Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/460267
clockwise from top left: A bartender mixes the Mastricollins; the dining room of Café ArtScience; the salade de canard, with caramelized chestnuts, poached pears, and brioche. Inhale your drink with Le Whaf. "The idea is To creaTe an innovaTive environmenT where we pioneer The fuTure of food." —dr. david edwards Building better foods is central to the work of Dr. David Edwards, the esteemed Harvard engineer who founded Café ArtScience. Edwards's background is in biomedical engineering; his first company, Advanced Inhalation Research, pio- neered the aerosol delivery of medicine. But he's also dedicated to forging "the future of food," particularly through the unique inven- tions of his Paris design center, Le Laboratoire (see sidebar for details). Café ArtScience opened in conjunction with Le Laboratoire Cambridge and lets Edwards bring progres- sive ideas directly to consumers. "The idea is to create an innovative environment where we pioneer the future of food with an eye toward better, healthier, sustainable living," he says, describing a restaurant that boasts design DNA that Steve Jobs would approve of. Café ArtScience's white interior includes a shelf displaying Le Laboratoire products for sale. Overhead hang futuristic hexagonal panels of shimmering green glass; they echo the towering walls of the Honeycomb, a partitioned rotunda used for private events and a biweekly seminar series covering breakthroughs in art, food, medicine, and technology. Yet when it comes to the cuisine served in the airy dining room, Café ArtScience trades Silicon Valley for the Loire Valley. The kitchen is helmed by Patrick Campbell, who spent nearly a decade at Barbara Lynch's iconic No. 9 Park before passing through the Kenmore Square brasserie Eastern Standard. He smartly manifests Café ArtScience's innovative spirit with an oft-changing menu that marries refined, classic French dishes and hints of American ingenuity. Sci-fi shtick this is not. In one dish, the pastry of a delicate mille-feuille is layered with house-smoked salmon and a light, luscious crème fraîche; it's dotted with caviar and accompanied by roast beet. For another, a tender veal loin crepinette is wrapped in pancetta and plated with roasted cabbage and gnocchi Parisienne, crispy dumplings that yield delightful dough with a bite. A plate of beef carpaccio receives Burgundy truff le, medallions of juicy lobster meat, and a little drizzle of XO, a spicy Chinese seafood sauce that is one of the few Eastern nods on the menu. Back at the bar, Maul continuously toys with his tipples. "There's no other trade that doesn't embrace technology to move itself forward," he says. "Progress isn't about saying, 'This is how they used to do it.' It's about asking, 'How can I do this better?'" We'll drink to that. 650 Kendall St., Cambridge, 857-999-2193; cafeartscience.com BC GOURMET GIZMOS Here's the dish on Dr. David Edwards's most intriguing inventions. Aeropods: Small cartridges flled with inhalable food particles— Café ArtScience's spin on after-dinner mints. Le WhAf: Resembling a wine decanter combined with a lab beaker, this contraption uses ultrasonic waves to turn liquids (coffees, soup broths, cocktails) into favored clouds that are wafted into a glass for "sipping" through a straw, like drags on a cigar. ophone: Last summer Edwards sent the frst transatlantic "scent message" using this device, which lets you combine favor notes to transmit an aromatic puff of air to a recipient. You'll fnd a demo "hot spot" at Café ArtScience's bar. WikipeArLs: Spherical snacks (yogurts, cheeses, and more) encased in a gel coating that, like a grape's skin, serves as an edible protective package. Cofounder Todd Maul tweaks some to use as cocktail garnishes. 70 bostoncommon-magazine.com TaSTE So Many Dinners (So Little Time)