Forget Charcoal Versus Gas. The Best Way to Grill a Steak Is With Molten Lava

[n2doc]

British designer duo Bompas & Parr, who designed the world’s first edible fireworks and are best known for their ambitious and sometimes monumental jelly-based sculptures, traveled to Syracuse, New York, this summer to try out their idea for the world’s most extreme barbecue session—grilling meat over 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit lava.

Sam Bompas said he first experienced cooking with lava on a visit to Sakurajima, an active composite volcano (stratovolcano) in Japan. “After climbing across the safety barriers, I was able to use lava to cook lunch,” he said. “This gave me goosebumps. The intensity of the experience meant that on returning to the U.K., I immediately sat down with Harry Parr to plot. We wanted to see if there was a way to create synthetic lava so a wider audience could experience the wonders of food cooked this way.”

The key to making that wish come true was Professor Robert Wysocki of Syracuse University’s Lava Project. Wysocki creates artificial volcanoes and bubbling streams of man-made lava by melting 1.1-billion-year-old basaltic rock in a rigged industrial bronze furnace. Wysocki and his team have conducted some 100 lava pours so far for the sake of science or art, but never in the pursuit of grilling a 10-ounce rib-eye steak.

So how did it taste?

Bompas told me in an email that it was “the best I've ever had. It might be [something] to do with the theatre of molten rock harnessed for cookery!” He added: “The intense heat meant that the exterior was sealed in seconds. There was an excellent char, but the inside was done medium-rare in about a minute alone. We feasted like ogres!

more

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/08/01/bompas_parr_join_forces_with_robert_wysocki_of_syracuse_university_to_barbecue.html

[Warpy]

1. Yes, and I'm sure the sulfur smoke gives the flavor a wonderful boost

Steak a la rotten egg should be a great hit among those with more money than brains, a rage to outdo other fine diners, and completely jaded palates that are no longer satisfied with offal cooked sous vide and buried in a sauce described as "complex, layered flavors" in an attempt to disguise its own flavor.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. world’s first edible fireworks?????????????

Apparently I missed out on something.
Mind boggling now...

[BlueJazz]

3. Molton Lava ? Wouldn't it taste like soap ?