Molecular gastronomy is the scientific approach of nutrition from primarily the perspective of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. The composition (

molecular structure Molecular geometry is the three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms that constitute a molecule. It includes the general shape of the molecule as well as bond lengths, bond angles, torsional angles and any other geometrical parameters that determ ...

), properties ( mass, viscosity, etc) and transformations ( chemical reactions, reactant products) of an ingredient are addressed and utilized in the preparation and appreciation of the ingested products. It is a branch of food science that approaches the preparation and enjoyment of nutrition from the perspective of a scientist at the scale of atoms, molecules, and

mixture In chemistry, a mixture is a material made up of two or more different chemical substances which are not chemically bonded. A mixture is the physical combination of two or more substances in which the identities are retained and are mixed in the ...

s. Nicholas Kurti, Hungarian physicist, and

Hervé This Hervé This (; born 5 June 1955 in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, sometimes named Hervé This-Benckhard, or Hervé This vo Kientza) is a French physical chemist who works for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique at AgroParisTech, in Pa ...

, at the INRA in France, coined "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" in 1988. While there are those who label others' work as gastronomy, there is a population of chefs who identify as autonomous individuals in their field as chefs.

Examples

Eponymous recipes

New dishes named after famous scientists include: *Gibbs – infusing vanilla pods in

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

white with sugar, adding

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

and then microwave cooking. Named after physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903). *Vauquelin – using orange juice or cranberry juice with

added sugar Added sugars or free sugars are sugar carbohydrates (caloric sweeteners) added to food and beverages at some point before their consumption. These include added carbohydrates (monosaccharides and disaccharides), and more broadly, sugars natural ...

when whipping eggs to increase the viscosity and to stabilize the foam, and then microwave cooking. Named after

Nicolas Vauquelin Prof. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) H FRSE (16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829) was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of both chromium and beryllium. Early life Vauquelin was born at Saint-André-d'Hébertot in Normandy, ...

(1763–1829), one of

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

to create a coagulated egg. Named after the French chemist

Antoine Baumé Antoine Baumé (26 February 172815 October 1804) was a French chemist. Life He was born at Senlis. He was apprenticed to the chemist Claude Joseph Geoffroy, and in 1752 was admitted a member of the École de Pharmacie, where in the same year he ...

(1728–1804).

History

There are many branches of food science that study different aspects of food, such as safety, microbiology, preservation, chemistry, engineering and physics. Until the advent of molecular gastronomy, there was no branch dedicated to studying the chemical processes of cooking in the home and in restaurants. Food science has primarily been concerned with industrial food production and, while the disciplines may overlap, they are considered separate areas of investigation. The creation of the discipline of molecular gastronomy was intended to bring together what had previously been fragmented and isolated investigations into the chemical and physical processes of cooking into an organized discipline within food science, to address what the other disciplines within food science either do not cover, or cover in a manner intended for scientists rather than cooks. The term "molecular and physical gastronomy" was coined in 1988 by Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and French physical chemist

. In 1992, it became the title for a set of workshops held in

Erice Erice (; scn, Èrici) is a historic town and ''comune'' in the province of Trapani, Sicily, in southern Italy. Geography The main town of Erice is located on top of Mount Erice, at around above sea level, overlooking the city of Trapani, the ...

, Italy (originally titled "Science and Gastronomy") that brought together scientists and professional cooks for discussions about the science behind traditional cooking preparations. Eventually, the shortened term "molecular gastronomy" became the name of the approach, based on exploring the science behind traditional cooking methods. Kurti and This considered the creation of a formal discipline around the subjects discussed in the meetings. After Kurti's death in 1998, the name of the Erice workshops were changed by This to "The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy 'N. Kurti'". This remained the sole director of the subsequent workshops from 1999, and continued his research in the field of molecular gastronomy at the Inra-AgroParisTech International Centre for Molecular Gastronomy, remaining in charge of organizing the international meetings.

Precursors

The idea of using techniques developed in

to study food is not a new one, for instance the discipline of food science has existed for many years. Kurti and This acknowledged this fact and though they decided that a new, organized and specific discipline should be created within food science that investigated the processes in regular cooking (as food science was primarily concerned with the nutritional properties of food and developing methods to process food on an industrial scale), there are several notable examples throughout history of investigations into the science of everyday cooking recorded as far as back to 18th century. Benjamin Thompson

Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833)

The concept of molecular gastronomy was perhaps presaged by Marie-Antoine Carême, one of the most famous French chefs, who said in the early 19th century that when making a food stock "the broth must come to a boil very slowly, otherwise the albumin coagulates, hardens; the water, not having time to penetrate the meat, prevents the gelatinous part of the osmazome from detaching itself."

