biology, psychology… but also to analyze what cooking is really: art, and love (given by the cook to the
Here we shall concentrate to the technological applications of molecular gastronomy, without
forgetting that Molecular Gastronomy is not concerned in technology, as it is primarily the exploration
of mechanisms of culinary transformations.
New dishes based on modelling
Let us repeat “one two three, four five six; one two three, four five six/ one two three, four five six / one
two three, four five six…” Replace now the figures by syllabus that make words: if the words are
French, we get French poetry; if the words are German, we get German poetry… The same idea holds
for technology: if we are doing chemistry or physics using only edible material, it is likely that
transforming it using scientific ideas will lead to culinary innovations, as cooking is chemically and
physically transforming edible ingredients into dishes. Let us examine isolated example first, before
being more systematic.
_ We examined above the question “what does cooking mean?”, and we proposed to cook eggs at
65°C for some hours. The result is a wonderful component of a dish, as the egg white is delicately
jellified, as the yolk keeps its raw taste and colour, having, according to the exact heat treatment, a
texture between the texture of raw yolk and butter.
Figure 11. An egg cooked at 65°C. The final result does not depend noticeably on...
Figure 11. An egg cooked at 65°C. The final result does not depend noticeably on cooking time
as long as the equilibrium temperature is reached in all parts of the egg.
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This “egg at 65°C” does not look like hard boiled egg, nor fried egg, not poached egg, nor… It is a new
dish, very easy to prepare, and being served now by more and more chefs in Europe.iv
_ Still playing with eggs, let us consider “one century eggs” done in Asia and also called “longevity
eggs”: they are prepared by putting raw eggs (in their shell) in a mixture of clay, straw, and either
ashes or lime. As lime is an alkali, and ashes contain potash (another alkali), we proposed some years