Molecular Gastronomy
To me a kitchen is just like a science laboratory and cooking is just another experimental science. Imagine a chemistry laboratory. You will find chemicals of course, but also containers to mix and react them as well as devices to control the temperature of the reactions and measure out the quantities of the chemicals for each reaction. Then, perhaps less familiar, you will find machines to determine the reaction products - to tell you the results of your experiments.
Your kitchen is full of apparatus - devices to heat and cool, tools to mix, cut and grind, and measure out ingredients - and materials that you react together (the food ingredients). Every time you follow a recipe you are conducting an experiment. You measure out the ingredients, mix (or react) them together following the instructions and then test the result - by eating the resulting dish. Then you follow the scientific method by testing the result of your experiment (the flavour and texture of your dish) against your model (the photo in the cookery book). Usually we are disappointed - the photos in the cookery books always looks better than our first effort. So we try again, changing what we do. A good cook will use their experience to vary the temperature, or the proportions of the ingredients to get the next attempt to come out better. A scientific cook will read the instructions in the recipe and ask whether they make sense and if not change them.
The application of science to domestic and restaurant cooking has developed into the new science of Molecular Gastronomy - the application of scientific principles to the understanding and improvement of gastronomic food preparation. Its form has largely been determined by a series of meetings between chefs, scientists and food writers held at the Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Sicily over the course of the last 10 years. These meetings (The International Workshops on Molecular and Physical Aspects of Gastronomy) were founded by the late Nicholas Kurti (who was one of the foremost low temperature Physicists of the 20th Century) following an initial suggestion from Elizabeth Thomas who runs her own cooking school in California.
Since Nicholas Kurti passed away I have helped Dr Hervé This of the Ecolé de Paris to organise the Erice Workshops. The diverse discussions at these workshops have helped to define the new science of Molecular Gastronomy The main questions that those of us involved in Molecular Gastronomy are trying to address are strongly interdisciplinary, as is only to be expected in a subject which is concerned with the whole process of the preparation of food, from the raw ingredients to the actual dish on the plate. Molecular Gastronomy encompasses such diverse issues as:
· How and why we evolved our particular taste and flavour sense organs and our general food likes and dislikes? · How do production methods affect the eventual flavour and texture of food ingredients? · How are these ingredients changed by different cooking methods? · Can we devise new cooking methods that produce unusual and improved results of texture and flavour? · How do our brains actually interpret the signals from all our senses to tell us the "flavour" of food? · How is our enjoyment of food affected by other influences - the environment in which we eat the food, our mood, etc?
Although at the moment there is only one research group (that of Hervé This in Paris) that is devoted entirely to Molecular Gastronomy, there are a several groups working on individual aspects of Molecular Gastronomy especially the mechanisms of aroma release and the perception of taste and flavour. Two of most important are those of Prof Andy Taylor at the University of Nottingham and the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, USA. Both have been involved in the Erice meetings.
The main driving force to develop Molecular Gastronomy at the moment are collaborations between scientists and chefs. In France Hervé This works with several Michelin starred chefs including Pierre Garganier and Phillipe Conticini. Here in the UK my own collaboration with Heston Blumenthal, of the Fat Duck, has been very fruitful and influential (see the article "A scientist in the kitchen"). My own interest in Molecular Gastronomy derives from my interest in understanding the physical and chemical process involved in cooking. Together with Heston Blumenthal we are using our increasing understanding to develop new dishes and cooking processes. The cooking of meat and fish at low temperatures (see the article "A scientist in the kitchen") is one good example of a new technique that has already found its way into the restaurant.
Further developments in the pipeline include a filtration system for stocks and consommés that will reduce preparation time by many hours or even days and produce crystal clear sauces and jellies. The use of ultrasonic mixing has the potential to make novel emulsions - how about a vodka mayonnaise? The possibilities are endless and some will surely soon escape from the restaurant to the domestic kitchen. But there is much more to Molecular Gastronomy than just the physical and chemical changes during food preparation. One area that fascinates me is how all the senses play their own roles in our appreciation of food. Even our sense of touch can affect our perception of flavour.
Try this experiment for yourselves. Try tasting some ice cream - it should taste good, like ice cream. Now take the same ice cream and while putting a spoonful in your mouth close your eyes and fondle a piece of velvet cloth. It will taste creamier than before! But even more astonishing if you rub your hand over a piece of fine sandpaper while taking yet another spoonful, the ice cream will seem to become gritty. It seems that what we feel with our hands with our eyes closed can be transferred in our brains to the tongue.
Another truly astonishing fact is that the sound of food changes our expectations. One simple example comes from the humble potato crisp. The marketing people have known for a long time that they need to sell crisps in packets that themselves crackle - if they try to market crisps in packs that don't have the right sound then we consumers think the crisps are stale. Today we are just beginning to realise the important roles all our senses play in affecting the way in which our brains interpret flavour. But we have a great deal to learn before we fully understand the complexities of how we taste food and perceive and appreciate flavour and texture. This journey of discovery which is the new science of Molecular Gastronomy will be a stimulating and exciting one.
Peter Barham
Photos: DCI
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