Cooking Methods: Avant-Garde Techniques

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About

The approach to cooking first known as molecular gastronomy, introduced, is an effort by creative chefs to find new ways of preparing and presenting food. In the last few years, as these efforts have become more mainstream, we hear the term “molecular gastronomy” less often. Terms like avant-garde cuisine are more often used (see sidebar). (We’ll use both terms in this discussion.)

We can define molecular gastronomy or avant-garde cuisine as the manipulation of food ingredients in new ways by the use of technology.