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Molecular Gastronomy, The Science of Cooking
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Art of Cooking is evolving fast in this 21st century. New food products are being designed with the help of molecular technology, genetic discoveries or space research before arriving in our kitchens. For example, here is a Pravda article which says that NASA is preparing sandwiches which will still be edible after seven years. Companies like Kraft are also using nanotechnology to create food products tailored to users' needs. This is a booming market and, according to Associated Press, dozens of universities in the U.S. are offering degrees in culinology, attracting creative students in their food and science programs."
This is good because eventually we will all want to have food that is chemically efficient for us to digest, without any of the wrong ingredients, but I question the health side of chemical/altered foods.
I was talking to a chef about a month ago who was complaining about having to put loads of oils, creams, butter and mayo in foods to achieve the taste that the consumer wants, at the expense of their health. "We're paid to kill people," was his complaint, and sadly I think he's right. This same chef was saying how it would be nice if there were alternatives to bad food, that would not jeopardize someone's health. I think that new advancements in science would be the right approach to solving the obesity problem, as long as people are protected from any negative side effects. Natural replacements seem to top this chef's list. He said that the natural foods are the very best for you, so he had little faith in chemicals or engineered food as being healthy for us.
I've stayed away from garbage food for only a short period and lost nearly 40 pounds of flubber! It's really simple, actually. Most people have a small breakfast, a bigger lunch and a huge dinner. I have a huge breakfast, a smaller lunch and a much smaller dinner (before 6pm usually). I eat from each of the four food groups every day.
This one cool salad the chef told me about is:
- Veggies (whatever you want)
- Salt & Pepper (loads of it unless you have a heart condition)
- Squeezed Lemon
The salad tastes like fish & chips with vinegar and salt, so I'm kinda tricking my body into thinking it is getting a load of grease (which all of our bodies crave, because they are stupid bags of carbon and mostly water -- and we all know how well oil and water gets along, don't we?).I stay away from oils because they can ruin your whole system, and I think they reinforce our current fatty deposits, by feeding it somehow (it's not that much of a mystery). Once a week I have fat with meat, because the chef said that new fat kills old fat. New fat apparently replaces old fat, and then doesn't congreal as quickly if it's in turn replaced a week later. That doesn't mean overdo it... just a little will do. Apparently people who have been overweight for a long time have very dense fat that must be replaced in order for them to empty fatty deposits eventually.
My portions are smaller, and I'm not always hungry. I drink as much water as I can every day too, and it helps. I drink tea & coffee, and smoke regularly. I might not be the picture of health, but I am trying.
Now if we could only get some fat and tar eating nanoprobes... then we'd really be in business.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Does this mean we might actually get some good new spices, once they start playing around with modifying existing ones somewhat gastronomically scientifically?
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
Hah! I can make sandwiches that are edible RIGHT NOW!
I better put that in my resume... brb.
Be careful eating old sandwiches. Homer tried that once and got so sick he couldn't go to Duff Gardens.
I'm a big tall mofo.
NASA is preparing sandwiches which will still be inedible after seven years. And they borrowed this technology from my local high school. They should coat the shuttle with these monstrosities.
Good for seven years? Does that mean the developed a twinkie sandwich?
You can't "solve" the world's food problem. You give humanity more food, you get more humans. And these supplementary humans need more food.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
"What's that black cracker?"
"A tomato." (crunch)
Starkle, starkle, little twink.
this is obviously based on failed experiments by the airlines.
Seriously.
I wouldn't call what Kraft & Co are spitting out 'cooking'.
It is a designer meal replacement that resembles cooked food.
Maybe I am old fashined, but anything that gets made in huge vats by machines and then packaged in plastic may be something that keeps me alive, but it DEFINETLY is not cooked.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
In Futurama, Fry eats one of these sandwiches ..
I suppose this is were the nanotechnology comes into play..
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
The world has done very well without scientists mucking up our food sources. How many thousands of years have people lived off what the earth grows?
I now see in my grocery store "organic milk", it is priced twice as expensive as the gallon of regular milk. The same thing is in produce, they have organic vegitables. What is this? 20 years ago everything was organic, now only the rich can get normal food. The rest of us must eat crap that has been genetically modified.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Roland Piquepaille with Herbed Tomato Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
250 pounds Roland Piquepaille
1 cup article excerpts
1/8 teaspoon finely chopped original contributions.
1 primidi.com blog
1 popular techie website
PREPARATION:
Wash Roland Piquepaille; pat dry. Season with 1 cup copy pasted excerpts from article. Mix in 1/8th teaspoon finely chopped original comments. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven and cook until evenly brown. Link to blog and submit to popular techie website.
Best served hot. Serves ~90,000.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Try thousand year old eggs. Those will put feathers on your chest ;-)
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
For example, here is a Pravda article which says that NASA is preparing sandwiches which will still be edible after seven years.
