New Yorker Writer Goes on Epic Dessert Odyssey

The newest issue of the New Yorker features a serious think piece by Adam Gopnick about modernist desserts. The writer, who previously gave up sweets, heads out on a quest wherein he interviews "intense intellectual" Alex Stupak of wd~50, who tells him "Pastry is the closest that a human being can get to creating a new food." After a few more trips across the northeast, Gopnick decides to take the advice of Stupak, Dan Barber, Rene Redzepi and White House sweets man Bill Yosses, and goes to Spain to get to the real heart of dessert's future.

After trekking around Europe, Gopnick finally meets up with those famous molecular gastronomy brothers, Ferran and Albert Adrià. When the writer asks Ferran if we're on the verge of breaking down the salty/sweet combo, he responds: "It can’t be that an American is asking me that! A hamburger with ketchup and Coca-Cola? That's the most intense symbiosis of sweet and savory imaginable. It's your cultural theme." Click over for more of his long, fascinating and at times ridiculous journey into the wild world of modernist desserts.
· Sweet Revolution: The Power of the Pastry Chef [New Yorker via EN]
· All Alex Stupak Coverage [~ENY~]
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