Gourmet chefs today have already taken food preparation to its highest form, and now enjoy improvising by presenting the food you order as a 3-dimensional art form on the plate. "Cooking vertically", they say.

I think we're on the cusp of truly four-dimensional food; food that moves and changes over time. I'm not talking about live animals. I mean things like the following:

Food which blossoms decoratively on the plate due to internal frozen parts which expand as they thaw (perhaps helped by a pre-heated section of the plate or the table); for example, a garnish which, rather than just sitting there, does something eventually.

Plates containing mini conveyor belts which move the items on your plate around in decorative flower patterns; the colors merge together creating a moire (strobe lighting in the restaurant or built into the place setting could also enhance the effect)

Food which is like a choose-your-own-adventure plate; the attentive waiter replaces each ingredient with a new ingredient as you eat them, leading you down a path of exploration. For example, the plate starts out with just two ingredients A and B, if you eat B then you get C, if you then eat A, you get D. The ingredients are deftly chosen so you never have incompatible ones.

Molten chocolate cakes (a common dessert that's like a cupcake but filled with hot chocolate syrup) - but this one will slowly leak and erupt by itself, like a volcano, instead of you cutting into it, due to clever construction which vents the steam pressure inside;

Best of all, the new genre of food will be sure to spawn some neat new rules of etiquette. For example "Never eat any food which has not yet turned orange or exploded and which is heading from right to left", or always eat one entire ingredient at a time during the choose-your-own-adventure phase.

Thank you.
-- phundug, May 05 2009

Chinese Blossoming Tea. http://www.goldente...sqZoCFQNaFQodrD8i2A
They unfold in the hot water over time. [Zuzu, May 06 2009]

Ejaculating pudding http://www.channel4...oman-feast_p_8.html
I made sure to include the search-term 'Heston' when I googled for this. [Loris, May 07 2009]

Food Fister! Food_20Fister!
"Sit Down!! at the dinner table Jeremy; remember what happened to poor Aunt Mabel that time..." [Loris, May 07 2009]

It's about time.
-- normzone, May 05 2009


...and taste.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 06 2009


What can I say? I like it. [+]
-- 21 Quest, May 06 2009


Custard powder could be used to create explosions so you could potentially fire your croutons into your soup.
-- Aristotle, May 06 2009


There is a chef (in Detroit I think) who blindfolds his diners and makes his creations levetate all whilst some music that accompanies/compliments is played to them though headphones. Good for a first date with a fat chick.
-- aussiedigger, May 06 2009


Hyperbun
-- placid_turmoil, May 06 2009


Brussel sprouts that regress.
-- skinflaps, May 06 2009


Wow! great+
so inspired I want 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie!
-- xandram, May 06 2009


I wanna see my custard grow... [or, at the very least, turn purple]
-- up_on_cloud_nine, May 06 2009


Maybe you could have genetically mutated tiny dogs and ponies that jump through a flaming hoop into a frying vat in the center of the table.
-- nomocrow, May 07 2009


[nomocrow], it would be cheaper to use cockroaches for that application as they are already about the right size ...
-- Aristotle, May 07 2009


Surely every schoolkid did this with old fashioned school dinners ? Cut the sponge square in two, ask the dinner lady nicely to pour the custard on one side and then enjoy eating bit by bit until the dam is breached.
-- bigsleep, May 07 2009


Heston Blumenthal has already baked (Boom Boom!) your volcano cake. Only he called it his ejaculating pudding. See link - the recipe is much sought after. (Who are these people trying to kid - these puddings were finely engineered devices.)

In fact he's done quite a bit of this sort of thing - I remember vibrating jellies, and people commenting in the link are referencing gutted, still moving fish, which is apparently a Japanese fad (rather cruel, I'd say).
-- Loris, May 07 2009


I saw a TV documentary on that fish thing, Loris. Completely disgusting, if you ask me. I think anyone who participates in it is disgusting, too. Says a lot about your personality if you like to eat animals alive, and it doesn't say anything good, either.
-- 21 Quest, May 07 2009



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