What’s next? Dissolve-on-the-tongue cabernet sauvignon strips?

Celebrity chef David Burke, owner of The David Burke Fromagerie in Rumson and part owner of davidburke & donatella in New York, is hawking a line of ‘flavor sprays.’

The line is known as “The Flavor Spray Diet,” which takes the weirdness up a notch, and has been on the market for a year. We learned about it from a story that appeared this week in, of all places, the New Bern Sun Journal, a newspaper in North Carolina. (If you’re not reading the Sun Journal, don’t feel guilty; that’s what redbankgreen is here for.)

A press release, dated July 19, announces the addition of a garlic and oil-flavored spray to the line, which already featured such flavors as birthday cake, pesto, strawberry shortcake and “ranch.” The press release describes the product as

an ideal solution for the health-conscious individual. The user-friendly FDA approved flavorings contain zero-calories, zero-carbohydrates, zero-cholesterol, and zero-fat. The collection of flavor sprays, which include over 30 bold flavors with additional to come, was designed to replace toppings, gravies, dressings and sauces with intense flavor and none of the guilt. The sprays can be used with any diet.

This is from a Toronto Star article (archived) that ran in February:

We try the sweet sprays off the back of our hands. Birthday cake has that ungodly taste of a gaudy, iced supermarket creation. Chocolate fudge does taste like chocolate (not gourmet chocolate, mind you – the cheap stuff). Apple pie has hints of cinnamon and, yes, cooked apples. You can taste these blind and easily figure out what they are.

It went on to say that several of the participants in a taste test

wondered if the birthday cake flavour was merely a novelty product to spray on a lover. And yet, when you spray food (and not just your hand), the results are striking. Mini cheeseburgers sprayed with smoked bacon really taste like bacon cheeseburgers. Popcorn sprayed with butter tastes like buttered popcorn. Indeed, these intense sprays are meant to be mixed with everyday foods, like pasta, rice, cooked veggies, pork chops and the like, and to be used instead of calorific, sugar-rich, fat-laden gravies, dressings and sauces.

The Sun Journal says the sprays sell for about $5.95 per two-ounce bottle.

Is it gauche to ask if Burke is spritzing the dishes at the Fromagerie?

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