Evelyn G. Halliday and Isabel T. Noble

In 1943 the University of Chicago Press published a book titled ''Food Chemistry and Cookery'' by the then University of Chicago Associate Professor of Home Economics Evelyn G. Halliday and University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Home Economics Isabel T. Noble. In the foreword of the 346-page book, the authors state that, "The main purpose of this book is to give an understanding of the chemical principles upon which good practices in food preparation and preservation are based." The book includes chapters such as "The Chemistry of Milk", "The Chemistry of Baking Powders and Their Use in Baking", "The Chemistry of Vegetable Cookery" and "Determination of Hydrogen Ion Concentration" and contains numerous illustrations of lab experiments including a ''Distillation Apparatus for Vegetable Samples'' and a ''Pipette for Determining the Relative Viscosity of Pectin Solutions''. The professors had previously published ''The Hows and Whys of Cooking'' in 1928.

Belle Lowe

In 1932, Belle Lowe, then the professor of Food and Nutrition at Iowa State College, published a book titled ''Experimental Cookery: From The Chemical And Physical Standpoint'' which became a standard textbook for home economics courses across the United States. The book is an exhaustively researched look into the science of everyday cooking referencing hundreds of sources and including many experiments. At a length of over 600 pages with section titles such as "The Relation Of Cookery To Colloidal Chemistry", "Coagulation Of Proteins", "The Factors Affecting The Viscosity Of Cream And Ice Cream", " Syneresis", "Hydrolysis Of Collagen" and "Changes In Cooked Meat And The Cooking Of Meat", the volume rivals or exceeds the scope of many other books on the subject, at a much earlier date.

Elizabeth Cawdry Thomas

Though rarely credited, the origins of the Erice workshops (originally entitled "Science and Gastronomy") can be traced back to cooking teacher Elizabeth Cawdry Thomas, who studied at

Le Cordon Bleu Le Cordon Bleu (French for " The Blue Ribbon") is an international network of hospitality and culinary schools teaching French ''haute cuisine''. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The instituti ...

in London and ran a cooking school in Berkeley, California. The one-time wife of a physicist, Thomas had many friends in the scientific community and an interest in the science of cooking. In 1988, while attending a meeting at the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture in Erice, Thomas had a conversation with Professor Ugo Valdrè of the University of Bologna, who agreed with her that the science of cooking was an undervalued subject, and encouraged Kurti to organize a workshop at the Ettore Majorana Center. However nothing happened until Kurti met Hervé This: both approached the director of the Ettore Majorana center, physicist Antonino Zichichi, who liked the idea. They invited the food science writer Harold McGee to join them as invited co-director of the first workshops in 1992.

Nicholas Kurti

University of Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti advocated 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 Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

in order to avoid disturbing the crust.''How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science Of Everyday Life'', Len Fisher, p.24 That same year, he held a presentation for the Royal Society of London (also entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen") in which he stated: Kurti demonstrated making meringue in a

vacuum chamber A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to condu ...

, 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 Low-temperature cooking is a cooking technique using temperatures in the range of about for a prolonged time to cook food. Low-temperature cooking methods include sous vide cooking, slow cooking using a slow cooker, cooking in a normal oven which ...

, repeating 18th century experiments by British scientist Benjamin Thompson by leaving a lamb joint in an oven at . After 8.5 hours, both the inside and outside temperature of the lamb joint were around , and the meat was

tender Tender may refer to: Entertainment Film * ''Illegal Tender'' (2007), a film directed by Franc. Reyes * ''Tender'' (2012), a short film by Liz Tomkins * ''Tender'' (2019), a short film by Darryl Jones and Anthony Lucido * ''Tender'' (2019), a sh ...

and juicy. With his wife Giana, Kurti edited an anthology on food and science by fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society.

Hervé This

Hervé This started collecting "culinary precisions" (old kitchen wives' tales and cooking tricks) the 24th of March 1980, and started testing these precisions to see which held up; his collection eventually numbered some 25,000. In 1995, he received a PhD in Physical Chemistry of Materials, for which he wrote his thesis on "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique" (molecular and physical gastronomy). He served as an adviser to the French minister of education, lectured internationally, and was invited to join the lab of Nobel-winning molecular chemist

Jean-Marie Lehn Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramolec ...

