Molecular Gastronomy

In its strictest definition, molecular gastronomy refers to using science to better understand cooking. The term’s—and movement’s—origins go back to France in 1988, when the chemist Hervé This and the physicist Nicholas Kurti began using it to describe their work (initially as “molecular and physical gastronomy,” until Kurti’s death in 1998). In 2006 This defined it as “the chemistry and physics behind the preparation of any dish.” In a 2009 article This reiterated that the discovery of new phenomena and new mechanisms is the main objective of molecular gastronomy. While This insists on an understanding of the term that confines molecular gastronomy to the work done in labs by scientists, it has become widely used in the media to talk about cooking based on avant-garde techniques and ingredients. Mostly to avoid confusion, proponents of those culinary-based applications have preferred using terms such as “science-based cooking,” “experimental cuisine,” “technoemotional cooking,” “new cookery,” or “modernist cuisine.” The tenets of this culinary movement are an intellectual approach to cooking, often to trigger an emotional response from the diner; a multicourse tasting menu format, which can include as many as forty dishes, but typically between ten and twenty, in small sizes; and deconstruction, which sees chefs reinventing classic dishes and appealing to a diner’s memory, even nostalgia.