Spanish Molecular Gastronomy: LA’s Bazaar by Jose Andres

Monday night Elena and I had dinner at Bazaar in LA after her mock trial competition.  I have wanted to eat there for the longest time. First let me say that Jose Andres since my Starkey days when we stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and at Jaleo every night that we could.  I still dream about his white sangria and anything he did with ham (and Iberico ham was featured plenty).  Bazaar is a different kind of place and it came to my attention from the famous Mimi Sheraton’s 1000 Foods to eat Before you Die where she talks about Spanish molecular gastronomy and elBulli in Spain headed up by Ferran Adria Acosta. elBulli has been closed (although I read he will do some special events this year) but Spain is a long way to go to a country I don’t love to eat food produced via molecular gastronomy. I have eaten my share of this ingenious food via my love of Juniper and Ivy in San Diego but I am not flying to Spain to eat more.  Hence, Bazaar.   

First of all, the space is really, really interesting. It is very modern and yet very old world all in one place.  We knew we were in the right place when Elena’s drink is made via a cart that contains liquid nitrogen.  We also felt very fortunate that it was LA restaurant week so they h ad a 14 course tasting menu (and we added at 15^th course so we could have the octopus toast).  The menu had it all: foam, air, liquid nitrogen, caramelized coffee. The ingenuity just kept coming but the very, very best part is that the food was delicious with or without all of the interesting touches. 

We started with what looked like a very mini ice-cream cone that was filled with whipped Hamachi and the courses kept coming. One example of an interesting play on food was a Philly cheesesteak. It came in a taco holder and looked like a mini football.  On the top was perfectly sliced, rare meat but the bread was described as “air bread”.  When it was cut, it opened up to fully molten melted white cheddar but the bread was not soggy and was much the texture of a melted cheese crisp.  It really was “air bread” that didn’t get soggy and delivered a very interesting surprise. 

I mentioned the caramelized coffee-this was at the bottom of a dessert and I suspect that coffee laced sugar was caramelized to create the base of a delicious chai mousse.  This was then “painted” or some such thing to form a crust and topped with individually formed chocolate leaves.  The other desert, while looking plan had what was called Catalan Foam which was more than a whipped cream. It really was a foam.

Elena and I are making plans to return but to sit at the main bar and have a drink flight where every drink is made via some form of molecular gastronomy. Too interesting to pass up.

It might be that I will be taking that flight to Spain or maybe just going to LA more frequently…