The Story Behind José Andrés' "Liquid Olive" & the Spherification Challenge on Yes, Chef!
This week on Yes, Chef!, one competitor met their match when tasked with this unique technical challenge.
What looks like an olive, but isn't?
The latest episode of Yes, Chef! on NBC saw the tempestuous chefs cooking week-to-week to impress co-hosts and judges Martha Stewart and José Andrés take on a variety of new challenges. One in particular paid homage to a personal favorite of José's: spherification.
RELATED: Martha Stewart & José Andrés Call Out "Diva" Chefs in Yes, Chef! Competition Series
José presented the chefs with his famed "liquid olive," a cheeky dish that pays homage to José's past — and challenged the chefs to think outside the box.
Read on to learn more.
What is the "Liquid Olive"?
Originally created by Ferran and Albert Adrià at the legendary elBulli — where José Andrés trained as a young chef — the liquid olive uses spherification to turn olive juice into a delicate, flavor-packed sphere.
José, a longtime collaborator of the Adrià brothers and an early pioneer of avant-garde cooking in the U.S., brought the liquid olive to The Bazaar as both homage and statement.
Visit a Bazaar by José Andrés location near you on May 15-24 after watching the chefs on Yes, Chef! try their hand at spherification — then taste the original at The Bazaar New York, The Bazaar D.C., and Bazaar Mar Las Vegas. It’s more than a bite… it’s a moment.
Spherification in Yes, Chef!
Episode 3 of Yes, Chef!, "What's in the Box?," challenged its competitors with unusual techniques, including "spherification," which is the basis of The Bazaar's famed liquid olive.
According to the American Chemical Society's Chemical & Engineering News, English food scientist William J. S. Peschardt patented the spherification technique in the 1940s, and proposed that spherification be used to make "edible imitation cherries and other soft fruits and foodstuffs."
Clearly, the Adrià brothers, José, and other chefs — including Chefs Katsuji Tanabe and Lee Frank in the latest episode of Yes, Chef! — have taken the technique and run with it to create endless, creative culinary concoctions. Of course, the technique usually goes over a bit better than what Chef Katsuji managed to present to the judges, but Yes, Chef! is all about professional and personal improvement.
To learn more about what went down in this week's episode of Yes, Chef!, read NBC Insider's official recap and menu rundown right here.
New episodes of Yes, Chef! premiere on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC, following The Voice. Each episode will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