. This 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. He gives free and public seminars on molecular gastronomy every month, and annually 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.

Objectives

The objectives of molecular gastronomy, as defined by Hervé This, are seeking for the mechanisms of culinary transformations and processes (from a chemical and physical point of view) in three areas: #the social phenomena linked to culinary activity #the artistic component of culinary activity #the technical component of culinary activity The original fundamental objectives of molecular gastronomy were defined by This in his doctoral dissertation as: #Investigating culinary and gastronomical proverbs, sayings and old wives' tales #Exploring existing recipes #Introducing new tools, ingredients and methods into the kitchen #Inventing new dishes #Using molecular gastronomy to help the general public understand the contribution of science to society Hervé This later recognized points 3, 4, and 5 as being not entirely scientific endeavors (more application of technology and educational), and has revised the list.

Areas of investigation

Prime topics for study include *How ingredients are changed by different cooking methods *How all the senses play their own roles in our appreciation of food *The mechanisms of aroma release and the perception of taste and flavor *How and why we evolved our particular taste and flavor sense organs and our general food likes and dislikes *How cooking methods affect the eventual flavor and texture of food ingredients *How new cooking methods might produce improved results of texture and flavor *How our brains interpret the signals from all our senses to tell us the "flavor" of food *How our enjoyment of food is affected by other influences, our environment, our mood, how it is presented, who prepares it, etc.

Chefs

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 gum Natural gums are polysaccharides of natural origin, capable of causing a large increase in a solution's viscosity, even at small concentrations. They are mostly botanical gums, found in the woody elements of plants or in seed coatings. Human u ...

s and

hydrocolloids A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend ...

produced by the commercial

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

industry. It has since been used to describe the food and cooking of a number of famous chefs, though many of them do not accept the term as a description of their style of cooking. Chefs who are often associated with molecular gastronomy because of their embrace of science include Heston Blumenthal,

Grant Achatz Grant Achatz ( ) (born April 25, 1974) is an American chef and restaurateur often recognized for his contributions to molecular gastronomy or progressive cuisine. His Chicago restaurant Alinea has won numerous accolades and Achatz himself has won ...

, Ferran Adrià, José Andrés,

Marcel Vigneron Marcel Vigneron is an American celebrity chef best known for his award-winning restaurant and catering company, Wolf, in Los Angeles. Marcel was also the runner-up of the second season of ''Top Chef'', which aired in 2006–2007. In 2011, he ha ...

, Homaro Cantu, Michael Carlson,

Wylie Dufresne Wylie Dufresne (born 1970) is the chef and owner of Du's Donuts and the former chef and owner of the wd~50 and Alder restaurants in Manhattan. Dufresne is a leading American proponent of molecular gastronomy, the movement to incorporate science ...

, and

Adam Melonas Adam Melonas (born 10 November 1981 in Canberra, Australia) is an Australian chef of Greek heritage. He currently is the founder and CEO of Chew LLC - a food innovation lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. See also *Nouvelle cuisine ''Nouvell ...

. Despite their central role in the popularisation of science-based cuisine, both Adria and Blumenthal have expressed their frustration with the common mis-classification of their food and cooking as "molecular gastronomy", On 10 December 2006 Blumenthal and Harold McGee published a 'Statement on the "New Cookery" in the Observer in order to summarise what they saw as the central tenets of modern cuisine. Ferran Adria of El Bulli and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se signed up to this and together released a joint statement in 2006 clarifying their approach to cooking, stating that the term "molecular gastronomy" was coined in 1992 for a single workshop that did not influence them, and that the term does not describe any style of cooking. In February 2011, Nathan Myhrvold published the '' Modernist Cuisine'', which led many chefs to further classify molecular gastronomy versus modernist cuisine. Myhrvold believes that his cooking style should not be called molecular gastronomy.

Techniques, tools and ingredients

* Carbon dioxide source, for adding bubbles and making foams * Foams can also be made with an immersion blender *

Liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen—LN2—is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, low viscosity liquid that is wide ...

, for flash freezing and shattering *

Ice cream maker domestic ice cream maker is a machine used to make small quantities of ice cream for personal consumption. Ice cream makers may prepare the mixture by employing the hand-cranking method or by employing an electric motor. The resulting prepar ...

