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Harry
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29/09/2009 8:44:59 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Interesting comment - most of the actual chefs who attended the El Bulli classes loved what was being shown. At the end of the day, Simon Gault brings the stuff into the country, and that's where you buy it - so if he told people where to get it, I don't see why that is such a crime? Imagine the outcry if the seminars were run, and then they said "Sorry, we can't actually tell you where to get any of this stuff though - it's a secret. But hey, thanks for coming"??? Poor Simon, leading edge innovation is really slated in this country isn't it. What I love is that he never professes to be ordinary - as you say, no scarcity of that around, so I admire him for making being 'extraordinary' an art form. Works for me, and if that makes me a freak - it's DELICIOUS.
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Sam
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3/09/2009 6:30:32 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
People should be of a mind to try this approach, let's face it time and market demand will tell if it here to stay, a little more openmindedness is whats needed, is that one word?
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winks
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24/08/2009 3:29:36 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Try Meredith's for on a Friday or Saturday night.
I think that is where you will get the best examples of Molecular Gastronomy.
Some of taken to calling it Techno Emotional Cusine.
Really it's just all about being able to deliver great food, using new methods.
So some places do it just because it is fashionable, and I think they will inevitably fail at delivering great food. This is how people get a bad impression of molecular gastronomy. As with any cooking, you need to do it well, and it has to fit the meal.
It doesn't have to be really difficult. Creating a foam with a fish tank pump is very simple, and used well is fantastic. A buterscotch foam with a desert is wonderful!
You can get lecithin to do this with at most health food stores, it's a product that has been around a long time, but only recently been used for foams.
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Gordo
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23/07/2009 9:01:34 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Bring it on! Love to learn more.
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foodieadmin
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23/07/2009 11:45:06 a.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Sweet Cuisine thank you for response, I find this approach to food fascinating as I probably like most am ignorant of it's potential. I look forward to learning more.
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Sweetcuisine
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23/07/2009 8:59:01 a.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
After being at the Fat Duck quite a few times, Eating the seafood dish with the sound of the sea does actually make it, no sorry, it makes your brain think that it tastes better. He really is the master of tricking your senses, in such simple ways. And that is why he is in the top two restaurants of the year swapping places with el Bulli every couple of years,
I use Liquid Nitrogen and some gelling agents and gums, emulsifiers that you cannot normally find in supermarkets/local suppliers in the restaurant, and did so in when I was Pastry chef of Bracu before my current position, but I would not call it Molecular Gastronomy, we just have more techniques available to us than what we did 5 or 10 years ago. Things that people have determind 'Molecular Gastronomy' such as Flavoured caviars and things like that are not modern any more , they have been done to death and possibly over used by some people, essentially its just a sauce inside an edible casing formed by a natural reaction with calcium gluconlactate or Calcium Chloride and Sodium alginate which is a product of seaweed.
I think cooking in the better restaurants is becoming more technique driven with more and more technology being made available to us chefs. We now have options to use extreme heat, extreme cold, more acurate equipent that can hold at certain tempratures, machines like centrifuge's and Rotavapours which are esentially from laboratories for perfect super clear and full flavoured liquids, gelling agents from Agar , Gellan, new starches being made available. We've had pacojets for years now which means we can process perfect scoops of sorbet portion by portion. We have had Vacuum pack machines for sous vide cooking and compressing certain foods for years also and you can even get them for home use as well now.then we have Water baths that can cook at low acurate tempratures which is an awesome way of cooking.
