Molecular gastronomy: a matter of taste
Cambridge & Great Eastern Regional Group: Evening science lecture Cambridge University, UK
 What is molecular gastronomy? This somewhat contentious term arose from a workshop organised by the late Nicholas Kurti (a physicist who argued that the best way to cook a perfect three-minute egg was to cook it for one hour at 140ºF), who said: ‘It is a sad reflection that we know better the temperature inside the stars than inside a soufflé.’
Molecular gastronomy challenges traditional perceptions and customs about what makes a dish worth eating. The term is often linked with the chefs Heston Blumenthal, at his restaurant The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, UK, and Ferran Adria, at El Bulli near Barcelona, Spain, who run the world’s two top-rated eateries. Its exponents love to challenge conventional culinary wisdom. Why do we cook certain dishes in a particular way? For instance, why do we add salt when boiling vegetables, and how effective is high temperature browning at sealing meat to keep in the juices? Investigation of these practices using scientific principles and techniques revealed some unexpected answers.
Complementary cuisine
What makes some foods taste really good together while other pairings are just plain disgusting? In this interactive presentation by Peter Barham of the University of Bristol on 26 April 2006, we learnt how we use all of our senses to assess the food we eat. We use our eyes to see the colour, shape and size, our ears to hear any sizzling or crackling, our hands to feel the texture, our tongues to sense the taste, our noses to sense the aroma and all the nerves in our mouths to assess the ‘mouthfeel’. We integrate all these sensations into what we call the ‘flavour’ and then decide whether or not we like it.
| Would you fancy eating garlic and coffee crème brûlée? Or egg and bacon ice cream with tomato jam? |
Some unlikely food combinations can produce a pleasing taste, for example honey and cheese (especially Gruyère), which we confirmed at the lecture, while others do not (e.g. basil and coffee is quite disgusting!). So would you fancy eating garlic and coffee crème brûlée? Or egg and bacon ice cream with tomato jam? These are among the odd-sounding food combinations that have been developed by chefs experimenting with this scientific approach to cooking and food preparation. Scientific scrutiny has revealed that foods which complement each other frequently share chemically similar flavour components, which can act as flavour ‘bridges’ between apparently disparate foodstuffs.
 Scientific equipment and materials (such as precision temperature probes, liquid nitrogen and vacuum desiccators) have thus found a place in the kitchens of the new gastronomists. They are used to create exciting and challenging new foods, flavours, textures and combinations in these temples of gastronomy.
There was plenty of opportunity for enthusiastic audience participation in several taste experiments involving wines, flavoured yoghurts and potato crisps.
Barham is one of the pioneers of the new science of molecular gastronomy and has collaborated with Heston Blumenthal. He is the author of The science of cooking and is a regular contributor to national newspapers and radio. He has appeared on television and was recently scientific adviser and major contributor to the series Kitchen Chemistry which was broadcast on the Discovery Channel. The lecture, which followed the Regional Group AGM, attracted a capacity audience.
John Wilkins
SCI CaGE Regional Group
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