Molecular cuisine
The molecular gastronomy or molecular cuisine deals with the biochemical and physical-chemical processes in the preparation and the enjoyment of food and drink. The term is established, but controversial - it is not very meaningful because all organic substances consist of molecules . Internationally, the terms modernist cuisine (in German 'modern kitchen'), culinary physics (in German 'physics of the art of cooking ') or experimental cuisine (in German 'experimental culinary art') are also used.
Molecular cuisine implements knowledge from the scientific investigation of biochemical, physical and chemical processes in the preparation of food and beverages, which have to do with the change in the textures of individual products or, in general, with the interactions between physical-chemical processes and changes in a product.
history
The term “molecular gastronomy” was coined around 1990 by Hervé This . In 1992, the first international workshop on molecular and physical gastronomy took place in Sicily. The goal of this applied science is This: to explain traditional recipes, to improve them if possible, and to create new recipes with the knowledge gained.
However, Hervé This was not the first to devote himself to the scientific consideration of cooking processes. Since the Second World War z. For example, various gel formers such as agar, carrageenan, xanthan, locust bean gum and others were added to convenience food products to create the desired consistency and thus a desired mouthfeel, in addition, the addition of antioxidants such as vitamin C reduced the oxidation of the products and flavor extracts the taste reinforced. In the 1980s, Nicholas Kurti wrote the basics for modern molecular gastronomy with the essay The Physicist in the Kitchen . Kurti also wrote the sentence This often quoted: "It is absurd that we know more about the temperature in the center of the sun than about the temperature inside a soufflé ."
The changed behavior of structures in food through mechanical effects, through temperature changes or through the use of additives such as alginates is what concerns the scientists and cooks working on the topic. They are less interested in the question of when the right cooking time for meat and fish has been reached or how long a soufflé has to stay in the oven. It is more important for them to know why all this is happening in order to be able to draw knowledge from it for other preparation processes. Thomas A. Vilgis from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz is one of the best-known German scientists in the field of molecular cuisine. Internationally, especially Hervé This, Harold McGee , Nicholas Kurti and Peter Barham have done a lot of development work.
From this scientific approach a new style of haute cuisine has developed, which is called molecular cuisine , but is ultimately just an applied molecular cuisine . Its best-known international representative is the Spanish chef Ferran Adrià . The Spanish-born three-star chef Juan Amador also worked in this area in his restaurant in Langen , but refused to use the term molecular cuisine for himself. Another molecularly inspired chef in Germany is Heiko Antoniewicz . Internationally, alongside Adrià Heston Blumenthal , Grant Achatz and Marc Veyrat, they are among the most important top chefs in the field of molecularly inspired avant-garde cuisine. Other important representatives are the Spaniards Martin Berasategui , Juan Arzak , Joan Roca , Luiz Aduriz and Quique Dacosta as well as Homaru Cantu (Chicago), Sergio Herman (Netherlands) and René Redzepi (Denmark). In Germany, the natural scientist and physicist Thomas Vilgis is a well-known expert on molecular gastronomy. He conducts scientific research in the field and also publishes popular science books and articles on the subject.
In 2011, the former Microsoft employee Nathan Myhrvold published a six-volume cookbook with Chris Young and Maxime Biletein, a redefinition of the “modern kitchen”. In Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking he scientifically approaches modern experimental cuisine . On 2438 pages, for example, he estimates his “perfect cheeseburger ” to take 30 hours to prepare.
Methods
Applied molecular cuisine also uses knowledge from modern food technology to produce dishes with completely new properties, such as foams / mousses , airs, warm jellies , hot "ice" that melts in the mouth when it cools, candies made from olive oil or "caviar “Made from melons. Thanks to the surprising combinations of aromas, sweet and salty, temperatures and textures , these dishes are at the same time a “school of perception” and approach the methods of modern art.
In the molecularly inspired kitchen, various devices that come from laboratory supplies are also used. This primarily includes the temperature-controlled water bath , vacuum cooking (also: sous vide , French for 'under vacuum') and low-temperature cooking . Rotary evaporators are also frequently used for the production of extracts , aromatic salts and distillates, as well as cooling with dry ice or liquid nitrogen , a homogenizer , centrifuges and lyophiles .
Typical dishes
A famous creation of molecularly inspired cuisine is the spherical melon caviar by Ferran Adrià. Through the process of “spherization”, drops of melon extract take on the shape of “spheres”, a spherical outer shell encloses the liquid core.
The molecularly inspired cuisine uses a variety of natural basic products, including texturizers, which are used as versatile and vegetarian alternatives to gelatine . These include xanthan gum (E 415) or the substances agar agar and alginate obtained from algae , but also locust bean gum and guar gum .
literature
- Nathan Myhrvold : Modernist Cuisine. The culinary revolution. Taschen, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-8365-3256-3 .
- Heiko Antoniewicz : Molecular Kitchen Starter Set: Construction kit with 10 texturizers and the book "Molecular Basics". Matthaes Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-87515-033-9 .
- Peter Barham: The Final Mysteries of Cooking. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2003.
- Harold McGee: What's Cooking in Chemistry? How Leading Chemists Succeed in the Kitchen. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2003, ISBN 3-527-30723-0 .
- Gabriele Randel: Molecular Cocktails. Umschau, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 2007, ISBN 978-3-86528-640-6 .
- Hervé This -Benckhard: The riddle of the culinary art. Explained scientifically. Springer, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-540-61113-4 .
- Thomas A. Vilgis : The Molecule Kitchen. Physics and chemistry of fine taste. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-7776-1370-3 .
Web links
- Thorsten Firlus: Virtual Sushi , Wirtschaftswoche , January 28, 2007, No. 5
Individual evidence
- ^ Heston Blumenthal: Statement on the New Cookery - Guardian Observer , Observer.guardian.co.uk. December 10, 2006. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
- ^ A b Peter Barham, Leif H. Skibsted, Wender LP Bredie, Michael Bom Frøst, Per Møller, Jens Risbo, Pia Snitkjær, Louise Mørch Mortensen: Molecular Gastronomy: A New Emerging Scientific Discipline , Chemical Reviews 2010 , 110 , 2313–2365 .
- ↑ Peter Prantner: 30-hour burger from the kitchen laboratory. ORF.at, November 26, 2012, accessed on June 2, 2013 .
- ↑ Nerd cookbook "Modernist Cuisine": Alphabet soup with a fat side dish . Spiegel Online . Archived from the original on August 5, 2013. Retrieved on August 6, 2013: "Modernist Cuisine" celebrates one of the fundamental human cultural techniques, is a reference work, flip-book for gourmets and kitchen researchers, offers inspiration and new impulses. "