Spent $180 on a molecular gastronomy kit and all I got was sad foam

I bought one of those molecular gastronomy starter kits for $180 about 8 months back. Seen it on some cooking show and thought I could turn my regular menu into something fancy. The kit came with sodium alginate, calcium lactate, agar agar, the whole deal. I tried making caviar out of balsamic vinegar and it turned into brown slime balls. The foam was worse. I wasted 4 whole dinners worth of product trying to get a stable espuma and it just kept collapsing on the plate. My sous chef watched me dump batch after batch and finally said, that stuff is for labs, not line cooks. I boxed the whole kit up and sold it on Facebook for $40. Has anyone here gotten those chemicals to work in an actual service setting, or is it just me?

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jordan_hill10d ago

Sounds about right. That $140 loss is basically a tax on watching too many cooking shows. Those kits are great at making you feel like a scientist for one weekend and then just collect dust.

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