Taste Trends

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Taste Trends

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A s recently as 2001, an in-spector from the French De-partment of Public Educa-tion said that when she ismenstruating the mayon-

naise she prepares fails miserably. HervéThis, one of the main champions of molec-ular gastronomy, says that these myths andother silly old wives’ tales are what madehim, and others like him, work so hard tomake molecular gastronomy a success.

Chefs who are out to impress and surpriseoffer their customers fake caviar madefrom sodium alginate and calcium, spaghettimade from vegetables and instant ice-cream that is fast-frozen, using liquid ni-trogen. But is this what mo-lecular gastronomy is all aboutor is this just a small part ofthe whole wave?

Let’s start with the obvious:what is molecular gastrono-my? And what is it that dis-tinguishes cooking from gas-tronomy? Cooking is the preparation offood whereas gastronomy is the knowledgeof whatever concerns man’s nourishment.It is the chemistry and physics behind thepreparation of any dish: why a mayonnaisebecomes firm and why a soufflé swells. Ac-cording to Hervé This, this does not concernfood fashions or how to prepare luxuryfoods but rather an understanding of foodand what happens to any ingredient or

food when it is transformed by boiling,grilling, beating, combining together orin any way changing the original initialstate of the material.

Ever since the first man, or woman, puta piece of meat on a fire, the magic of foodtransformation happened. But then in1988, molecular gastronomy was launchedby a few enterprising people who wantedto start looking at food in a scientific way.What Hervé This, Ferran Adria, HestonBlumenthal, Pierre Gagnaire, NicholasKurti and the rest of the other pioneersdid was to structure the idea and to delvedeeply into what food and its preparationentails for all humans.

Before the 1980s, food science was en-gaged mainly in analysing the contentsand properties of food and how they relateto the demands of our bodies and how todevelop methods to process foods on anindustrial scale. Then towards the end ofthe eighties, these enterprising souls gotorganised and launched, separately, a fewinitiatives that blossomed into moleculargastronomy. The most important thing

was that a new scientific discipline to in-vestigate culinary transformations was setup. The French chefs, who had always beenthe leaders in gastronomy up to then, start-ed getting shoved off the pinnacles of thefood altars. Non-French chefs started win-ning the accolades of best chefs and eventhe best restaurant awards went to non-French ones. The big change had startedhappening.

Just like the ImpressionistsWhen the Impressionists daubed their

canvases with easy, colourful strokes, fewwere the people who praised them, lovedthem or dared hang their work. They weredubbed ‘the refused ones’ because theyweren’t allowed to exhibit as they seemedto break the rigid rules of the schools ofpainting of the time. Time, however, morethan proved the Impressionists right. Today,Impressionist paintings are revered by mostcritics as masterpieces and fetch hugeamounts of money. Most people can onlydream of viewing those paintings exhibitedin the world’s leading museums and galleries.

The same seems to be happening nowin the world of food. Terribly slowly, butsurely, certain rules taken for granted byeveryone for very long are being contestedand dumped. Certain myths are being de-bunked and the icons of old are losing abit of their lustre. The signs are hardly earth-shattering and few would agree that our

“Cooking is the preparation offood whereas gastronomy is theknowledge of whatever concernsman’s nourishment.”

Food from a scientific point of view is what molecular gastronomy, the latestfad that has all the celebrity chefs in thrall, is all about. After attending a Gastronomy Essentials seminar in Cyprus, Victor Calleja finds that, despitethe scary name, this technique is all about appreciating food in a different way.

Photography by Alexandros Vogiatzakis (Athens Art Studio)

Food fad orfabulous wave?

Taste Trends

38 EATING & DRINKING

age somewhat resembles the enlightenedage of painting.

Just like the Impressionists, the newwave of gastronomers are not really break-ing any rules; what they are doing is learningthe rules, learning – as scientifically aspossible – all about food and what it doesto the body and what happens to the palate.They are in search of learning all that thereis to learn about the actual chemistry ofthe food – for example, why does an egg

change colour when it is beaten and whathappens to its consistency, its materialmake-up? And after finding all this, thepioneers in gastronomy are then unlearningall that they – and most of the world’schefs – have learnt and are going whereno chef dared to go before, trying out allsorts of new concoctions and new recipes.

