Molecular gastronomy. The introduction
I sure that many of you will say: "I already tried lots of different styles of food, from many different chefs, and now will be difficult to surprise me in a restaurant". About 35 year ago someone (I can't remind his name) said: "In XI century people will eat special tablets to not waste their time in process of cooking". I've promised to my russian friends and reader that I will post something about molecular gastronomy, and now my first post in english (russian version in few days) - "the introduction".
[Read more]The term "molecular gastronomy" was coined in 1992 by physicist Nicholas Kurti and the french chemist Hervé This (some chefs associated with this term preferring to use other terms such as multi sensory cooking, modernist cuisine, culinary physics, and experimental cuisine). It's a sub-discipline of food science, that seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking. This program includes three axes, as cooking was recognized to have three components:
- social;
- artistic;
- technical.
Molecular cuisine is a modern style of cooking, and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines.
There are many branches of food science, all of which study different aspects of food, such as safety, microbiology, preservation, chemistry, engineering, physics, etc. Until the advent of molecular gastronomy, there was no formal scientific discipline dedicated to studying the processes in regular cooking at home or in a restaurant. The aforementioned have mostly been concerned with industrial food production and while the disciplines may overlap with each other to varying degrees, they are considered separate areas of investigation.
Also in 1992, The term "molecular and physical gastronomy" became the title for a set of workshops held in Erice, Italy (originally titled "Science and Gastronomy") that brought together scientists and professional cooks for discussions on the science behind traditional cooking preparations. Eventually, the shortened term "Molecular Gastronomy" also became the name of the scientific discipline co-created by Kurti and This to be based on exploring the science behind traditional cooking methods.
Kurti and This have been the co-directors of the "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" meetings in Erice and had considered the creation of a formal discipline around the subjects, discussed in the meetings. For the first Workshop, the American food science writer Harold McGee, was invited as an invited director. After, Kurti's death in 1998, the name of the Erice workshops was changed by This to "The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy 'N. Kurti'". This remained the sole director of the subsequent workshops from 1999 through 2004 and continues his research in the field of Molecular Gastronomy today.
Nicholas Kurti was an enthusiastic advocate of applying scientific knowledge to culinary problems. He was one of the first television cooks in the UK, hosting a black and white television show in 1969 entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen", where he demonstrated techniques such as using a syringe to inject hot mince pies with brandy in order to avoid disturbing the crust. That same year, he held a presentation for the Royal Society of London (also entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen") in which he is often quoted to have stated:
I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.
— Nicholas Kurti
During the presentation Kurti demonstrated making meringue in a vacuum chamber, the cooking of sausages by connecting them across a car battery, the digestion of protein by fresh pineapple juice and a reverse baked alaska - hot inside, cold outside — cooked in a microwave oven.
Kurti was also an advocate of low temperature cooking, repeating 18th century experiments by the English scientist Benjamin Thompson by leaving a 2 kg of lamb joint in an oven at 80 °C. After eight and a half hours, both the inside and outside temperature of the lamb joint were around 75 °C, and the meat was tender and juicy. Together with his wife, Giana Kurti, Nicholas edited an anthology on food and science by fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society.
Hervé This started collecting "culinary precisions" (old kitchen wives' tales and cooking tricks) in the early 1980s and started testing these precisions to see which ones held up; his collection now is more then 25,000 recipes. In 1995, he also has received a PhD in Physical Chemistry of Materials for which he wrote his thesis on "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique" (molecular and physical gastronomy), served as an adviser to the French minister of education, lectured internationally, and was invited to join the lab of Nobel Prize winning molecular chemist Jean-Marie Lehn. Herve has published several books in French, four of which have been translated into English, including Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking, Cooking: The Quintessential Art, and Building a Meal: From Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism. He currently publishes a series of essays in French and hosts free monthly seminars on molecular gastronomy at the INRA in France. Once a year he gives free and public seminars on molecular gastronomy, he gives a public and free course on molecular gastronomy. Hervé This also authors a website and a pair of blogs on the subject in French and publishes monthly collaborations with French chef Pierre Gagnaire on Gagnaire's website.
