Kitchen Angels 2008

Experimentation Nancy Lam
problem.’ For his TV programme In Search of Perfection
he scours the world to revolutionise some of the nation’s
favourite dishes. By analysing every component and
ingredient Blumenthal, and all scientiﬁ c chefs, gain a deeper
understanding of the food they’re cooking, putting them
in a better position for development. Ferran Adrià, who has
held the World’s Best Restaurant crown for the past three
years for El Bulli in Spain, has 400 requests for every table
and changes his three-Michelin-star tasting menu every day.
Popular dishes include mint and Parmesan marshmallow
and peach soup.
Moving forward
Blumenthal’s journey of cookery discovery began with
Harold McGee’s revolutionary book On Food and Cooking
in 1984. With the book as his inspiration, he eventually met
Wilkinson’s scallop,
McGee along with Adrià and Thomas Keller of Per Se and
wasabi and
The French Laundry in the US, at a ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ cucumber starter
workshop in Erice, Sicily in 1992. Keller is also renowned for
Hot pea foam with
his experimental style and has many discerning palates as carrot and coriander
fans, including Angela Hartnett, ‘The food he produces is just
phenomenal. Really beautiful and really lovely.’ While James
Martin from Saturday Kitchen attributes him as his biggest
inspiration and declares him, ‘The greatest chef in the world.’
No one could have known how important this meeting of the
four outré chefs would be for the future, and the history, of
cooking.
... I always
enjoy the
What’s in a name?
scientiﬁ
c way
Although labelled as “molecular gastronomy” – a phrase
of cooking.
invented by Nicholas Kurti to get a research institute to sit giving him a brain scan to see the effects.
I think Heston
up and take notice – the biggest names in the business, Each dish takes a lot of research and an army
including Blumenthal, openly believe this pompous term of scientists; it took four years for Blumenthal
Blumenthal is a genius. The
creates an elitist barrier. Adrià says, ‘Cooking is much more and his team to create hot-cold ice cream
way he does things, it
than that, or rather, it is something different; at any event, for his restaurant, they eventually succeeded
makes me laugh.
out of respect for the scientiﬁ c world, a respect that should with the help of the Bernard Matthews turkey
begin by not having its work trivialised, I shall never mix dinosaur machine.
the two.’ But there is no united answer as to what it should
be called and so the term remains. Wilkinson says, ‘It’s a Using senses
random one, I think I’m the same as most chefs, I think it’s Multi-award winning Charles Spence, head of the
too scientiﬁ c and pretentious. We don’t set ourselves in any Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University, has
category and it’s a bit of a mouthful.’ worked with Blumenthal. He’s interested in the perception
of ﬂ avour and believes eating is “multi-sensory”, ‘Every
Trial and error sense is involved in contributing to the ﬂ avour we perceive
These kitchen chemists question the traditional rules of in the mouth,’ he says. ‘Researchers have suggested that
cuisine, usually taking them at least 10 steps further; nothing more than 80 per cent of our perception of ﬂ avour of
is off limits. The chefs have real chemistry labs where recipes food and drink comes from our nose.’ If you doubt this
are assessed culturally and scientiﬁ cally. In Wilkinson’s lab multi-sensory approach think about drinking Sangria on
at Durham University he and his assistant are working on holiday. The memorable delicious ﬂ avour is because of your
an edible balloon and a dish inspired by the food chain, he’s surroundings, when you get back from holiday it’s never
already created an “essence of grass” to be married with beef. the same.
New dishes are a case of trial and error, often using some Armed with this physical and psychological knowledge,
shocking experiments. Blumenthal intravenously fed one chefs are more equipped to improve ﬂ avours in a variety of
of his staff twice the recommended dose of chilli oil before ways. Their wholesome approach to food takes everything }
winter 2008 KITCHENANGELS 119
KA22 Experiment_DW.rkyindd.indd 119 20/8/08 2:34:55 am
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Page 18 | Page 19 | Page 20 | Page 21 | Page 22 | Page 23 | Page 24 | Page 25 | Page 26 | Page 27 | Page 28 | Page 29 | Page 30 | Page 31 | Page 32 | Page 33 | Page 34 | Page 35 | Page 36 | Page 37 | Page 38 | Page 39 | Page 40 | Page 41 | Page 42 | Page 43 | Page 44 | Page 45 | Page 46 | Page 47 | Page 48 | Page 49 | Page 50 | Page 51 | Page 52 | Page 53 | Page 54 | Page 55 | Page 56 | Page 57 | Page 58 | Page 59 | Page 60 | Page 61 | Page 62 | Page 63 | Page 64 | Page 65 | Page 66 | Page 67 | Page 68 | Page 69 | Page 70 | Page 71 | Page 72 | Page 73 | Page 74 | Page 75 | Page 76 | Page 77 | Page 78 | Page 79 | Page 80 | Page 81 | Page 82 | Page 83 | Page 84 | Page 85 | Page 86 | Page 87 | Page 88 | Page 89 | Page 90 | Page 91 | Page 92 | Page 93 | Page 94 | Page 95 | Page 96 | Page 97 | Page 98 | Page 99 | Page 100 | Page 101 | Page 102 | Page 103 | Page 104 | Page 105 | Page 106 | Page 107 | Page 108 | Page 109 | Page 110 | Page 111 | Page 112 | Page 113 | Page 114 | Page 115 | Page 116 | Page 117 | Page 118 | Page 119 | Page 120 | Page 121 | Page 122 | Page 123 | Page 124 | Page 125 | Page 126 | Page 127 | Page 128 | Page 129 | Page 130 | Page 131 | Page 132 | Page 133 | Page 134 | Page 135 | Page 136 | Page 137 | Page 138 | Page 139 | Page 140 | Page 141 | Page 142 | Page 143 | Page 144 | Page 145 | Page 146 | Page 147 | Page 148 | Page 149 | Page 150 | Page 151 | Page 152 | Page 153 | Page 154 | Page 155 | Page 156 | Page 157 | Page 158 | Page 159 | Page 160 | Page 161 | Page 162 | Page 163 | Page 164