The Dapper Doctor’s Vaporized Sushi and Clouds of Cognac

Breaking down the walls between art and science, a trans-Atlantic Ph.D. is whimsically challenging the way we think about eating and imbibing.

Illustrations by Ellen Lindner

The people standing in the February cold on the quaint cobblestoned Parisian street were not waiting in line for a band or a celebrity, but instead wanted to try Le Whaf, an innovation from Dr. David Edwards, an inventor and biomedical engineer. Inside Edwards’s crowded Le Laboratoire, a huge art and science space near the Louvre, ubiquitous white vapor seemed to be pouring out of oddly shaped glass carafes perched on top of shining silver basins.

The patrons — with bewildered and amused looks on their faces — walked from table to table to “sip” from smoke-filled glasses through a special truncated straw. On the menu: immaterial sushi and duck l’orange.

Edwards had invited four renowned chefs to see what they could create by what he calls “whaffing” food in this 2012 presentation. Whaffing utilizes ultrasound technology to create pressure waves that produce a vapor interspersed with droplets. One chef, Ben Shewry of Attica in Australia, lined up the carafes…