Who Has an Appetite for E 407, E 412, E 461, E 473? Part Two: Molecular Gastronomy.

What Else is New?

Chefs such as Ferràn Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, or Quique Dacosta are often described in the press as "molecular chefs." The French chemistry professor Hervé This is considered the "inventor" of this term. Hervé This, who distinguishes between "Molecular Gastronomy" and "Molecular Cuisine," defines them this way:

"Molecular Gastronomy: “A scientific discipline, a branch of physical chemistry, that investigates the mechanisms of phenomena occurring during culinary transformations (introduced in 1988 by British physicist Nicholas Kurti and French chemist Hervé This).

Molecular cuisine is not a scientific approach to cooking, but 'a culinary trend that makes use of scientific results, and introduces "new" ingredients, methods, and utensils; the term "new" is obviously imprecise, but it refers to what was not present in cuisine in France and Western countries before the 1980s.'"

The time period "before the 1980s" is not arbitrarily chosen, but apparently refers to the "International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy" at the Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Sicily, which took place in 1992. According to his own statements, This was the director of this event, which amounts to a "founding act" of molecular cuisine.

One of the participants, American author Harold McGee, contradicts parts of this account: According to McGee, the workshop was called "Science and Cooking" until 1991. Because the director of the "Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture" wanted a less frivolous title for the event, organizer Nicholas Kurti chose the words "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy":

At the time, 'molecular biology' was the hot scientific field, so named because it studies with great precision the specific molecules, DNA in particular, that are the foundation of living things. McGee draws a clear conclusion from the event:

"The workshops in Molecular and Physical Gastronomy did not delve into cooking at the molecular level, à la molecular biology. Nor did they primarily emphasize innovation. The focus was on traditional kitchen preparations, how they work and how they might be improved by an understanding of the basic physics and chemistry involved. The idea that the workshops marked the birth of a new scientific discipline was never brought up in general discussion."

Regardless of the intentions of organizers Kurti and McGee, the terms "Molecular Gastronomy" and "Molecular Cuisine" have become established in the media. But can Molecular Gastronomy" really be "a scientific discipline, a branch of physical chemistry, that investigates the mechanisms of phenomena occurring during culinary transformations introduced in 1988 by British physicist Nicholas Kurti and French chemist Hervé This?

Long before the Erice workshop, there were, of course, branches of science that dealt with food and its processing: We are, of course, talking about food chemistry and food technology. German universities have been training food chemists for 125 years. The profession was created to "protect citizens from risks posed by food and everyday objects."

As defined by the “Bundesverband der Lebensmittle Chemiker “ in 2013,"Food chemists work in the examination and evaluation of food, tobacco products, cosmetics, and other consumer goods. The products are accompanied by food chemists through all stages—raw material production, development, manufacturing, storage, marketing, all the way to the consumer. “ Since the 1970s, there has been training for food technologists, whose professional profile is defined as follows:

"Food technology encompasses the production, processing, and preparation of food from suitable raw materials through all intermediate stages to the consumable product, with particular emphasis on preservation. This takes place within the framework of applicable food law and fulfilling the defined quality requirements.”

Food technology is an interdisciplinary science that employs appropriate means and methods while paying special attention to the chemical, physicochemical, and biological processes occurring within the product during the respective process. The study of food technology is interdisciplinary and includes chemistry, physics, and biology, as well as areas of engineering sciences including mechanical engineering and process engineering and specialized sciences such as beverage technology, cereal technology, vegetable technology, milk and dairy technology, and meat technology. Such professions naturally exist in other countries as well. In the Anglo-Saxon world, "Food Scientist" is a well-established term.

“Food science draws from many disciplines such as biology, chemical engineering, and biochemistry in an attempt to better understand food processes and ultimately improve food products for the general public. As the stewards of the field, food scientists study the physical, microbiological, and chemical makeup of food. By applying their findings, they are responsible for developing the safe, nutritious foods and innovative packaging that line supermarket shelves everywhere." That is how the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago described the discipline taught there. The institute was founded in 1939, 16 years before Hervé This was born.

