7 Yummy Menu Items Transformed by Science

LAS VEGAS (MainStreet) -- Call it experimental cuisine-transforming techniques. Or culinary physics.

Today's chefs are taking simple food and changing the cooking process -- and with it transforming texture and taste. TravelsinTaste talked to some of the most cutting-edge chefs and mixologists about these techniques and compiled a select list of where you can find them.

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When added to a cocktail, liquid nitrogen can alter the texture and appearance completely, creating a sorbet consistency with truly exploding flavors. "Temperature is a very important part. Temperature also dictates texture and affects the taste profile. Working with liquid nitrogen allows you to manipulate a product in a form that no other product can produce," says Executive Chef Shaun Hergatt of SHO Shaun Hergatt in New York.

Bacardi brand master Juan Coronado is another mixologist excited by the possibilities. "The spirits industry is embracing 'bringing the lab to the bar,' whereas before it was the lab to the kitchen. Liquid nitrogen allows me to take a classic cocktail like the daiquiri and achieve the same results in a different way. While it may taste the same, the texture and appearance are different. The molecules change and the result is a beautiful, frozen spirit," Coronado says.

The clever Heat of the Moment cocktail is served at Union at Aria in Las Vegas.

Union at Aria, also in Las Vegas, serves two liquid nitrogen cocktails: the Heat of the Moment and the Berrylicious. Made with fresh lime juice, agave nectar, passion fruit puree and Patron Silver Tequila and garnished with cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and orange peel, The Heat of the Moment showcases two Fresno chili peppers on the rim while liquid nitrogen is added to the martini after the pour -- the very image of a devilish drink with the peppers as the ears. The Berrylicious is served over dry ice in a martini glass with fresh strawberry puree, fresh lemon juice, rock candy syrup, fresh lemon sour and Belvedere Raspberry, then garnished with fresh berries on a stick.

"Bartenders are developing new out-of-the-box ideas to evoke all of one's senses. Unique garnishes have become the expression of the modern barman," enthuses Andrew Pittard, general manager of Light Group Restaurants. "The most sensational of these is liquid nitrogen, more commonly known as dry ice. This unique substance, when combined with a crafty libation, makes for a visual waterfall of fog, making a carefully crafted concoction steam to life, thus giving one an experience that stimulates the visual senses. New age ideas and expertise of classic fundamentals are creating a new sensory experience in the art of cocktails."