BY GRACE S. YEK and KURT STRUWE
Faux caviar made with apple juice
from El Bulli restaurant in Spain.
Photo
© Maurizio Borgese/Hemis/Corbis
pg 34
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Deconstructing
Deconstructing
Molecular
Molecular
gastronomy
gastronomy
Part food science and part culinary art, molecular gastronomy and its offshoots are
revolutionizing food preparation, presentation, and eating and sensory experiences.
“W
hat’s in a name? That which we call a rose by
any other name would smell as sweet.” If only
Shakespeare knew, some 400 years later, how
aptly those words would capture the quandary in which
we find ourselves with regard to molecular gastronomy. It
has many names: culinary alchemy, avant-garde cooking,
scientific cooking, scientific cuisine, progressive cooking, experimental cuisine, and molecular cooking …
but is it all the same? Many believe it represents a new
culinary genre that those out there chefs do. Reactions
to this new culinary movement range from enthusiasm,
buoyant with foam sauces and bubbling liquid nitrogen,
to perplexed looks or mutterings of disapproval. With
what appears to be free-form dots scattered over the
culinary map, perhaps it’s time to connect those dots.
Molecular gastronomy was born in 1988, when two
scientists, Nicholas Kurti and Herve This, created a new
scientific discipline to investigate culinary transformations, specifically the chemistry and physics behind the
preparation of food (This, 2006). Gastronomy was defined
by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1825) in the Physiology
of Taste as, “everything connected with the nourishment
of man.” Alternately, Merriam Webster defines it as “the
art or science of good eating.” As clear as the founding
fathers of molecular gastronomy were that it was to
be a science, the very definition of gastronomy lies in
a nebulous terrain that is not strictly science but one
where the vein of the culinary arts runs squarely across.
Kurti and This organized the first “International
Workshop of Molecular and Physical Gastronomy”
in 1992 in Erice, Italy, and invited both chefs and
scientists to advance the dialogue of this new science. When Kurti died in 1998, This shortened the
name to the “International Workshop of Molecular
Gastronomy.” It remains a biennial invitation-only
gathering of notable chefs and scientists (This, 2006).
Five Goals of Molecular Gastronomy
When This presented his Ph.D. dissertation “Molecular
and Physical Gastronomy” at the University of Paris
in 1996, he identified five goals of this new science:
“(1) to collect and investigate old wives’ tales about
cooking; (2) to model and scrutinize existing recipes;
(3) to introduce new tools, products, and methods to
cooking; (4) to invent new dishes using knowledge
from the previous three aims; and (5) to use the appeal
of food to promote science” (This, 2006). Of the
original five goals, only the first two corresponded to
science. The other goals were application and educational
offshoots of the science of molecular gastronomy.
Today, molecular gastronomy still creates
uncertainty. The chimerical food creations we witness
today—fruit caviar, hot ice cream, and foam sauces—are
creative kitchen applications of the science. The many
names given to capture this kitchen approach, ranging
from molecular gastronomy to culinary alchemy,
fundamentally refer to the same idea: Tapping into science to improve cooking processes and expand culinary
innovation. Harold McGee (2004), an award-winning
food writer and eminent contributor to the field, perhaps
said it best with the words “the science of deliciousness.”
Peter Barham, a polymer physicist at the University of
Bristol in the U.K. and a prolific contributor in the field,
noted the interdisciplinary nature of the new science of
molecular gastronomy. It encompasses a wide variety
of topics, which includes understanding the effect of
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Deconstructing
Deconstructing
Molecular
Molecular
gastronomy
gastronomy
Science Meets Cooking
S CIENCE
Cooking and science are converging to
expand culinary boundaries and create
unique and innovative cuisines.
chemistry
physics
food
C OOK ING
sc ience + cook ing
classical
C OOK ING
fusion
nouvelle
S CIENCE
cooking methods on the attributes
of food, the investigation of new
cooking methods to improve and
create new experiences in food,
and the cerebral and sensorial
interpretation of foods (Barham,
2008). Thus, it is no wonder that a
new crop of avant-garde chefs (i.e.,
practitioners of the molecular gastronomy movement) seek not only
to delight the guests’ palates, but
also evoke emotion and stimulate
all other senses, making their food
nothing short of a performance.
