Kitchen-Counter Lab

In the kitchens of today's cutting-edge chefs, food processors share prep space with appliances straight out of the lab. See our gallery of the most extreme kitchen tech—as well as some more accessible gizmos for the home chef

By Anne Wootton and AbSeiff

Posted on Oct 10, 2007 10:00 AM EDT

A super-slicer turnsanything to sorbet How it works: Freeze ingredients in the Pacojet´s beaker and the machine´s titanium-coated, 4.2-inch blade turns at 2,000 rpm, slicing what´s inside into layers less than two microns thick. Air trapped between the ice crystals boosts the dish´s volume by 20 percent and gives it a sorbet-like texture. On the menu: Grape-and-aquavit sorbet; frozen lobster bisque made from whole lobsters, shells and all--A.W. Pacojet $3,450; pacojet.com Todd Huffman

A kitchen equipped for “molecular gastronomy”-gourmet cuisine as cooked by Mr. Wizard, basically-is all about the tech. Devices that wouldn´t be out of place in a chemistry lab fill the kitchens of some of the world´s most adventurous chefs, enabling far-out dishes like whipped-cream pancakes, lobster sorbet (shells and all) and meat-flavored mushrooms. Wiley Dufresne, head chef at one of molecular gastronomy´s Meccas, WD-50 in New York City, is so protective of his machines that he wouldn´t allow them out of his kitchen to be photographed for this piece, insisting that we get our own. And so we did.

For a look at the most extreme kitchen gadgets in use today-as well as some more-accessible gizmos for the home chef-launch our gallery here.

Related:

See Ted Allen´s profile of Dave Arnold, the DIY guru who inspired many of these machines (and hacked together a few of his own), for more molecular-gastronomy tech.