Molecular Gastronomy

In response to Os Rosenboim. I doubt that molecular gastronomy will soon pass. Of course it now has so many meanings that talking about it can be confusing. Assume, for a moment, though that it means something like the scientific investigation of tastes and flavors and the applications of the results.

To my mind in this sense molecular gastronomy is the major new culinary development of the second half of the twentieth century and the twenty first century, as revolutionary as the industrialization of food processing in the late nineteenth century.

Chefs quickly picked up on industrialized food. Now they are picking up on the science of taste and flavors. Both of these developments, though, needed more resources than even the best funded restaurant could muster. So I think the real center of innovation is in the taste and flavor companies and the research chefs they employ. Some of the most exciting conferences I have attended are the conferences of the Research Chefs Association.

And if big name restaurateurs can run with this, three cheers.

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