Molecular Gastronomy Seminar

fx

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:31:25 GMT

Yes the French are not too good with languages and French is a requirement. But there were some lovely Americans there too!

Danette

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 04:31:36 GMT

You are so lucky you got to go to this seminar! I would have loved to have been there. I assume it was all in French, though, of course, sigh...my French is not good enough to understand a seminar.

Marie-Claire

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 02:02:48 GMT

Le prochain s�minaire, c"est jeudi 18 septembre de 16 h � 18 h !
venez !

fx

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:23:37 GMT

Sandra, merci pour ta visite et essaie d"aller voir un de ses s�minaires, j"ai mis le lien sur l"article, tout le monde peut entrer!

sandra avital

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:57:05 GMT

j"adore l"id�e de mouillettes d"oeuf plong�es dans la cr�me de pain, j"adore Herv� This, j"adore ton reportage. Merci!!!!!!!!!

fx

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:27:24 GMT

Sam, I"m sorry but your message has been cut. Did you mean that I should refer to This as Dr Prof This, or Prof Dr This rather than Mr This? It"s so much more fun to play on this" name that I forgot my manners. Were you at the conference?
Thanks for visiting and hope to see you back on my blog!

Sam

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:16:52 GMT

Excellent coverage of the conference! But it was awkward to read you continually refer to Herve This as >. He holds a PhD degree and a professorship - it would be much more appropriate to refer to him as > or >.Thanks for the wonderful photos of the conference!

fx

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:31:24 GMT

Martin, thanks for visiting and remember they have another seminar in June, apparently with a few English-speaking speakers!

Martin Lersch

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:58:01 GMT

Excellent pictures! I wish I could take part in these seminars!

fx

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:03:00 GMT

Aaron, this is quite a story! I have not tried the super taster kit and am not sure it is exactly the same we had in the seminar. Probably a higher order version than what they gave us. I think the test only shows the differences in sensitivity to one molecule that hits on the bitterness papillae, and don"t think it is meant to test our overall likeness of bitter foods. Still, I hope your girlfriend forgave you for being the "super taster"!

Aaron in Allentown, Pennsylvania

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:12:11 GMT

Inspired by your entry, I purchased the supertaster kit.
Based on my physique and my predilection for fatty foods, I doubted that I was a supertaster.
This morning, my girlfriend and I took the supertaster test.
She was a non-taster, which didn"t surprise me. She loves bitter foods and non-sweetened adult beverages.
It took about five seconds for me to taste that strip, but man, did it taste awful. I started to gag and dry heave. I mean, Holy Shit that was nasty.
I"ve been trying to figure out why I love grapefruit juice and Brussels sprouts in spite of my sensitivity to bitterness. When I eat bitter foods, I definitely wince at the bitterness, but I take pleasure in it.
I don"t know the answer. My best guess is that I relish those strong flavors because it reminds me that I"m alive.

fx

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:28:43 GMT

Luke I can"t remember which molecule exactly she gave us to taste but will certainly do the papillae-counting test. Sounds quite fun! Maybe some of us have bionic tongues.

Luke

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:28:24 GMT

I"m kinda surprised she gave you PTC to taste. Pretty much everyone uses PROP these days. (Not that it matters much for the purpose of a simple demonstration.)

That said, if you ever have time to kill, counting the fungiform papillae on your tongue might be a fun little project. Hey, who knows? Maybe you can indeed taste the last 100 dishes served on a plate and not even know about it.

fx

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 14:58:51 GMT

Luke, the lady chemist explained that the term "super taster" was used only in the context of a specific molecule. So I may have been proved as a phenylthiocarbamide super taster but I don"t pretend I am an overall super taster that can taste the 100 last dishes that were served in a particular plate!

fx

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 14:50:56 GMT

Ben, thanks for your kind words and please feel free to link in. I hope you"ll have much fun in the kitchen in the future!

Luke

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 08:39:57 GMT

Yeah, the thing that first gave me pause about molecular gastronomy was a demonstration I saw about spherification. I thought to myself, "Isn"t that a bit too much like candy you can get at a dime store? How the hell is this cuisine?" And that was that. Bias is hard to shake off.

On the subject of supertasting, the response to bitterness alone doesn"t explain the phenomenon or whether a person can be called a supertaster. If I recall, one"s ability to detect propylthiouracil or phenylthiocarbamide has to do with genetic variation of a particular bitter receptor, and while a very strong response implies that the person is a supertaster, that alone can"t determine it. Another way to test it is to count the number of fungiform papillae on one"s tongue.