In around mid 1998, I cleaned my car out and found, among the other rubbish in the back seat, an obviously forgotten McDonalds paper bag, one either me or one of my passengers had bought & forgotten about. It contained a Quarter Pounder and Fries that had been sitting there, dried out for who knows how long. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd been to McDonalds when i was doing the cleaning, so I'm guessing it had been there at least six months to a year.
The fries looked OK. they'd been kept inside the bag & never exposed to the air so no bugs had managed to crawl in. The real surprise was the quarter pounder - I unwrapped it and found a perfectly preserved edible looking and smelling burger. To look at and sniff, it was no different to a brand new fresh one, it was just rock hard and dried out.
I gave it to my niece who kicked it around for a couple of days in the back yard - it didn't look much worse for wear after that either.
Judging by the condition of that quarter pounder, I wouldn't be surprised if it would have lasted through to today if I'd kept it in the bag.
I was talking to a chef about a month ago who was complaining about having to put loads of oils, creams, butter and mayo in foods to achieve the taste that the consumer wants, at the expense of their health. "We're paid to kill people," was his complaint, and sadly I think he's right.
What a rediculous statement. It's fine to eat something unhealthy every once in awhile as long as you don't make a habit of it. Eating well 28 days a month will render whatever you do the remaining 2 or 3 days pretty much irrelevant. Avoiding being stabbed 28 days won't help you to much if you are getting stabbed 2 or 3 days a month.
If your buddy really felt that he was getting paid to kill people, he would quit so obviously he himself realizes his statement is rediculous.
This same chef was saying how it would be nice if there were alternatives to bad food, that would not jeopardize someone's health.
There are. They are called vegetables. Again, you eat plenty of vegies and you can get away with eating all sorts of nasty stuff occasionally.
Your theories on fat murdering other fat are interesting to say the least. You might want to pick up a copy of Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Udo Erasmus for a slightly more scientific explanation of how fats operate inside your body.
When I go out to eat, I don't worry about how healthy the food is and my cholesterol numbers kick holy ass. How do I do it? Because I don't go out to eat very much and when I eat at home I'm very, very healthy. There's no need for genetically engineered superfoods. Just eat right 95% of the time and live a little the reminaing 5%.
GMD
watch this
GEFAC
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
i had an egg mcmuffin today which, i noted, was pulled out of a blister pack before being stuffed into a machine. it was a singularly borg-like experience
the best food is home-grown. after that, it is all down-hill. i hope we build better machines that make it possible for humans to grow their own food.
in fact, i'd be just as happy if we stopped making multi-millionaire momsanto executives, and threw all that money at proper programs to manage growth and water-tables in lands that really need it
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
This so-called news from Rolland is nothing new.
In fact, I have a BS and MS in Food Science from Cornell.
http://www.foodsci.cornell.edu/
Nor am I the only one. There are over 40 Food Science programs in the US. This is a non-story.
http://www.ift.org/cms/?pid=1000624
The head chef of the Fat Duck (a British restaurant voted the best in the world this year - jokes about British cuisine now null and void), Heston Blumenthal, is what you might call a 'molecular gastronomist'. By breaking cooking down to the basical levels and using the principles of chemistry to determine good combinations of food one can offer up delights such as bacon 'n' egg ice cream and snail porridge; two of the most famous dishes served at the Fat Duck.
I read a fascinating article on Blumenthal in The Sunday Times a good few months ago, and also learned of another restaurant (the name and location of which escapes me, although I think it was in Spain) which offered up similar food. The menu for this particular restaurant was something like 17 courses and several hundred euros a head. The writer for the ST (who was lucky to beat a three-odd year waiting list) was amazed at the combinations of ingredients and even the consistencies of the dishes that were comepletely unexpected. One particular serving that stuck in my mind was a kind of 'orange froth' that practically disappeared immediately in your mouth but was full of flavour. The journalist detailed how strange it felt eating froth for dinner. The cover of the supplement I was reading featured pictures from a handful of the courses and the presentation was astonishing. There was a square chocolate lollipop (I forget what wacky ingredient was coupled with it) which was so thin in the middle it was all wispy and translucent and webbed. Delicious.
Anyone for baconated grapefruit?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
So, someone's finally gotten around to reading all of Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking the science and lore of the kitchen".
This is a book about food stuffs through history, and their chemical and physical reactions to different processes used in cooking. The book has ~70 pages on milk, about about ~60-70 pages on eggs alone.
You get a chance to understand how your food works, at the molecular level. You can read about what protiens are in eggs, and how they change due to heat, acidity, etc. How whipped cream supports air, and how the fat molecules wrap around air (including pictures with a scanning electron microscope!)
Good stuff for cooks, and very much the science of cooking.
However, this book was originally written 20 years ago, so this isn't as new as it's played out to be...Now Pravda is just supplementing the story with a bit of 'wouldn't it be cool if we used technology to make things better?'
disclaimer- My wife's a chef at a 5-diamond restaurent and she spices her food appropriately and everything rocks. I think that us americans over spice and generally go crazy with trying to add too much flavor. Lighten up a bit on the spice ( here comes the "lips acquire stains" jokes) and try detecting subtle flavors or better combinations.
