The science of deliciousness
Molecular gastronomy is the combination of kitchen science and chemistry and creative flavours, and as such it has been on everyone's lips for some time. "Science food" is the rage at an increasing number of events.
Molecular gastronomy is hailed by some as a novel option and belittled by others as the best marketing gag in recent times. So far, technology has given industrial food processing the edge over the skilled artisan chef and gastronome. Many things, such as stable whipped concoctions or crisp wafers with liquid fillings - day for day in the same quality and storable as well - were technically impossible in the world of haute cuisine, reserved exclusively for industrial food processors.
Meanwhile, though, master chefs are at home between the laboratory and kitchen. Three-star chef Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), the Catalonian Ferran Adria (El Bulli on the Costa Brava) and Pierre Gagnaire from Paris swear by "molecular gastronomy". Innovative caterers are busy turning the new technological possibilities to use for events as well.
The catering firm Kofler & Company from Frankfurt has already been employing these techniques successfully for some time. Also "part of the kitchen" is the Technologie-Transfer-Zentrum Bremerhaven (TTZ), which has tailored technological possibilities to gastronomic needs. Molecular gastronomy is playing an increasingly important role for the caterers, since preparation alone can turn into a spectacular event. When "cooking with nitrogen", for instance, a fruit mousse is plunged into liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 173° C. With a flurry of crackling and crepitating, cold vapour wafts over the edge of the container. It looks impressive, and the mousse is given a delicate, crunchy-icy coating while the inside remains velvety-smooth and can be eaten like a frothy marshmallow.
The liquid food method is another interesting process. Liquids that have previously been reduced and their flavours concentrated are encapsulated in combination with alginates. These little flavour bombs float, for example, as cassis pellets in Kir Royal champagne cocktails and release an aromatic zing on contact with the tongue and palate. Equally spectacular is "frying" in water. Using a special sugar, the boiling point of water is raised above 120°C - hot enough for frying.
Sous vide is the name of a method by which food is seasoned or marinated and then cooked gently in a vacuum in a bain-marie, preserving all the flavours outside and inside the food. The juices that seep out in the vacuum can be used as the basis for sauces. Stable whipped and frothy substances have always been a gastronomic headache. But now innovative chefs can turn to specially developed hydrocolloids to bind liquids and whip them up to four or five times their original volume.
Without any artificial additives whipped desserts, whisked soups and sauces are thus no longer in danger of collapsing. There are attractive innovations in the petit fours department, too. A kind of "edible packaging" can be made from vegetable fibres - thin shells whose flavour can be matched to the contents. The finest chocolate coating is taken as the basis for these confections. At a gala dinner the dessert is given a special kick when "spicy sweets" are served with coatings in the colour and flavouring of the desired confections.
A special process has recently been developed to combine salts with intensive aromas, enhancing the flavour of food and giving it added delicacy and subtlety. With oils, too, new approaches can be taken. Blended with natural aromas, their colour is more distinctive and the taste really exciting.
Antje Peters-Reimann
m+a report Nr.5 / 2006 vom 14.08.2006
m+a report vom 14. August 2006