The Swiss journal "Food Science and Technology" has existed since 1968; the British journal "Food Chemistry" has been published since 1976. However, if an interdisciplinary branch of research on food has existed for decades and is taught at universities, why would it need to be re-founded under a different name in 1988? And how could Hervé This elevate food research to a "new" scientific discipline when it had existed in the United States since at least 1939? Given these facts, it is questionable whether "Molecular Gastronomy" exists at all. After all, the area of research described has been covered by chemistry, physics, and biology for decades and is taught at universities.

According to Hervé This's definition, chefs are essentially the executing hands of the "molecular gastronomist i.e., the scientist. In fact, there seem to be as many interpretations of the terms "Molecular Gastronomy" and "Molecular Cuisine" as there are instructors who want to teach Molecular Gastronomy: Róisín Burke, Pauline Danaher, and Mark Traynor from the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, College of Arts and Tourism at the Dublin Institute of Technology explain, "Molecular gastronomy is the study of the physical and chemical culinary transformations that occur during preparation, cooking and consumption. Molecular gastronomy differs from food science as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena are explored."

The "gastronomic phenomena" to be investigated are not further defined. Graduates of the "Advanced Molecular Gastronomy (Level 9)" course must conceptualize "a novel and innovative dish/cocktail using ingredients and techniques associated with Molecular Gastronomy." Peter Barham, a polymer researcher who is an expert in penguin localization, and "scientific advisor" to British chef Heston Blumenthal, defines his vision of molecular gastronomy through a series of goals: "Perhaps the most important objective of MG should be to delineate the essential principles that underpin our individual enjoyment of food. We hypothesize that there are a number of conditions that must be met before food becomes truly enjoyable, some trivial (e.g., the food should have some flavor), some very subtle (e.g., we may need to be in the 'right frame of mind' to enjoy a meal), and many highly speculative (e.g., we may need a minimum number of different, simultaneous, or temporally related stimuli before a particular dish becomes interesting). The long-term aims of the science of MG should be to elucidate these minimal conditions, to find ways in which they can be met (through the production of raw materials, in the cooking process, and in the way in which the food is presented), and hence to be able to reasonably well predict whether a particular dish or meal would be delicious."

Conventional "food science" according to the North American model must of course ask itself the same questions, if only because a poorly tasting, industrially produced dish would be rejected by the majority of consumers. Neither definition answers why cooking cannot be captured and explained within the framework of interdisciplinary research—chemistry, physics, biology. Interestingly, the very chefs who are portrayed in the media as standard-bearers of the movement reject the terms "Molecular Cuisine" and "Molecular Gastronomy":

"The fashionable term 'molecular gastronomy' was introduced relatively recently, in 1992, to name a particular academic workshop for scientists and chefs on the basic food chemistry of traditional dishes. That workshop did not influence our approach, and the term 'molecular gastronomy' does not describe our cooking, or indeed any style of cooking," declared chefs Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller, and author Harold McGee in December 2006.

The examination of historical evidence raises serious doubts about the legitimacy of "Molecular Gastronomy" as a distinct scientific discipline. The scientific study of food has been thoroughly established for decades through chemistry, physics, biology, and food technology—well before 1988. Food science institutes have operated since at least 1939, with specialized journals publishing since the 1960s and 70s.

Furthermore, the chefs widely celebrated as pioneers of this movement—Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, and Thomas Keller—have explicitly rejected the term "Molecular Gastronomy" to describe their culinary approaches.

What emerges is that "Molecular Gastronomy" represents more a successful exercise in branding and media attention than a revolutionary scientific discipline or culinary movement. The chemical and physical techniques applied to cooking have existed and been studied scientifically long before this term was popularized. Rather than constituting a new field of science, "Molecular Gastronomy" appears to be primarily a repackaging of existing knowledge under a more marketable name.