs to feed a whole community. Similarly, Open Sauces offers
bite-sized morsels of diverse aspects of contemporary food culture –
whether curious information, case studies, or specific techniques – to
feed a diverse group of readers.

The book also contains the recipes for the complete, seasonal Open
Sauces menu, designed for twenty-five people. The recipes list the
original amounts; however, as each course was quite small, the
quantities cited in the recipes could be used for four to six people if
served in a two or three course dinner. In several recipes the amounts
are approximate, as this is the preferred method of cooking and sharing
recipes at FoAM. The recipes and related texts are available online at
http://opensauces.cc in editable form. Improvements, adaptations,
comments, questions and suggestions are more then welcome. After all,
Open Sauces should stay true to its title.



edited and published by: FoAM
price: 10 euro

They are later going to sell the book at Amazon, but you can also download the digital version here:
http://opensauces.cc/open.sauces.pdf

It's a kind of book that you want to take to your bed and just staring at it before sleeping.

The long awaited Open Sauces book (by Foam) is online:
http://opensauces.cc/open.sauces.pdf

what was Open Sauces?

- includes full recipe of Edible Perfume Workshop
- includes full recipe of "Pea and Mint Soup - solid, liquid, gaseous - "
- for anyone who is interested in molecular gastronomy, food art, scentology, and cooking

Open Sauces Dinner @ FoAM, Brussels

Nov. 22, 2008

Open Sauces
theme:
open source & open sauces
the sense of taste & the sense of smell
food crisis, trading, logistics,
future of the food etc.etc...

Not to forget: to taste!


welcome drink


12 course dish starts. Get ready!

Menu
http://lib.fo.am/open_sauces_menu


parmesan cheese + honey = super!




cauliflower + cauliflower + cauliflower....




Sprouts on alga + black sesame rice cracker + water cress jelly.

(It's all edible, just for your information.)


What impressed me the most was this dish. Surprising, but tasted also good in a subtle way. And I got the feeling that I was positively experimented. As a native Japanese I missed shoyu & wasabi for this sort of texture, and I found out that they had already 'composed' them alternatively by placing sesame-shoyu cracker & water cress jelly next to the sprout. This was amazing. The level of play was very well balanced in that dish.



Green Peas & Mint Soup in different versions

• gaseous <---- the perfume dish that I contributed
• fluid
• (half)solid

It was my role to give a toast for this course.
My toast:

If you pinch your nose when you eat, you wouldn't taste much flavors. The role of smell is quite crucial in cookery, because 70 % of tasting is said to be smelling. The rest 30 % is saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness, umami, and some texture. The smell or aroma of the food comes in to the nose through the nose holes, but also from the back of the nose by chewing. Good test would be to chew the food with the mouth open. You wouldn't taste much.

This transparent liquid in the perfume bottle is distilled green pea & mint soup. The aroma's of the soup is condensed and concentrated in this liquid. In other words, it's the same liquid that you can also find on the lid. Now, what happens if we don't close the pan when making a soup? You might find an answer in this perfume. You can spray it in your mouth.

The toasts are related to the each dish like this.


Chicoli cooked in coffee.


Different versions of sexy 'stamppod'.





All the dishes were served with a touch of elegance. The tastes were finely tuned with the drinks.

Only pity thing is that everything was following (too) proper western formal style. I was expecting to get even more surprise with a lot of plays and experimentations. I hope they get even more crazy the next time...!

Green Peas & Mint Soup Perfume (2)

distillation of mint









essential oil is to be seen on the surface





composition of the final perfume

• distilled green peas soup 45ml (head)
• distilled mint 30ml (head)
  

Green Peas & Mint Soup Perfume (1)

As one of the Open Sauces course dish, I'll provide a perfume "Green Peas & Mint Soup". It's a perfume for your mouth. It's meant for experiencing the border of taste and smell.

Ingredients

• frozen green peas(ECO)
• onion(ECO)
• garlic(ECO)
• coconut oil
• self-made vegetable stock
  

Mint will be extracted separately.

















Ethanol is added (10%).

Open Sauces (announcement)

http://fo.am/open_sauces
Sat. 22th November, 2008
@ FoAM, Brussels, Belgium

I'll provide a perfume "Green Peas & Mint Soup". It's a perfume for your mouth. It's meant for experiencing the border of taste and smell.

Edible Perfume Workshop - Photos

Documentation photos are here:
http://flickr.com/groups/open_kitchen/pool/tags/workshop/

A report by Sae Inukai (one of the participants):
http://saehond.exblog.jp/9684257/

Edible Perfume (workshop announcement)

Dear Friends

As a part of "Open Kitchen", a series of events about food, food systems and food culture, I'll give a workshop on extracting scents "Edible Perfume" on Sunday, November 16th in Brussels. If you are interested please reserve as soon as possible (there are only 10 places).

For more information about this workshop and other events of the series "Open Sauces", please read below. Forwarding this email is welcome.

Cheers!
Maki Ueda


==================================================================
FoAM and the Guild for Reality Integrators and Generators would like to invite you to Open Kitchen, a series of events about food, food systems and food culture. FoAM's cooks will prepare a wide spread of activities, hoping to nourish a variety of tastes and appetites. We will open the doors of our kitchen to demystify some of the substances and processes that make up our contemporary diet. We hope you will join us at our table, there will be plenty of food and no shortage of food for thought...

