Author Archives: Louisa Chu

Live from the International Home + Housewares Show 2012!

Welcome to our new home at the International Home + Housewares Show 2012!

You may have seen our booth last year, which was nice, but our new glowing counter looks like we’ve landed the Starship iSi in the middle of McCormick Place in Chicago—and that’s kind of how it feels too. With demos and tastings of futuristic-sounding food and drink—like microwave chocolate sponge cake with peanut butter chips, carbonated grape, and whipped cream (below)—it might seem like we’re back from the future, but it’s just our easy take on a classic PB & J with milk, any kid’s favorite after-school snack.

For a little more grown up tastes, we also served “Virgin Mary” infused celery sticks with blue cheese wiz (below). The celery sticks show off the new Rapid Infusion Technique, which you may have seen in the New York Times as Bloody Mary celery sticks.

Our hot, new, most coveted item at the show is hands down the Flex-it Mini Measuring Cup (below).

But our personal favorite at the show is meeting friends, old and new, and showing what you can easily do at home too. We’ve been so busy that we were only able to catch most of our show team together for a quick “class photo” — and yes, that’s Rick Agresta, whom you met last year! If you’re coming to the show, please stop by our booth—we’re in our usual spot (#S1224). If you did, please let us know what you thought in the comments below—and on Facebook. Thanks!

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Pre-show: International Home + Housewares Show 2012

It’s that time of year again! We’re getting ready for the International Home + Housewares Show 2012—and boy, do we need coffee. But not just any coffee, we’re having edible espresso.

If you’ve been by our booth in the past couple of years you might have tasted it too. It’s our version of Èspesso, the intense coffee “foam” invented by El Bulli chef/owner Ferran AdriĂ  for Lavazza, using our very own iSi cream whippers. We adapted the recipe for home cooks and it could not be easier. It’s nothing more than coffee, cream, sugar, and a little gelatin powder. You can find all the ingredients at any grocery store, and you don’t even need a coffeemaker, much less an espresso machine. Our recipe uses cold-infused coffee, which means you simply mix ground coffee with water and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Could not be easier—right? But the flavor will knock you out—or wake you up, if you will. One of our favorite parts of the show—where nearly every single coffee and espresso machine in the world is serving it up—is the happy look of surprise when you taste ours.

We’ll be serving our edible “espresso” again at this year’s show, along with a whole menu we’ve been working on to demonstrate the many ways you can use our whippers and accessories at home.

We present, for your consideration, our International Home + Housewares Show 2012 Menu:

Saturday: Mash and Bangers; Peanut Butter Cake, Carbonated Grapes, and Whipped Cream

Sunday: Edible Espresso; Belgian Waffle Bites with Maple Whipped Cream; Sliders with Cheddar Cheese Wiz; Chocolate-or-Vanilla-Filled Donut Holes

Monday: Edible Espresso; Eggs Florentine with Warm Swiss Cheese; Garlic Lemon Rosemary-Infused Chicken Baguette Sammies with Warm Brie Sauce; Tabasco-infused celery Sticks with Blue Cheese Wiz

Tuesday: Edible Chai; Mini Coconut Milk Pancakes with Banana Whipped Cream; Tempura-fried BLTs

Will you be at the show? Please let us know in the comments below—and visit us at Booth S1224. Can’t wait to see you there!

Post and photo by Louisa Chu

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International Home + Housewares Show 2011

Welcome to our home at the International Home + Housewares Show 2011!

The show sold out this year and opened its doors in Chicago on Sunday to 60,000 attendees. We’re one of 2,000 exhibitors from over 35 countries. Fifteen thousand buyers from the U.S. alone are joined by 6,000 international buyers from 100 countries on six continents (maybe next year there’ll be a buyer from Antarctica).

It’s a heart-racing temporary city filled with colorful booths, packed with the newest trend-setting gadgets and iconic products, all in a blur of action.