Up until 2001, The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy "N. Kurti" (IWMG) was named the "International Workshops of Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" (IWMPG). The first meeting was held in 1992 and the meetings have continued every few years thereafter until the most recent in 2004. Each meeting encompassed an overall theme broken down into multiple sessions over the course of a few days.
The objectives of molecular gastronomy is looking for the mechanisms of culinary transformations and processes (from a chemical and physical point of view) in three areas:
a) the social phenomena linked to culinary activity;
b) the artistic component of culinary activity;
c) the technical component of culinary activity.
The original fundamental objectives of molecular gastronomy were defined by This in his doctoral dissertation:
a) Investigating culinary and gastronomical proverbs;
b) Exploring existing recipes;
c) Introducing new tools, ingredients and methods into the kitchen;
d) Inventing new dishes;
e) Using molecular gastronomy to help the general public understand the contribution of science to society.
However, This later recognized points 3, 4 and 5 as being not entirely scientific endeavours (more application of technology and educational), and has since revised the primary objectives of molecular gastronomy.
The term molecular gastronomy was originally intended to refer only to the scientific investigation of cooking, though it has been adopted by a number of people and applied to cooking itself or to describe a style of cuisine.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term started to be used to describe a new style of cooking in which some chefs began to explore new possibilities in the kitchen by embracing science, research, technological advances in equipment and various natural gums and hydrocolloids produced by the commercial food processing industry. Then, molecular gastronomy been used by famous chefs to describe the food and cooking, though many of them do not accept the term as a description of their style of cooking.
Ferran Adria of El Bulli, prefers the term 'deconstructivist' to describe his style of cooking.
No singular name has ever been applied in consensus, and the term "molecular gastronomy" continues to be used often as a blanket term to refer all of these things - particularly in the media. Ferran Adrià hates the term "molecular gastronomy" and prefers 'deconstructivist' to describe his style of cooking. A 2006 open letter by Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Harold McGee published in The Times used no specific term, referring only to "a new approach to cooking" and "our cooking".
[Read more]The term "molecular gastronomy" was coined in 1992 by physicist Nicholas Kurti and the french chemist Hervé This (some chefs associated with this term preferring to use other terms such as multi sensory cooking, modernist cuisine, culinary physics, and experimental cuisine). It's a sub-discipline of food science, that seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking. This program includes three axes, as cooking was recognized to have three components:
- social;
- artistic;
- technical.
Molecular cuisine is a modern style of cooking, and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines.
There are many branches of food science, all of which study different aspects of food, such as safety, microbiology, preservation, chemistry, engineering, physics, etc. Until the advent of molecular gastronomy, there was no formal scientific discipline dedicated to studying the processes in regular cooking at home or in a restaurant. The aforementioned have mostly been concerned with industrial food production and while the disciplines may overlap with each other to varying degrees, they are considered separate areas of investigation.
Also in 1992, The term "molecular and physical gastronomy" became the title for a set of workshops held in Erice, Italy (originally titled "Science and Gastronomy") that brought together scientists and professional cooks for discussions on the science behind traditional cooking preparations. Eventually, the shortened term "Molecular Gastronomy" also became the name of the scientific discipline co-created by Kurti and This to be based on exploring the science behind traditional cooking methods.
Kurti and This have been the co-directors of the "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" meetings in Erice and had considered the creation of a formal discipline around the subjects, discussed in the meetings. For the first Workshop, the American food science writer Harold McGee, was invited as an invited director. After, Kurti's death in 1998, the name of the Erice workshops was changed by This to "The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy 'N. Kurti'". This remained the sole director of the subsequent workshops from 1999 through 2004 and continues his research in the field of Molecular Gastronomy today.
