MOLECULAR CUISINE AND GASTRONOMY.

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Avant-garde chefs are sometimes accused of turning their kitchens into scientific laboratories, but actually when a piece of meat is heated, chemical changes occur.

The sciences of cooling (chemistry, physics, biology and botany) are interrelated, and all are closely related to cooking, yet very few scientists or chefs studied seriously and consistently their importance in cooking.

Mankind has always attempted to preserve food since animals were domesticated and populations started farming some 10 000 years ago. The first attempts were, drying, smoking and pickling.

When Napoleon Bonaparte realized that his soldiers were more effective when fed regularly and relatively well, he announced a contest for an innovative food preservation technique, making it possible to transport ready-to-eat food over long distances, and for long periods.

This contest encouraged Nicolas Appert, a patissier by trade, to invent the canning process.

In the middle of the 19th century, Ferdinand Carre invented the absorption refrigerator changing the food trade, and helped start the enormous food industry world wide as we know it.

Then in 174 the brothers Jean and Pierre Troigros, the owners of the eponymous world famous restaurant, instigated Georges Pralus to invent “vacuum cooking” of foie gras to minimize shrinkage of the expensive fattened goose liver. This technique is now widely used for many other ingredients in high-end restaurants and banquet halls.

In the 1980’s, Nicolas Kurti, a Hungarian born professor at the Oxford University and Herve This, professor of physics at Sorbonne University, came up with the idea to engage science to uncover the “mysteries” of cooking scientifically.

David Cassi, a physicist and Ettore Bocchio, a chef came u[p with the label molecular gastronomy in their now famous speech titled Manfiesto della cucina moleculare Italiana.

Since then, many scientists i.e Harold McGee, published seminal books like On Food and Cooking that explored cooking chemistry, and many other contributed to the accumulated knowledge.

In the same decade, Ferran Adria, now the owner of the world famous restaurant El Bulli, close to Barcelona, and his team investigated new ways to collaborate with scientists.

There are several Spanish chefs involved in molecular gastronomy who designed and produced innovative machines like the Rouer thermostat (invented by Andoni Aduriz), or the use of liquid nitrogen (Dani Garcia), and of hydrocolloids help change texture.

Molecular gastronomy is now a scientific discipline that studies both physical and chemical changes that occur in the cooking process, which can be by application of heat or acids reacting to food.

Molecular gastronomy tries to explain chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients. We do know cooking makes meat easier to masticate and digest, but how the ingredient changes internally is still not well understood.

Most people think of molecular gastronomy to involve research at molecular level but in fact the objectives of this now scientific discipline are:

Exploring existing recipes and inventing new dishesUsing molecular gastronomy to help the public to better understand the contribution of science to societyAnalysing the artistic and technical components of culinary activityTo investigate culinary and gastronomic proverbs.To investigate how and why the taste and texture of ingredients change by employing different cooking techniques i.e pan-frying vs. poaching, roasting vs. grilling, boiling vs. steaming etc.To investigate how senses and upbringing influence food appreciation and preferences.To investigate how ingredients release aromas and how humans perceive smell and taste, both of which form flavour.To investigate how tastes evolve, as flavours change over time To investigate how new techniques improve flavour i.e aerating food, cooking in a pouch in liquidTo investigate how the environment influences our perception of taste and flavour and how moods affect perception of bothTo investigate how cooking at low temperatures changes both flavour and etxture and how acids in fruits tenderizes protein. The affect has been known for millennia, but how it actuallyoccurs is still not fully understood

The following famous chefs adhere to the precepts of molecular gastronomy are Heston Blumenthal in England, Grant Achatz, Chicago, Dave Arnold, Peter Barham, Homaru Cantu, Russel, Rene Redzepi, Dan Barber, Joslan Martinez, Eneko Atxa, and Ferran Adria the most famous of all of them.

Chefs have always been free spirits and never shied away from experimenting. Many classic French recipes were invented either for famous and influential politicians, or personalities, and others by experimentation and some by sheer coincidence or accident.

Inventing a new molecular gastronomy recipe has become very expensive and all are patented to defray costs in their research and invention.

Spanish chefs seem to be more adventurous and research oriented. They have contributed many recipes to the movement, and operate restaurants catering to an appreciative international and wealthy clientele looking for new taste combinations and sensations.

Molecular gastronomy’s objectives are well worth adapting, but chefs must be curious, have the equipment to produce dishes as invented, must know enough chemistry and physics, and time, but most important of all the funds.

Molecular gastronomy should be a permanent movement to finally determine what actually happens when we cook food.