What if you could actually drink smoke? Sure the idea may seem novel, but anyone who is familiar with molecular gastronomy will tell you all the cool kids are doing it these days. Really that is just the beginning of what is coming in the world of fine dining fun. But more on that later. We introduce you to The Lab Store, a space-agey spot in the oh-so-vogue city of Paris.
The Lab Store in Paris has come out with Le Whaf, a low calorie cloud drink with several specially designed flavors. That's right, no more worrying about liquid stains or spills. This drink however does get poured into a glass using a carafe, and then is supposed to be smartly sipped through a specially designed straw. You might have to wait to sample the taste of lemon in gaseous form, as the hot item is currently sold out but will probably cost around $167 when it comes back in stock.
Photo Courtesy of The Lab Store
The Lab Store isn't the only company experimenting with food and how it's consumed. Hearkening back to the old days of roller-blading drive-thru waitresses, British-based Bompas & Parr built a Mercedes Drive Thru for London Fashion Week. Set beneath the Selfridges Hotel, the art piece of sorts includes a pulsating light installation by Jason Bruges Studio. The lighting is meant to effect you emotionally as you drive in for your food, which is pretty interesting depending on the feelings their trying to illicit.
Photo Courtesy of Bompas & Parr
Bompas and Parr has also been doing a lot of strange, futuristic things with jelly. You may be asking yourself, "What's so futuristic about jelly?" Bompas and Parr have incorporated many, shall we say, unconventional presentations of the sweet treat that resemble something out of the next millennia. How futuristic? Bompas and Parr have actually created a glow in the dark jelly funeral march, displayed in 2009 in San Francisco. Why does this even stand to exist? I don’t know, but it does look different, and being different has to count for something, especially in this day and age of abundant clichés. So, I’ll give points to Bompass and Parr for thinking outside of the box, but seriously, a jelly funeral? Even if we lived in a cartoon world, I’d still question it.
Photo Courtesy of Bompas & Parr
We may be seeing a whole lot more in the way of futuristic foods thanks to scientific progress. According to The Telegraph, one way of beefing up the nutrients in food is by a method called in vitro meat. Scientists have noted ecological and health benefits to in vitro meat, which is meat cultivated in a petri dish, involving injected muscle cells with protein to make them grow. After this not-so-organic process, the muscle is soaked with nutrients and then stretched out mechanically.

Scientists note many nanotechnology benefits, such as increasing the shelf life of the food, via changing the composition of its packaging and then detecting food contamination using nano sensors. High hydrostatic preservation is a pasteurization-like process which deals with putting food under high pressure, typically using water, to inactivate mould and yeast. This is a good way to preserve the look as well as the life of the food, without disrupting the quality of the nutrients and vitamins.

The final way scientists have conjured up to promote health benefits in food, is to genetically modify it, ultimately changing its composition. For example, in the future there could be oil with less transfats and foods with more antioxidants. The question that lingers is, "Will petri dish meat taste the same as real cow?" Welcome to Food 101 of the future.
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