The show ends tomorrow, on Mardi Gras this year, and in honor of the holiday New Orleans made famous we’ll be serving Bourbon Vanilla French Toast Sticks with Maple Whipped Cream for breakfast, Mini Shrimp Po’ Boys  – with wild Gulf shrimp – Creole Dressed Slaw at lunch, and sparkling drinks from our hot new Twist ‘n Sparkle all day.

We’ll demo how to dispense the French toast batter from our Gourmet Whip, the maple whipped cream from the Easy Whip, the shrimp tempura-like batter from a Gourmet Whip again, and the Creole dressing from our Creative Whip.

If you’re at the show please come by and see us at Booth S1224!

(That’s Rick Agresta, our President, CEO, and awesome good guy at iSi North America, modestly modeling in front of our booth!)

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Sneak Tasting: International Home + Housewares Show 2011

Will we see you at the International Home + Housewares Show 2011? We’ll be there and we’re so excited! The industry-only event runs March 6 through 8 in Chicago. We’ll be serving sweet and savory bites, including mini Easy-iSi-Cheese Burgers. Our recipe  is made with real, aged cheddar cheese and was inspired by our friend, Top Chef All-Star finalist, Richard Blais and his Cheese Wizard recipe. Richard stopped by our booth last year!

This year we’ll be on the lookout for even more celebrity chefs in the house, including Emeril; Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto, Cat Cora, Michael Symon, and Marc Forgione; Food Network stars Paula Deen and Guy Fieri; Top Chef Master Rick Bayless; beloved PBS chefs Sara Moulton and Ming Tsai; Australian chef (and one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive!) Curtis Stone – and many more.

We’ve been working on the menu throughout the year, perfecting recipes at work and home, with family and friends, for holidays and every day.

Our Home + Housewares Show 2011 menu includes:

Belgian Waffle Bites with Coffee Whipped Cream
Easy Cheese Sliders
Donut Holes with Mocha Mousse
Coconut Milk Pancakes with Banana Cream
Andouille Sausage & Mash
Angelic Devil’s Food Cake with Cinnamon Cream
Raisin French Toast Sticks with Maple Whip
Tiny Tot Shrimp Po’ Boys with Creole Dressed Slaw

Every item will feature live demos of the Creative Whip, using cream and soda chargers, as well as our Easy Whip, Gourmet Whip, and Fill It injector tips – to stuff those cream puffs.

We hope to see you at the show, but even if you can’t make it let’s meet back here where we’ll share our insider peek during the event and wrap up with more recipes you can make at home!

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International Home + Housewares Show 2010

cookiesandcream

Which would you rather have? A cookie? Or a cookie with cream? I hope the latter: a slightly crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside chocolate chip cookie, embellished with a cool swirl of freshly whipped cream. It’s classic comfort food – cookies and milk – simply dressed up.

My name is Louisa Chu – I’m a chef and journalist – and I’ll be this year’s guest chef at the iSi booth at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. The show starts this Sunday but I’ve been working on recipes for months using the new Creative Whip.

At industry-only trade shows like the Housewares Show, buyers and journalists from around the world will walk miles upon miles through the cavernous McCormick Place convention center to see the newest products offered by thousands of exhibitors, some of which you’ll eventually buy for your own home.

Celebrity chefs – including Mario Batali, Ming Tsai, and Rick Bayless – will do cooking demonstrations and sign their books.

I’ve cooked at some of the best restaurants in the world, including El Bulli in Spain, where we used iSi whippers to make extremely inventive dishes, like airy “gnocchi” from potato foam – garnished with seaweed gelatin wrapped butter ravioli, finished with a roasted potato skin consomme. The dish was beautiful, surprising, and yes, delicious but not quite what friends and family want me to whip up at home.

During the show I’ll offer tastings using the Creative Whip of not only the cookies, but many of the recipes found right here on our blog, like the Cheese Wizard on mini grass-fed burgers with tiny challah buns. I’ll also introduce new recipes including Sparkling Arnold Palmers (sweet tea and lemonade) and Buffalo Style Fried Chicken. We’ll post the menu and recipes for everything we’ll serve at the show, because you can and will want to try these at home.

