An Introduction to Molecular Gastronomy

Author(s): Xiaoke Xiang¹

1. Class of 2021, Stamford American International School, Singapore

Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science concerned with the physical and chemical transformations that occur during cooking. Two often confused terms used in molecular gastronomy are molecular food and molecular cuisine. Molecular cuisine is the modern style of cooking that takes advantage of many technical and scientific innovations while molecular food is the knowledge of whatever concerns man’s nourishment.

The objectives of molecular gastronomy, as defined by Hervé This, who coined the term, are seeking for the mechanisms of culinary transformations and processes from a chemical and physical point of view in three areas:

1. the social phenomena linked to culinary activity
2. the artistic component of culinary activity
3. the technical component of culinary activity

A common example of molecular food is Cotton candy. The molecules of sucrose crystals are originally neatly arranged. However, in cotton candy making machines, the heat released from the heating chamber at the center of the machine breaks the arrangement of the crystals, thereby turning the crystal into syrup. There are pores smaller than the size of the sucrose on the walls of the heating chamber so when the sugar rotates at a high speed in the chamber, centrifugal force sprays the syrup through the small hole to the surroundings. Since the rate at which a liquid substance solidifies is related to its surface area, the larger the surface area, the faster the solidification. Therefore, the syrup ejected from the small holes solidifies into a sugar filament very quickly and does not stick together. This is a classic example of a change in the organizational structure of the ingredients while cooking.

Four very commonly used technologies and techniques in molecular cuisines are food dehydrators, spherification,liquid nitrogen, and edible paper. A food dehydrator produces heat and removes water content from ingredients. The dehydration procedure changes the ingredient’s original size, shape, weight, and texture but does not influence its nutritious content. Spherification is the process of creating a gel around a liquid, forming a gelled sphere with a liquid center. Most of the time sodium alginate, an algae extract, is used in combination with calcium lactate to from the gel-like layer, though there are many other methods. There are two main spherification techniques: direct spherification, often called basic spherification, and reverse spherification.

Liquid nitrogen is used for “flash freezing” and shattering of ingredients. Due to nitrogen’s extremely low boiling point at -159.8^oC, it cools down ingredients much faster than any conventional cooling techniques and is most famously used in the production of liquid nitrogen ice cream. Edible paper are made from soybeans and potato starch. They can be printed on with inkjet printers loaded with edible fruit inks and some restaurants use them to make edible menus. Another common use of edible paper is to make disappearing liquid ravioli.

Despite the novel experiences that molecular cuisine can bring, many people cannot accept this cooking method. Some people even view it as a mean of deceiving consumers, and believe that people should not make food this way. At the same time, the term “molecular gastronomy” can mean a variety of different things when put into context and this is why many chefs use a different term to describe their cooking style instead of using “molecular gastronomy”.

 

Bibliography

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“How Does a Food Dehydrator Work?” Dehydrator Blog, 13 Oct. 2018, dehydratorblog.com/how-does-a-food-dehydrator-work/.

Logsdon, Jason. “Spherification Technique.” Amazing Food Made Easy, 14 Mar. 2012, http://www.amazingfoodmadeeasy.com/info/modernist-techniques/more/spherification-technique.

“Molecular Gastronomy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy.

This, Hervé. “Food for Tomorrow?” EMBO Reports, EMBO Press, 1 Nov. 2006, embor.embopress.org/content/7/11/1062.

This, Hervé, and Nathan Myhrvold. “Molecular Gastronomy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 June 2018, http://www.britannica.com/topic/molecular-gastronomy.