East Anglia The appliance of science

Date Published:

12/09/2008

The mysterious T added Infusions Ltd to the Map saying: "These guys know their stuff and the website offers food and equipment that can add a serious wow factor to your dinner parties." I duly went along to be wowed

Infusions' owner, John Jackaman, used to be a chef until one day he decided, along with his wife, Lou, that they'd had enough of 14 hours days. "We thought what should we do now? Dry goods offered the longest shelf life and so we borrowed a van and rented a space and got on with it," says John. A walk round the storeroom reveals catering-sized bags of rice, flour and pulses, as well as more sophisticated items like truffles and single estate balsamic vinegars.

But it's what's upstairs that I'm really keen to see. Infusions has the sole UK distribution licence for the Texturas product range conceived by international renowned super chef, Ferran Adrià, of El Bulli. (He’s also one of Heston Blumenthal's favourite chefs and is often credited with creating molecular gastronomy though he dislikes the label, as does Heston.)

You can watch John demonstrate the things you can do with them here.

Infusions also stock a great many other items that chefs can use to add a wow factor to their cooking and presentation. There's a tiny hand-held smoker, scientific equipment and a practically indestructible baking paper that you can even deep fry.

See more of John's gizmos and gadgets here.

Finally John sums ups these toys and techniques: "We never try to advocate getting away from traditional cookery, but when looked at in the right spirit and treated with a bit of fun – fantastic. If you take them too seriously, it's not going to revolutionize what you're doing in the kitchen and it should never get away from great solid, honest cookery."

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