Molecular Food Science

Molecular gastronomy is a scientific approach to cooking that was developed by French physical chemist and magazine editor, Hervé This, and Oxford Professor of Physics, Nicholas Kurti.

Elizabeth Cawdry Thomas, an English cookery instructor, and Harold McGee, an American food science writer, also participated in conducting initial workshops for cooks on the physics and chemistry of cooking.

Gels, foams, dirt, and "caviar" were produced.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Molecular gastronomy aims to develop novel cooking methods rooted in science and generate new information on the chemistry and physics underpinning culinary processes—for example, why a soufflé expands or why mayonnaise solidifies."

This and Kurti saw molecular gastronomy as an academic field rather than merely a manner of cooking.

Research groups were established at institutions in numerous countries, including France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, and the United States, as part of the academic approach to food.

Even Harvard hosted a talk by Catalan chef Ferran Adrià.

The word "molecular cooking" was developed to differentiate between the academic study of scientific food preparation and its real application in restaurants. The word "modernist" was chosen over "molecular" by certain chefs.

Heston Blumenthal in Britain and Adrià in Catalonia were well-known supporters of molecular gastronomy techniques. The kitchen received what was previously believed to be laboratory equipment with the introduction of the new cooking method.

Syphons, test tubes, flash freezing, spherification, filters, and flasks were all present.

Some critics were incensed by molecular gastronomy, or more accurately, molecular cooking.

Many young chefs are attempting to skip the basics and go directly to methylcellulose, sodium alginate, various polysaccharides, gums, and even transglutaminase, which, when properly used, can make some incredibly intriguing sausage, one wrote.

However, if you ask them to prepare a meringue or sauté a mushroom, many of them will either turn up their noses or simply become uninterested.

Wolfram Siebeck, Germany's most renowned restaurant reviewer, who characterized Blumenthal's mustard ice as "a fart of nothingness," is cited by Britannica.

However, Blumenthal himself has since stated that "Molecular gastronomy is dead." He contended that while the phrase might have been helpful at first to warn people of fresh food encounters, it has since become obsolete. "It's nothing but cooking," he claims.

In an interview with Engineering & Technology, Herve explained how he first started experimenting with traditional French cookbooks to test what he refers to as "culinary precisions." He also studied factors related to sensory perception and agreed that a multi-sensory approach is at the core of the avant-garde style of cuisine. While Herve rushed to distinguish between the study of molecular gastronomy and molecular cookery (actually making food), it's clear that some scientific understanding must precede the result (via Kitchen Theory).

Author: Joseph Caristena