All events will take place at:
FoAM, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34 Quai des Charbonnages, B-1080 Brussels, Belgium
Maps: http://fo.am/contact/
Please reserve your place by the 10th of November for all events.RSVP: bxl@fo.am


------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Diet: Recipes for Disaster
Thursday 13th November 2008, 19:00 - 22:00
Kate Rich and FoAM invite artists, cultural organisations and members of the assorted cultural proletariat to a potluck dinner and round table conversation on nutrition, catering and survival in the art world andthe cultural sphere.More: http://fo.am/public_diet


------------------------------------------------------------------
Food Pairing and Molecular Gastronomy
Friday 14th November 2008, 19:00 - 21:00
Bernard Lahousse, an internationally renowned food scientist, consultant to creative chefs worldwide (such as those from L'air du temps, OudSluis, In de wulf, or Kasteel Withof) will prepare a nutritious lectureand degustation of food pairing, molecular gastronomy and new kitchentechiques.
More: http://fo.am/food_pairing


------------------------------------------------------------------
Semiotics of the Kitchen Radio
Saturday 15th November 2008, 15:00 - 18:00
With Martha Rosler’s classic performative alphabet 'Semiotics of the Kitchen' as a point of departure, Constants' design collective Open Source Publishing (OSP) presents a live radio broadcast from the FoAMkitchen.
More: http://fo.am/kitchen_radio


------------------------------------------------------------------
Edible Perfume
Sunday 16th November 2008, 14:00 - 17:00
Maki Ueda, an artist who chooses scent as her medium, will conduct a hands-on workshop on extracting and composing aromas & flavours, inspired by the concept of flavour pairing.
More: http://fo.am/edible_perfume


------------------------------------------------------------------
Feral Trade Tea Party & Raffle
Sunday 16th November 2008, 17:00 - 19:00
Kate Rich, an artist, trader and grocery geek will serve specially delivered tea and coffee, introduce Feral Trade (http://feraltrade.org)and talk about her 'slow shopping' quests in Bangladesh, Montenegro,Iran and other diverse destinations. The event will end with a hamperraffle including a variety of Feral Trade goods.
More: http://fo.am/feral_tea


------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Sauces
Saturday 22nd November 2008, 18:00 - 23:00
Open Kitchen will be concluded with a synaesthetic dinner, to jointly sample, celebrate and debate the future of food. With: AlexandraDeschamps-Sonsino, Sher Doruff, Kultivator, Maja Kuzmanovic, Alok Nandi,Sneha Solanki, Wietske Maas, Matteo Pasquinelli, Kate Rich, FemkeSnelting, Andreas Strauss, Maki Ueda, Stevie Wishart, Allison Zinder andother trans-local food experts and enthusiasts.
More: http://fo.am/open_sauces


Open Kitchen is a part of Week van de Smaak(http://www.weekvandesmaak.be/). Open Kitchen is supported by the Flemish Authorities and the Culture2000 Framework of the European Commission (gRig).


--FoAM updates. [un]subscribe options and archive can be found at http://fo.am/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/update

pea and mint soup perfume - ready!

17/11


The distilled soup of yesterday's is not transparent because of the white foam flown into it.
So I'll distill it again.


The distillation went on till the next day (18/11).



19/11

No.1 - 30ml
No.2 - 30ml
No.3 - 30ml
No.4 - 30ml
No.5 - 50ml　

I've stopped distillation after achieving 170ml in total.
The first two bottles contain the scent, but the rest don't.
It was not condensed as I've expected. I wonder why.

The conservation middle (Euxyl K) was added at 0.02 %.

The preparation was almost finished for the event on the 22th of November, but it's just canceled this morning. The father of the initiator has passed away. It's a very sad news.

comparing soup to a perfume

15/11

FoAM asked me to make a perfume of the "pea and mint soup" for their event on Nov. 22nd, so I've distilled the soup.


Fresh mint


200g green peas.


After being soaked in the distilled water for 2 hours, they're boiled first in order to prevent creating too much foams in the flask.


Pour the soup in the flask...


... and add some mint.


Distillation


The distilled soup: an essential oil of the mint is on the surface.

If I would compare the soup to a perfume...

mint = top note
pea = middle/base note

To spread something green when serving a soup to create the "top note" is a quite common technique to be seen all over the world. For example, fresh coriander for the lentil soup, and mitsuba-leaves for Japanese osuimono.

This extract of "pea and mint soup" is not the best one because the mint scent is too present, and it's dominant not only as the top note but also as the middle/base note.

The cause could be:
- too much mint being used
- the pea was non-organic


16/11

This time I'll extract only the pea soup (with the organic pea), so that I could make a cocktail with the mint extract later, just like creating an accord in perfume.



It's running since the beginning of the afternoon till now at 22:00.
The white foam of the soup has flown into the cooler, so the distilled water is not pure anymore. Tomorrow I should distill it again to achieve the transparent still.

some experiments...

It's an experiment for the FoAM event on 22nd of Nov.
Curious what I'm doing...? That's secret!

Pea and Mint Soup - distillation -

Pea and Mint soup distillation

Pea soup is Dutch traditional soup just like miso-soup for Japanese.

• pea (splitserwten) 100g, soaked 3 hours in water）
• mint
• distilled water 400ml

The bubble doesn't stop!





The bubble flew into the cooler...
So I added the oil and lowered the heat.



Nice scent. Mint and pea are both characteristic scents but when they are together it's difficult to identify them. But it's gourmet type of smell, and I was getting hungry from it.