Art meets science in the kitchen of a top Barcelona restaurant

Disfrutar in Barcelona earned the "One to Watch" award in The World's 50 Best Restaurants list this year. Here, we look inside Disfrutar and meet its chefs, who are pioneering new techniques to create dishes with textures and flavors that delight the taste buds.

One of the new techniques is called multi-spherication.

Here sweetcorn has been liquidized and is being dropped into a solution that will cause it to reform into individual kernels.

Once the individual kernels are formed, they are then dropped into molds where they gel together.

The equipment required is basic.

But it results in rectangular blocks of corn kernels that look and taste delicious.

Each kernel pops between the teeth to release a sweet, creamy smooth center.

The chefs arrange it artfully into dishes.

Here it is placed on top of foie gras and a cracker, resulting in some very sophisticated finger food.

The same technique can be used to create different shapes.

A look inside Disfrutar's light-filled dining room.

The chefs at Disfrutar call this "the best sandwich in the world."

Inside is caviar and sour cream.

It's carefully deep fried so that the center remains fresh and cool.

The oil temperature has to be carefully controlled.

The same technique can be used with different fillings -- imagine one with ice cream!

The satisfaction of slicing through the crisp dough is second only to plunging your teeth through it.

Inside, the heavenly the center is revealed.

It's as wickedly yummy as you would hope.

Many of Disfrutar's dishes aren't easy to decipher to the untrained eye.

This is because ingredients are often broken down into component parts and then reconstituted in some way, as with these jellies.

They are made to look appetizing through careful presentation.

Here, sea urchin is added.

The result is certainly a pretty picture, as well as a delightful mouthful.

Chef Eduard Xatruch is one of three chefs at Disfrutar. They bring years of experience from working at Spanish restaurant El Bulli, which is now closed, but was once considered to be the pinnacle of creative cooking.

They maintain their creative attitude to cooking with a research lab in the restaurant's basement.

Here they allow their creative juices to flow.

They play with ideas and concepts.

They even think up new ways of presenting food to customers.

Most of their actual tools are simple.

Although they do enjoy playing around with pressure cookers.

They introduce unusual ingredients like cauliflower to pressure cookers, in order to see what results they can come up with.