, often used to make unusual flavors, including

savory Savory or Savoury may refer to: Common usage * Herbs of the genus ''Satureja'', particularly: ** Summer savory (''Satureja hortensis''), an annual herb, used to flavor food ** Winter savory (''Satureja montana''), a perennial herb, also used to ...

Anti-griddle The anti-griddle is a kitchen appliance that flash freezes or semi-freezes foods placed on its chilled metal top. The device was inspired by a similar appliance used by Grant Achatz in one of his restaurants. Chef and ''Top Chef'' guest judge Gran ...

, for cooling and freezing *

Thermal immersion circulator A thermal immersion circulator is an electrically powered device that circulates and heats a warm fluid kept at an accurate and stable temperature. It is used in process, environmental, microbiological, hazardous waste, and other laboratories. Sin ...

for sous-vide (low temperature cooking) *

Food dehydrator Tomato slices ready to be dried in a convection-type food dehydrator. In this model, multiple trays can be stacked on top of each other and warm air flows around the food. A food dehydrator is a device that removes moisture from food to aid in its ...

* Centrifuge * Maltodextrin – can turn a high-fat liquid into a powder *

Sugar substitute A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may be d ...

s * Enzymes *

Lecithin Lecithin (, from the Greek ''lekithos'' "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues which are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so ar ...

– an

emulsifier An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Altho ...

and non-stick agent *

Hydrocolloids A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend ...

such as

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...

pectin Pectin ( grc, πηκτικός ': "congealed" and "curdled") is a heteropolysaccharide, a structural acid contained in the primary lamella, in the middle lamella, and in the cell walls of terrestrial plants. The principal, chemical component of ...

and

s – used as thickening agents, gelling agents, emulsifying agents and stabilizers, sometimes needed for foams *

Transglutaminase Transglutaminases are enzymes that in nature primarily catalyze the formation of an isopeptide bond between γ-carboxamide groups ( -(C=O)NH2 ) of glutamine residue side chains and the ε-amino groups ( -NH2 ) of lysine residue side cha ...

– a protein binder, called meat glue *

Spherification Spherification is a culinary process that employs sodium alginate and either calcium chloride or calcium glucate lactate to shape a liquid into squishy spheres, which visually and texturally resemble roe. The technique was documented by Unilever i ...

– a caviar-like effect *

Syringe A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside ...

, for injecting unexpected fillings *Edible paper made from soybeans and potato starch, for use with edible fruit inks and an inkjet printer *Aromatic accompaniment: gases trapped in a bag, a serving device, or the food itself; an aromatic substance presented as a garnish or creative serveware; or a smell produced by burning *Presentation style is often whimsical or avant-garde, and may include unusual serviceware *Unusual flavor combinations (

food pairing Foodpairing, or the non-registered trademarked term food pairing, is a method for identifying which foods go well together from a flavor standpoint. The method is based on the principle that foods combine well with one another when they share ke ...

s) are favored, such as combining savory and sweet *Using ultrasound to achieve more precise cooking times

Alternative names and related pursuits

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. Ferran Adrià a El Bulli

Other names for the style of cuisine practiced by these chefs include: *Avant-garde cuisine *Culinary constructivism *Cocina de vanguardia – term used by Ferran Adrià *Emotional cuisine *Experimental cuisine *Forward-thinking movement – term used at

Alinea Alinea may refer to: * Alinea (restaurant) in Chicago * In several languages : an indenting or a pilcrow The pilcrow, ¶, is a handwritten or typographical character used to identify a paragraph. It is also called the paragraph mark ...

*Kitchen science *Modern cuisine *Modernist cuisine, which shares its name with a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

by Nathan Myhrvold, and which is endorsed by Ferran Adrià of El Bulli and

David Chang David Chang (Korean: ; born August 5, 1977) is an American restaurateur, author, podcaster, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group. In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which the restaur ...

*Molecular cuisine *Molecular cooking *New cuisine *New cookery *Nueva cocina *Progressive cuisine *Techno-emotional cuisine—term preferred by elBulli research and development chef Ferran Adrià *Technologically forward cuisine *Vanguard cuisine *Techno-cuisine 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 to any and 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".

References

External links

* John Mariani,
Decline of Modernist Molecular Cuisine
July 24, 2013

esquire.com ''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst Communications, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under ...

*Grubstreet,
Rebuttal of John Marianis esquire article
July 24, 2013 grubstreet {{cuisine Food science 1980s neologisms Culinary terminology