Chef Shola Olunloyo Reflection by Matt Freese

Yesterday was undoubtedly my favorite day so far. Chef Olunloyo was so intriguing. First we started the aerated chocolate by using these two machines to pretty much force air bubbles into the melted chocolate/milk mixture. Then, after putting it in an airtight chamber we put it into a blast freezer (essentially a freezer that cools something extremely quickly). Then, while that was cooling, we started the pizza. He had already made the dough and just made us pizza. It was the best pizza I’ve ever had. The sauce was really natural and oily and the cheese was real cheese and the crust and dough was amazing. I’m not sure if it’s one of the following factors that made it seem so good, or a combination: 1. The fact that we knew the pizza should be good because he is a professional cook, so maybe our minds tricked us and told us to think consider it good. 2. The small portions that we had, so we appreciated each portion more. 3. It was actually really tasty and delicious pizza because he is such a good cook.

Next, we made pasta using the pasta maker he has. It was interesting how as the machine heated up and the pasta started to get more compact, the pasta started to get smoother and look more like store bought pasta. Either way, we only had to boil it for 2 minutes because it was already so hydrated and fresh. Then he added meet, a sauce, and basil for us. It tasted so amazing. He also made Amanda a cool balsamic vinegar salad with fresh greens that looked good too.

Finally, we ate the aerated chocolate and put a whipped butterscotch as the topping. That too tasted amazing. Chef Olunloyo also showed us a demonstration on how to soft boil an egg and he did it perfectly.

Lastly, we made a mixture of brie cheese and lemon and put it in Liquid Nitrogen. This made it form a shell on the outside of the drop of mixture. As you take it out of the nitrogen, you can put it into your mouth and it pretty much melts in your mouth and becomes liquid. It was really cool. Then Chef Olunloyo showed us a presentation of this that he made up on the spot using oranges and orange syrup and it looked fantastic and tasted amazing too.

My favorite part about the day was the equipment he used. Shola had pressurization equipment, cool plates and bowls, and a stove that used magnets to heat up only the metallic items on it.  The stove itself wasn’t hot to the touch of a hand, but still heated metal when it was on it. He used this to melt the chocolate.