Photographs by Michael Sugrue Foam, isomalt, and sodium alginate aren't usual ingredients in a reality TV show soufflé. But they got Marcel Vigneron to the finals of Top Chef this past season. Ultimately, the 27-year-old's innovative cuisine didn't win, but it spoon-fed molecular gastronomy to the masses.
Video: Marcel prepares for the Top Chef finale.
View Slideshow 
1 The Cyber Egg
__Key ingredients: __Carrot, coconut milk, cauliflower, agar
Method: Spoon dollops of carrot-cardamom puree mixed with sodium alginate into calcium chloride so their surfaces form a skin. Mix the coconut milk with agar, a powerful thickening agent, and let it harden in a ring- shaped dish.
Marcel's tip: "I prefer agar to gelatin for this sort of dish because it's easier to use and can be heated without melting."
View Slideshow 2 Potato With Truffle Espuma
Key Ingredients: Potato, truffle, nitrous oxide
Method: Wrap a paper-thin slice of potato around a metal tube and deep-fry. Fill with a foam of warmed egg whites, cream, and black-truffle juice, squirted from a siphon that can handle both hot and cold liquids.
__Marcel's tip: __With a handheld immersion blender, you could swap the egg whites for lecithin. "It's a great way to make sure that your foams don't collapse."
View Slideshow 3 Coffee Caviar
__Key ingredients: __Coffee, sodium alginate
Method: To form the "pearls," force droplets of the coffee-alginate mixture into a bath of calcium chloride. Serve with blini for dessert.
__Marcel's tip: __"You have to do this at the last minute, because eventually the pearls will harden. The calcium will cook them all the way through." (For more samples of Marcel's molecular gastronomy, visit wired.com/extras.)
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