Nicholas Kurti was an enthusiastic advocate of applying scientific knowledge to culinary problems. He was one of the first television cooks in the UK, hosting a black and white television show in 1969 entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen", where he demonstrated techniques such as using a syringe to inject hot mince pies with brandy in order to avoid disturbing the crust. That same year, he held a presentation for the Royal Society of London (also entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen") in which he is often quoted to have stated:
I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.
— Nicholas Kurti
During the presentation Kurti demonstrated making meringue in a vacuum chamber, the cooking of sausages by connecting them across a car battery, the digestion of protein by fresh pineapple juice and a reverse baked alaska - hot inside, cold outside — cooked in a microwave oven.
Kurti was also an advocate of low temperature cooking, repeating 18th century experiments by the English scientist Benjamin Thompson by leaving a 2 kg of lamb joint in an oven at 80 °C. After eight and a half hours, both the inside and outside temperature of the lamb joint were around 75 °C, and the meat was tender and juicy. Together with his wife, Giana Kurti, Nicholas edited an anthology on food and science by fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society.
Hervé This started collecting "culinary precisions" (old kitchen wives' tales and cooking tricks) in the early 1980s and started testing these precisions to see which ones held up; his collection now is more then 25,000 recipes. In 1995, he also has received a PhD in Physical Chemistry of Materials for which he wrote his thesis on "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique" (molecular and physical gastronomy), served as an adviser to the French minister of education, lectured internationally, and was invited to join the lab of Nobel Prize winning molecular chemist Jean-Marie Lehn. Herve has published several books in French, four of which have been translated into English, including Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking, Cooking: The Quintessential Art, and Building a Meal: From Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism. He currently publishes a series of essays in French and hosts free monthly seminars on molecular gastronomy at the INRA in France. Once a year he gives free and public seminars on molecular gastronomy, he gives a public and free course on molecular gastronomy. Hervé This also authors a website and a pair of blogs on the subject in French and publishes monthly collaborations with French chef Pierre Gagnaire on Gagnaire's website.
Up until 2001, The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy "N. Kurti" (IWMG) was named the "International Workshops of Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" (IWMPG). The first meeting was held in 1992 and the meetings have continued every few years thereafter until the most recent in 2004. Each meeting encompassed an overall theme broken down into multiple sessions over the course of a few days.
The objectives of molecular gastronomy is looking for the mechanisms of culinary transformations and processes (from a chemical and physical point of view) in three areas:
a) the social phenomena linked to culinary activity;
b) the artistic component of culinary activity;
c) the technical component of culinary activity.
The original fundamental objectives of molecular gastronomy were defined by This in his doctoral dissertation:
a) Investigating culinary and gastronomical proverbs;
b) Exploring existing recipes;
c) Introducing new tools, ingredients and methods into the kitchen;
d) Inventing new dishes;
e) Using molecular gastronomy to help the general public understand the contribution of science to society.
However, This later recognized points 3, 4 and 5 as being not entirely scientific endeavours (more application of technology and educational), and has since revised the primary objectives of molecular gastronomy.
The term molecular gastronomy was originally intended to refer only to the scientific investigation of cooking, though it has been adopted by a number of people and applied to cooking itself or to describe a style of cuisine.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term started to be used to describe a new style of cooking in which some chefs began to explore new possibilities in the kitchen by embracing science, research, technological advances in equipment and various natural gums and hydrocolloids produced by the commercial food processing industry. Then, molecular gastronomy been used by famous chefs to describe the food and cooking, though many of them do not accept the term as a description of their style of cooking.
Ferran Adria of El Bulli, prefers the term 'deconstructivist' to describe his style of cooking.
No singular name has ever been applied in consensus, and the term "molecular gastronomy" continues to be used often as a blanket term to refer all of these things - particularly in the media. Ferran Adrià hates the term "molecular gastronomy" and prefers 'deconstructivist' to describe his style of cooking. A 2006 open letter by Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Harold McGee published in The Times used no specific term, referring only to "a new approach to cooking" and "our cooking".
