Spherification looks like magic, but it's just sodium alginate meeting calcium chloride—a gelling reaction industrial food makers had used for decades. Adrià didn't invent the chemistry. He put it on a tasting menu and called it art.

Spherification looks like magic, but it's just sodium alginate meeting calcium chloride—a gelling reaction industrial food makers had used for decades. Adrià didn't invent the chemistry. He put it on a tasting menu and called it art.