Once Again, with Feeling

How do you feel about Molecular Gastronomy? Just Askin


I’m not sure it really matters to Molecular Gastronomy how I feel about it, but thank you for asking.

Molecular Gastronomy is an exploration of how science and food intersect. The movement looks to use the scientific method in the kitchen– experimentation, observation and replication of results only with food instead of stuff in petrie dishes. Or more specifically as Herve This’ elegantly explains in the subtitle of his book, Molecular Gastronomy, it is Exploring the Science of Flavor. The estimable Harold McGee explains the history of the movement here.

Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià is often cited as the Father of Molecular Gastronomy, it is a paternity he does not recognize and to my knowledge no one has gone to court to force the issue. Preferring to view his work more along the lines of Deconstructivism – providing food the same opportunity as literature to be over thought and analyzed rather than enjoyed and remembered.

And that is not a knock against Mr. Adrià, whose dedication to his profession, 3 Michelin Stars*, tireless experimentation and intellectual pursuits place his work on a different plane than the one most of us work from. Innovators like Adrià and his elBulli, whose very sensible and provoking manifesto, invokes the history of artists angrily breaking with tradition to begin their own schools, can be read here.

The aforementioned Herve This wrote a book containing a series of explorations such as exploring moisture content in chocolate, measuring aroma and the reporting the effects of MSG on digestion. Far from fashionable This’ book is actually pretty geeky, the equivalent of a rolling a 20 sided dice in the kitchen.

The issue is not with Molecular Gastronomy - Who could possibly be against the application of thought, observation and knowledge to aid one’s profession. The problem is what I call the Kenny G. problem. Kenny G plays a form of Jazz. Jazz's reputation of cool precedes Miles Davis' midwifery. Did Mr. G choose to call his music Jazz because it was the uncoolest music in the world, Jazz-like enough or was it somehow vaguely Jazzy? The same is true for molecular gastronomy. What began as an intellectual endeavor to improve food and craft has now turned into a free-form science fair that includes – freeze dried peas, distilled waters, vacuumed cooked steak and dry-ice capriccio. These techniques are not about using science to improve one’s offerings, rather showing off with expensive toys and techniques.

Ferran Adrià commenting on the trend of molecular gastronomy from his website–

“I think what we have here is a marketing operation and the public should not be tricked into believing molecular cuisine is a cooking style.”

The knock against chefs who used to place food on a plate like a crazed Frank Gehry wannabe is that they only made it through one semester of architecture school before flunking out, the concern about this second wave of molecular gastronomists are that they should have stayed in engineering school.



* Only 68 restaurants were awarded 3 Michelin stars in 2008. 3 Stars is the equivalent of winning the Nobel Prize, whose 6 annual awards do not include a medal and honorarium for excellence in Restauranting. Unlike Nobel Laureates, the Chefs who win their 3rd star, cannot don their medal and retreat to the bar, hoping to impress people with their success; the expectation is that they will work the rest of their lives to keep earning the 3rd star designation annually.