I could be off the mark though, as it"s been a while since I"ve looked into it.

Ben

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 06:29:39 GMT

You"re probably one of my top inspirations of what I will do later in life once work dies down a bit and I"m more senior. You truly are an inspired gourmet. Can I link to your blog?

fx

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:54:29 GMT

Gayle, indeed eggs are used as thickeners and emulsifiers whereas nowadays they can easily be substituted by other natural products to achieve the same effect. Have a look at the Kalys products to see how they work.

fx

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:48:53 GMT

Callipygia, I have a couple medieval cookbooks (OK, more than a couple) and will try to post a couple recipes. Perhaps I could use medieval measurements as well, but readers already complain about my grams and liters. What will they say about hazelnut shells and misereres?

fx

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:46:44 GMT

Paul, I share your practical approach to cooking. Are you in construction? However, understanding the way things work in the kitchen definitely help you cook more efficiently even when making traditional dishes. For instance if your mayonnaise breaks, it really helps to understand what you are doing (oil in water emulsion) and how to fix it.

fx

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:37:50 GMT

Luke, the super-taster thing is really thought provoking, in fact apparently there are huge differences in the number of tastebuds people have on their tongues. I fear this might extend to the nose too, judging from the long queues at MacDonald"s. As for molecular cuisine and molecular gastronomy, it"s definitely not about making industrial food using chemicals. It"s about understanding how things work in the kitchen at the molecular level (molecular gastronomy) and then trying to reverse-engineer some dishes to obtain really cool and mind-boggling new dishes. People who do this are Michelin-starred chefs of variable talents, but nothing MacDonaldesque here.

Gayle

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 00:11:34 GMT

Very interesting. I use some chemistry because I try to replicate foods without using eggs. Most recipes seem to have eggs in them. I make a mayonnaise-type food using olive oil and flaxseed meal. Flaxseed meal is very versatile.

Callipygia

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 17:41:03 GMT

FX are you sure you don"t bilocate? You seem to be everywhere at once... Great post, I feel like I was there. Especially like the bit about medieval cookery and the use of measurements. Hmm a 300 min egg translated into Pater Noster time!

Paul Mckenna

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 12:36:27 GMT

In the UK we have a copycat called Heston Blumenthal so if English (only ) speakers want to research the matter thats the guy to Google or go from Wikipedia.

Molecular gastronomy is interesting as is recreating old recipes by such as Apicius but my practical brain tells me cooking is getting on the table on time and on budget.

Paul

Luke

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:11:04 GMT

Bah! Super-taster or not, the effects are fairly limited, and it only makes a difference as far as one"s most basic sense of taste goes. Flavor is still a whole different story, and that depends on how good your nose is. (Still, being among the non-tasters, I am envious no matter how I try to justify it.)

That said, this is yet another amazing article. I"ve typically been wary of molecular cuisine. Mind you, I"ve always respected the chemistry and physics of cooking, but the very name "molecular gastronomy" conjures images of the ingredients lists on processed food you"d find in a typical supermarket.

The way you describe it (along with the beautiful pictures), though, really takes the bite out of it. Honestly, you totally smashed the picture I had in my head of some nameless research chemist in a McDonald"s owned lab working to make paper approximate the flavor of a real grilled burger.

fx

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 06:52:04 GMT

Beatrice, Hildegard actually mentionned this in a treatise on medicine but she did write about food and cookery. I just ordered a cookbook "Hildegard von Bingen - das Kochbuch", we"ll see what it tastes like. The decanting device is a project they have to make a decanting machine that can automatically decant (skim the fat) from a gallon of sauce. I think you"d need quite some time with one of them pitchers and all the ones I"ve seen are made of glass. I will read Hildegard"s poems to help my tongue curl and report back!

Beatrice

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 06:17:17 GMT

Interesting...I didn"t know Hildegarde von Bingen could cook. I seem to remember that many years ago there was a molecular gastronomy restaurant in London that served a dessert made with liquid nitrogen. As for the lab-based separating device, I"m not sure how this improves on the old-fashioned pitchers that allow the fat to float to the top and siphon off the broth (or what have you) from the bottom. The subject is fascinating, even for the home cook. Now, you may be a super-taster, but can you curl your tongue?