It is also interesting to note
that the early history of molecular
gastronomy coincided with an
American cultural phenomenon,
the Food Network cable television
station. The Food Network,
launched in 1993, popularized
the idea of food to the masses on
an unrelenting 24/7 basis. The
increasing media spotlight we see
on molecular gastronomy in the
United States—the recent episodes
of “Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie:
The Science of Deliciousness”
(Gourmet, 2008) and “Gourmet’s
Diary of a Foodie: Avant-garde A la
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Carte” (Gourmet, 2008), feature
articles in Popular Science magazine
(2007) focusing on the new science
of food, and coverage in The New
York Times newspaper comparing chefs to chemists (Chang,
2007)—is perhaps no accident but
the inevitable intersection of science
and popular culture, held together
by the fascination with food.
While molecular gastronomy is
most developed in Europe, it is still
considered a new science. With the
exception of a few Ph.D. programs
in Europe, getting a degree or
carving out a career in molecular
gastronomy is still hard to do
(Pain, 2007). In the United States,
the Research Chefs’ Association
pioneered the field of Culinology®,
which blends equal parts of food
technology and the culinary arts.
While only an approximation to
molecular gastronomy, it is a field
that offers viable higher educational
degrees and career paths.
Chefs and Restaurants
Sometimes called the “Salvador
Dali of the kitchen,” chef Fer-
ran Adria has popularized the
molecular gastronomy movement
worldwide with his foams and faux
caviar. Best known for his culinary
foams, stabilized with gelatin or
lecithin, Adria does not use the
term molecular gastronomy, and
says, “There isn’t a molecular
cuisine. There’s a molecular movement, the molecular gastronomy,
where some scientists cooperate
with the world of cooking” (eG
Forums, 2004). Adria’s place in
culinary history began in the 1980s
when he was promoted to head chef
of a traditional French restaurant
located on the Catalonian coast
of Spain, north of Barcelona,
named El Bulli (Moore, 2008).
Today, El Bulli is a three Michelin
star restaurant, which Restaurant
magazine recently ranked No. 1
in the world for the past three
consecutive years (Harding, 2008).
Whether chefs made the term
molecular gastronomy famous or
the term made them famous, it’s
sometimes taboo to use the term
to describe their work. Another
chef who has played a major role
in developing the movement is
Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat
Duck, in Bray, England. He said,
“the term creates artificial barriers”
(The Observer, 2008). Known for
its bacon and egg ice cream, the
Fat Duck earned three Michelin
stars in 2004, and has been named
one of the top three restaurants in
the world by Restaurant magazine
since 2004 (Harding, 2008).
Some of his popular dishes—snail
porridge and salmon poached with
licorice—excite the senses, and
sometimes, challenge the palate.
Grant Achatz, whom many
consider a true American pioneer
in this movement, calls the food
“progressive American” at his
Alinea restaurant in Chicago, Ill.
While tapping into science to create his foods, he distances himself
from molecular gastronomy, which
he notes, feels like a science class.
Achatz wants his restaurant to
Deconstructing
Deconstructing
Molecular
Molecular
gastronomy
gastronomy
feel more like the “performing
arts” (savorycities, 2007). Known
for its innovative approach to
dining, Alinea’s customers may
experience a floral or herbal
aroma-filled pillow to complete
the experience of the food on their
plate. Achatz’s formula for success
is undeniable; Alinea was named
the “Best Restaurant in America”
in 2006 by Gourmet magazine.
Also leading the American
charge are Wylie Dufresne of
WD-50 in New York, N.Y.,
and Homaro Cantu of Moto in
Chicago. These chefs continue
to inspire and fascinate, as they
create from the crossroads of
culinary arts and science.
Applications of Food Science
While food science is part of
molecular gastronomy, its main
application has traditionally been
to provide safe and nutritious
food for the masses in the most
efficient and economical manner
possible. As the Institute of Food
Technologists (IFT) defines it, food
science is “the discipline in which
biology, physical sciences, and
engineering are used to study the
nature of foods, the causes of their
deterioration, and the principles
underlying food processing”
(IFT, 2007). Furthermore, the
application of food science—food
technology—is defined as “the
application of food science to the
selection, preservation, processing,
packaging, distribution, and use
of safe, nutritious, and wholesome
food” (IFT, 2007). Neither the science nor the technology is geared
toward the study of restaurant
cooking processes or the creation
of new dishes in the kitchen.