But to balance this technique driven cooking we have a growing movement towards nature, chefs employing foragers to find wild herbs and plants, dishes are well thought out, herbs which provoke certain emotions are tied into the menu at certain points intentionally to help you enjoy the flow of the meal for example horseradish may be dropped in somewhere to kick start your appetite as its proven to make you feel hungry. Google up El Poblet, Mugaritz in Spain and Noma in Denmark, These restaurants are real pioneers of this cuisine, and are climbing to the top of the best restaurants in the world, they use modern Technique, nature and some clever thinking to provide a great experience
Some chefs will misuse the advancements that have been made available but some will use it to such benefit and enhance you dining experience. I will be spending 7 days in El Poblet, a few in Mugaritz and another 2 weeks in other spanish restaurants this spring to learn more and be more informed in my cooking like I do every year, so to say it is freak food is a little extreme.
www.sweetcuisine.net
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TPL
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13/07/2009 2:28:58 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
I'm with the others Freak food. I say this because it seems a trend for trends sake.
I've tried a little on my travels and have come to the conclusion it's more about being visual than the taste.
I read that Heston Blumenthal for one of his seafood courses gives you an ipod to listen to the sounds of the coast.
Maybe for the lamb dish he could give us a recording of the sound of sheep, baaaa. Ok I'll stop being silly, just give me the lamb dish.
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Gordo
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10/07/2009 12:56:00 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Also if you can get your hands on it "A day at El Bulli" not cheap though.
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Antony
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9/07/2009 7:56:27 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
I remember looking at his cookbook, kinda went over my head.
I watched the series "In search of perfection" by Heston Blumenthal now that was bizarre. I bought his book purely for the entertaining read. To give you an idea if I did his ultimate fish and chips it would take me about 8 hours.
Now I love to cook but there is a limit to my patience.
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tgiles
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9/07/2009 2:39:07 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Freak food indeed, let your freak flavour fly high. Yes Mr Gault does bring it in and it was his commercial push that made the El Bulli promoted seminars so very disappointing, they were really just a sales pitch, wasted opportunity.
A market here? Any diners seem to be scarce for many eateries at the mo.
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Antony
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9/07/2009 12:35:39 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Freak food is a bit harsh, a trend maybe.
I like to try different styles of cuisine. I'm not sure how much bacon and egg ice cream I could consume, but I know I try it at least once.
I think the challenge is more your last point. We are such a small market so with the time and expense in producing this food it would reflect in the menu price and with this economic climate how full would the restaurant/s be?
But one day I hope to find myself at El Bulli or the Fat Duck, it's on my bucket list!
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WellyMan
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9/07/2009 9:33:42 a.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Tim
I'm trying to work out if it's freak food (slightly unkind) or a food trend that will remain.
I think Euro at the Auckland Viaduct dabbles in it. I believe Simon Gault maybe the importer of the El Bulli products that is necessary in creating this style of food.
Also more to the point does there exist a market for this food in NZ.
Wiki has a good take on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy - It expands on your csm article, very good.
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tgiles
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8/07/2009 8:53:17 p.m.
RE:Molecular gastronomy
Don't know anyone or where doing it here, be curious if someone is.
Have had a lot of chats about this with various chefs and restaurateurs. Few who are enamoured and sadly I've not been to the altars of it. Probably the best take on it from the man who now runs The Rees in Q'town after his Fat Duck experience on a recent uk trip.
At last year's Hospitality Show a far less than inspiring series of presentations by a chef from the El Bulli team, it seems to have faded from conversation.
But quick definition hunt turns up a nice csm article at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0218/p11s02-lifo.html which says
The term molecular gastronomy was coined in the 1980s by a French scientist, Hervé This, and Nicholas Kurti, who was a professor of physics at Oxford University in England. Both men were interested in food science, but they felt that empirical knowledge and tradition were as important in cooking as rational understanding.
"We realized there was a growing gap between food science and home cooking," remembers Dr. This, who, since 1995, has worked at the prestigious Collège de France in central Paris, perhaps one of the only science labs in the world to smell of freshly baked cake. "Classic food science ... succeeded in giving the Western populations enough to eat. But it slowly became more interested in food than in cooking."
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WellyMan
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8/07/2009 12:33:47 p.m.
Molecular gastronomy
Can someone tell me what it is and who (restaurant) is doing it in NZ.
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