When I worked at a cooking school in Barcelona, a lot of information came at me fast. I was juggling a new language, a new culinary lexicon, a whole slew of new adopted workplace behaviors. I often found myself asking: What’s that? Can you repeat that? Can you explain this to me? And then one day: What is that metal thing and why is it called a sifón?
I would soon learn the magic of the sifón, often referred to as an iSi whip tool in English. Essentially, it’s a pressurized canister that uses gas to create foams and whips. You fill the bottle with a liquid of your choice and the combination of internal pressure and the force of a small amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) allows a bubbly foam to emerge. For example: In goes heavy cream, out comes whipped cream. Voilà !