The science that scaresThe term ‘molecular gastronomy’ scares

some people. It scared me the first time Iheard it. I thought it was all about gettingfood prepared by chemists assisted by physi-cists. Can anyone imagine anything moreunrelated to food and its enjoyment? I imag-ined my food being prepared the new wayby some laboratory technician wielding asyringe and then announcing that the food’snew tastes and textures would explode inmy mouth. The only explosions which I

connected to chemistry were the ones mybrother produced in our shed at home whenhe dabbled with his chemistry set. And thetaste that was left in all our mouths andsenses was of something terrible.

Armed as I was with all these misgivingsand preconceived ideas, I attended a sem-inar in Cyprus about molecular gastronomyas a guest journalist. Organised by HarryHaralambidis of Gastronomy EssentialsLimited of Athens (www.cucina.gr), I wasready to dump all I would hear and see astotal and utter bunkum. I went dreamingof coming back praising the traditionaland hoping the new wave would die a mostwelcome and natural death. Instead, I cameback wishing molecular gastronomy willlive, thrive and take root all over the world.

What the Impressionists did in paintingwas that they learnt all there was to learnabout light, optics, physics and traditionalart. Then they made use of that new intel-ligence and new ideas and proceeded topaint in the open air. They moved out oftheir studios and saw the real effect oflight; they didn’t mind using new materials,new pigments, new techniques. They de-bunked the old rules after learning themall and gave the world a new way – notwave – of painting.

Molecular gastronomers are doing thesame and they are set on learning all there

is to know and debunking what there is notto know. Molecular gastronomy is not awave but it is a way to appreciate food andanything connected to it. Of course, thesemyth-breakers and trendsetters are alsocoming up with new ways of concoctingfoods, strange-sounding pairings and mind-boggling offerings that give molecular gas-tronomy the controversial coverage it hasattracted. But that is all part of the flair thatis going into the new way of gastronomy.

Meeting an El Bulli chefAt the seminar, I meet the man – Alain

Devahive Tolosa – who conducted it andwas immediately impressed by him tellingme that he is mainly inspired by his grand-mother’s cooking. That more than shockedme – I thought his inspiration would bepeople like his former employer, FerranAdria, the chef of El Bulli fame who gave

the revolution the most ardent and recog-nisable name and face.

Alain Devahive still pays unreserved andfull respect to Adria and his ways. But it istradition and all that tradition stands forthat he believes makes food a memorablepart of our life. The past for Alain is whatgives our food its essence.

“Smelling anything prepared by my grand-mother,” Alain confides to me, “was whatgot me going and what still inspires me. Alltraditional food, with all its intricate secretsand myths, is what interests me. But whilemy granny would cook in the same way anduse the same basic implements that havebeen used for hundreds of years, I’m readyto ask why and also to challenge what seemedwrong. Just because something is done fora long time does not mean it is right or theonly way to be done. We question, we pokeinto all traditions, recipes and flavours tillwe get it even better, even more memorable.We do not want to kill tradition – we wantto enhance it and our enjoyment of it.

“I’m also interested in perfecting themeans and implements and also the in-gredients to make my food taste better. Ido not want to throw away French ideas ofgastronomy. I love and adore French cuisine.I was given everything I learnt and love byFrench chefs and chefs who followed theFrench way of preparing food. But I wantto use that tradition and knowledge of old– be it French, Catalan or Asian – and turnit into new, more interesting fare.”

I tease him about the new fad of moleculargastronomy – that some of it looks andfeels like nothing we are used to. And I tellhim that afterall, the eye – like all the restof the senses – is an important part of ourgastronomic experience. He laughs andsays that yes, molecular gastronomy doesneed its shock effect which echoes exactlywhat the El Bulli brothers and Heston Blu-menthal did and still do in their methods.

“We do,” he admits with his impish look,“try to surprise and challenge the sensesbut we – or at least most of us who dabbledand dabble in molecular gastronomy – lovefood and preparing food which is good,wholesome and appetisingly alluring.”

We are living a big change and we arehardly realising. There are various pitfallson the way to the change. El Bulli closedand even its re-opening – which had beentouted for 2014 – has now been shelved. Alot of traditionalists sneer at the new up-starts, the new stars, the new ingredients.But the revolution has started and no onewill manage to stem it.

“The term ‘molecular gastronomy’scares some people. It scared methe first time I heard it.”

Alain Devahive Tolosa