Molecular gastronomy has
helped bring the tools and technology that are commonplace in the
food industry to the restaurant
kitchen. Take, for example, the
technique of spherification, where
round “pearls” of gel with liquid
centers (“caviar”) are created by
dropping a flavorful base mixed
with sodium alginate into a calcium
chloride solution. Upon contact
with the calcium ions, gelation
occurs from the outside in. The
longer the pearls remain in the calcium solution, the firmer and less
liquid the centers become. While
this is a fairly new application in
the kitchen, alginates are well
established as an ingredient in food
manufacturing. The thickening
and gelling properties of alginate
have long been used in sauces and
re-formed products such as restructured fish fillets, onion rings, and
herb-flavored alginate gels used
to stuff olives (McHugh, 2003).
Maltodextrin, a product of
partial starch hydrolysis, is another
crossover from food science. An
ingredient used to transform
oil to powder in the molecular
kitchen, it is a staple ingredient in
food processing used to disperse
dry ingredients, stabilize high-fat
ingredients, and a source of carbohydrate in high-energy drinks.
Recognizing the potential in
bringing food science applications
into the kitchen, Inicon, www.
inicon.net, a European technology
transfer program, was created in
2002 to impart knowledge from
the science and food industry
to the kitchen, and close the
technical gap between the two.
Preparation and Cooking Techniques
Foams and airs, forms of foods
that are certainly not new, were
made fashionable in fine dining
by chef Adria of El Bulli with his
arsenal of hydrocolloids and nitrous
oxide. One of his famous creations
is “warm gelatin,” to which he
adds agar (a seaweed powder) to
stabilize warm beef gelatin (The
New York Times, 2008). Another
of Adria’s signature creations are
foams, which are stabilized sauces
aerated with nitrous oxide.
Lecithin is a staple ingredient
used to emulsify sauces like
mayonnaise and vinaigrettes.
Spherification helps to create a novel sushi product with a core of “pearls”
surrounded by traditional rice and an avocado wrap. The pearls are made from a
solution containing flavors, colors, and about 1% sodium alginate. Droplets of this
solution are added to a 1% calcium chloride solution to form the pearls.
Photo courtesy of Zoya Rozet and Gum Technology
Soy lecithin, in particular, avoids
concerns of cholesterol when
compared to the traditional use of
egg yolk for emulsifying power.
The emulsifying properties of
lecithin also make it a popular
ingredient to create airs and foams.
Chefs today are magically
transforming liquid oils into
powder, sometimes even replicating
the flavor complexity of a whole
course. The “secret” ingredient
is tapioca maltodextrin. In the
avant-garde restaurant kitchen,
highly flavored oil is blended with
tapioca maltodextrin to transform
the oil from liquid to powder.
“Powder oil,” having a high affinity
for water, pleasantly coats the
mouth while releasing the potent
flavors of the oil. Some chefs have
used this ingredient to turn peanut
butter into a granular powder
that reconstitutes in the mouth.
Methylcellulose is a thermoreversible gelling agent. When
heated, the methylcellulose
transforms into a gel, and as
it cools, it starts to liquefy. A
popular use for this “upside-down”
ingredient is hot ice cream, a
new breed of ice cream that gets
firmer at higher temperatures. »»
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Deconstructing
Deconstructing
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Molecular
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gastronomy
Heston Blumenthal intends to
complement his recipes with sections of science, ranging from ice
cream to meat science (Gourmet,
2008). Grant Achatz, when considering the history of gastronomy,
speaks of the “explosion of new
techniques for the first time in
years and years” (Gourmet, 2008).
Recognizing the synergy
between the culinary arts and
food science and technology,
the Research Chefs’ Association
champions this hybrid approach
to food. The increasing number
of students in Culinology is perhaps
indicative of the future generation of culinary practitioners, a
generation which views the
coexistence of the culinary arts
and technology as second nature.
We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how we think
of cooking. The distinguished
contributors of this field—
Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal,
Thomas Keller, and Harold
McGee—who recognized the
rapid and sometimes misguided
development of this “new
cookery” collectively authored an
article on “Statement of the ‘new
cookery’” (Adria et al., 2006).
It comprises four key points:
1. Three basic principles
guide our cooking: Excellence,
openness, and integrity.
2. Our cooking values
tradition, builds on it, and along
with tradition is part of the
ongoing evolution of our craft.