If you’re visiting the show, please stop by and say hi – and you can now follow us on Facebook!

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Golden Belgium Waffles

WAFFLE CREAM SYRUP
The best waffle recipes tend to involve separating eggs, whipping the egg whites into soft peaks, then folding them carefully into the batter – but your iSi Creative Whip does all that for you.
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Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

PANCAKE PUFF

Flat as a pancake? Thanks to your iSi Creative Whip, more like fluffy as a pancake. Read More »

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Carbonated Beverages 101

How to Make Homemade Carbonated Drinks & Cocktails

Make your own refreshing, natural, and always bubbly carbonated beverages at home with your iSi Creative Whip – and far more than just sparkling water. It’s all about freshness and taste. Carbonation adds zing and zip, lightening flavors on the palate. Read More »

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Some Fancy Fried Chicken

Perry Street Restaurant Serves Up Famous Fried Chicken

In New York City they make a fried chicken so crunchy it even stands up to gravy!

Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, famous for some of the finest restaurants around the world and whom you might have seen as a guest judge on Top Chef, serves an iSi-carbonated, batter-fried chicken at his restaurant Perry St.

A few months ago Jean-Georges’s 27-year old son Cedric took over the restaurant as executive chef but promises, “I won’t get rid of the fried chicken! You don’t need to worry about that.”

The deboned and seared chicken is dipped in whipper-made batter charged with CO2 and infused with Thai chili, Schechuan peppercorns, and ginger before getting fried to super crunchy perfection. Topped off with smoked chicken gravy and fresh lemon zest, this is aint no ordinary fried chicken but it sure is delicious.

We’ll try to get Cedric to share Perry St’s extremely popular fried chicken recipe with us. In the meantime, see and hear the making and crunching of their famous fried chicken on Vimeo for The Feedbag:

VIDEO: The Feedbag makes Fried Chicken at Perry St. Restaurant

For more love and photos of Perry St.’s fried chicken, visit Serious Eats.

Perry St., 176 Perry Street, New York, NY, 10014, (212) 352-1900

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The Skinny on Fat

What’s the Difference Between Heavy, Whipping, and Light Cream?

Our recipes specify heavy cream to make your life a little easier. Whipped cream needs to start with liquid cream that’s at least 30% fat. That’s so the whipped in air stays in stable little bubbles suspended among fat droplets.

But if you go to the dairy section of your grocery store, you’ll find a lot of cartons and bottles labeled with the word “cream.” There are so many that you might just pick up the wrong kind or worse yet, walk out without any.

In the U.S. the fat content in cream varies:
Heavy Cream (often labeled Heavy Whipping Cream): 36% fat or more
Whipping Cream (often labeled Light Whipping Cream): 30 to 36% fat
Light Cream: 18 to 30% fat
Half-and-Half: 10.5 to 18% fat

And just in case you were wondering about milk:
Whole Milk: 3.25% fat
2% Milk (often labeled Reduced Fat): 2% fat
1% Milk (often labeled Low Fat): 1% fat
Skim Milk (often labeled Fat Free): 0 to 0.5% fat

Can you remember all that at the store? Us neither. We make it easy and just say use heavy cream because it always whips up light and fluffy. If you use yogurt or cream cheese, just get whole milk kinds too.

You can whip up any brand but we especially like the fresh and delicious products from Country Dairy, Farmers’ Creamery, and Traderspoint Creamery.

You’ll see egg whites and gelatin in our recipes for mousses and foams which also stabilize air bubbles like heavy cream.

And remember, your iSi Creative Whip makes five times more whipped cream than you can whip by hand. So a spoonful of our whipped cream is less than spoonful of hand whipped cream and a whole lot less than liquid cream – and that’s the real skinny on fat!

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