3. We embrace innovation—
new ingredients, techniques,
appliances, information, and
ideas—whenever it can make a
real contribution to our cooking.
4. We believe that cooking can
affect people in profound ways, and
that a spirit of collaboration and
sharing is essential to true progress
in developing this potential.
While the article reflects the
thoughts and principles of the
authors, it is also indirectly a
blueprint for the future of this
new movement in cooking. Often
loosely referred to as molecular
gastronomy, it has now emerged
in the restaurant kitchens of
pioneering chefs. Contrary to
what some might believe to be a
fad, this new approach to food has
the potential to be nothing short
of a revolution in cooking. FT
Chef Kurt Struwe (right) and student Ross Kuchta experiment with pastries on the
anti-griddle, which chills food to -30°F, at Southwest Minnesota State University’s
Culinology program.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Chapman Photography LLC
Grace S. Yek, a member of IFT, is Chef Instructor
at the Midwest Culinary Institute and Assistant
Professor in Culinology at the University of
Cincinnati, 2220 Victory Pkwy., Cincinnati,
OH 45206 ([email protected]). Kurt Struwe, a
member of IFT, is Assistant Professor/Executive
Chef in Culinology at Southwest Minnesota
State University, 1501 State St., Marshall, MN
56258 ([email protected]).
REFERENCES
Adria, F., Blumenthal H., Keller, T.,
McGee, H. 2006. Statement on the ‘new
cookery.’ The Guardian. Dec. 10, 2006.
Adria, F., Soler, J., and Adria, A. 2005.
“El Bulli: 1998–2002.” Ecco Press.
Ajinomoto 2008. Activa TG
Transglutaminase. www.activatg.com.
Accessed May 6, 2008.
Barham, P. 2008. Molecular Gastronomy.
Discovery Channel. www.discoverychannel.co.uk. Accessed April 28, 2008.
Brillat-Savarin, J. 1825. The Physiology of
Taste. Penguin Classics, reprinted 1994.
Chang, K. 2007. Food 2.0: Chefs as
Chemists. The New York Times. Nov. 6.
eG Forums 2004. Q&A with Ferran
Adria. EG Forums. December
14. http://forums.egullet.org.
Accessed April 4, 2008.
Gourmet 2008. Gourmet’s Diary of a
Foodie: Science of Deliciousness. Episode
11. Jan. 23, 2008. www.gourmet.com.
Gourmet 2008. Gourmet’s Diary of a
Foodie: Avant-Garde A La Carte. Episode
20. Jan. 29, 2008. www.gourmet.com.
Gourmet 2008. The Gourmet Q&A:
Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal.
March 24, 2008. www.gourmet.com.
Accessed May 7, 2008.
Harding, C. 2008. The S.Pellegrino
World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2008.
Restaurant magazine. April 22.
Hesser, A. 2005. Under Pressure.
The New York Times. August 14.
IFT 2007. What is Food Science
and Technology? www.ift.org.
Accessed April 18, 2008.
McGee, H. 2004. On Food and Cooking:
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Simon & Schuster, New York.
McHugh, D. J. 2003. “A guide to
the seaweed industry.” FAO Fisheries
Technical Paper No. 441.
Moore, B. 2008. Ferran Adria. About.com.
www.about.com. Accessed May 6, 2008.
Pain, E. 2007. Molecular Gastronomy:
Something’s Cooking. Science.
November 2. www.sciencemag.org.
Accessed April 3, 2008.
Popular Science 2007. The Future
of Food – Molecular Gastronomy
for the Masses. November.
Savorycities 2007. Alinea Restaurant
in Chicago with Chef Grant Achatz.
http://chicago.savorycities.com.
Accessed Feb. 5, 2008.
The Observer 2008. Molecular
Gastronomy is Dead – Heston Speaks
Out. http://observer.guardian.co.uk.
Accessed May 6, 2008.
The New York Times 2008. Adapted
from Bittman, B., Adrià May Be
Relaxing, But His Obsessions Are Still
Abuzz, Sept. 13, 2006, and Lubow, A.,
A Laboratory of Taste, Aug. 10, 2003.
www.nytimes.com. Accessed May 6, 2008.
This, H. 2006. Food for tomorrow? How
the scientific discipline of molecular
gastronomy could change the way we
eat. EMBO reports. 7(11): 1062-1066.
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