I don't know why people insist on nuking foods with cayenne or pouring texas pete on everything.
-B
Nice troll. America is home to some of the best restaurants in the world. Sure, most of the culinary styles here are not unique -- but then again, most of our population is not indigenous.
I'll agree that a subset of the population doesn't have "developed" culinary tastes. The same is true for France, for Italy, for anywhere. Just because YOUR experience of American cuisine doesn't meet your standards, doesn't mean that others' experiences are not different.
I, for one, have a plethora of cuisines to choose from within walking distance of both my office and my house. From Azerbijani to Thai, from crappy to great, it's available -- and I take advantage of it often.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I worked at a convenience store when I was younger - on one of the shelves we discovered a twinkee that was 6 years old. Still wrapped in plastic, the thing was as hard as a rock (literally.)
We threw it as hard as we could at the arborite countertop. The arborite chipped, but the twinkee was unscathed.
We hit it with a hammer. Repeatedly. It wouldn't break.
We debated selling them to the military as a new armor-piercing shell.
Thank you for that site -- I will check it out.
There's some interesting info on his site but his book is widely considered to be an authoritative tome on fats so it's worth picking up. He does delve a little into conspiracy-theory land at times but overall it's quite informative. Anyone interested in health ought to have this book on their shelf.
I think the chef was mostly kidding but somewhat serious about how he feels about having to load nasty ingredients into recipes that call for them. How he's fighting it is by working towards better recipes that taste good, but won't hurt your body. But then again, he has to make the rich food now and then. His problem is that people will eat the rich stuff every day, not like once a week or once every two weeks.
Okay, I didn't catch the joke. It sounded to me like he was one of these people who thinks people have no responsibility for their actions and that the poor health of his patrons was entirely his fault. You were there and I wasn't so I'll trust your read on his statement.
I suppose there are some people who have to travel a lot for work and have little choice but to eat out more than they should. I'm not going to discourage chefs from trying to make foods that are healthy and delicious. I think your salad is a good example of how easy it can be. On the other hand, as someone who does eat healthy a lot, I want to have the option to eat unhealthy once in awhile. I'd be disappointed in a future in which all yummy but unhealthy foods have been eliminated and replaced with moderately-tasty but much healthier fare. If I want to splurge and pig out on something naughty, that ought to be my choice. I don't go for all these people who are trying to save us from ourselves. I'm an adult and can make my own decisions. I have enough willpower to make a guilty pleasure a rare thing. I understand there are many people who cannot, but I'd be pissed off if I had to suffer because someone else can't control themselves.
Thanks for the clarification of your post mfh.
GMD
watch this
> You give humanity more food, you get more humans.
You didn't pay very close attention in sex ed class, did you?
But seriously, you are wrong anyhow. It's easily observed and well-established that well-fed people have fewer offspring than hungry ones.
Dude, Firegal does the BioNet website, I think she knows about that.
And what you're claiming to be well-fed people versus hungry ones is an observation that is impacted by:
1. education of women/girls in well-fed families is higher than in hungry families - the highest statistical correlation between family size is education of girls/women - more education leads to smaller family size - due to many factors;
2. well-fed people have extra resources for proper sanitation (less disease), proper medical care (less disease), and other resources - whereas hungry people not only don't, they also are at increased risk (if children) from catching communicable/infectious disesases and dying off at a higher rate. So the social structure/family adapts by having more kids, since fewer will tend to survive. Part of why recent immigrant families tend to have larger family sizes - it was a survival characteristic.
3. oh, forget it, that's enough for now.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
So, buy non-hydrogenated margarine. They are usually made from plant oils without the hydrogenation and so result in a softer consistency, and is healthier than hydrogenated margarine or butter.
You may eventually get fewer humans, but I doubt it'll be in a few decades.
I lived in Congo for a while. There is peer pressure to have as many children as possible. Traditionally this has been due to two factors: 1) high infant mortality, and 2) no social security, ie. the kids take care of the parents when the parents get old.
These factors are starting to become less important now that the standard of living is increasing, but most people are still having as many children as they can.
I think it will take more than a few generations for the cultural norms to shift to smaller families.
I'm sorry to say this, but for world leaders, Americans might just have the poorest gastonimical sense on this planet...
I can tell you've never visited England...
It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?
Where did you find this article? Was it between the monkey boy bites man and pyramid power articles or the ones which describe perpetual motion machines from space aliens?
Really, quoting Pravda is worse than treating the National Enquirer as a legitmate news source.
The current headlines at http://english.pravda.ru/ includes this:
Brazil, Russia, India and China to outdo Europe and the US - 08/29/2005 13:29
The main economic analysts of today share their thoughts of tomorrow
The world is changing so quickly that the human mind is unable to keep up. Experts from Deutsche Bank and other analysts decided to take a look at the future. The role of the EU becomes less and less important while developing countries boost their economic growth. Experts do not consider the USA a motive power in the economic progress. China and other rapidly developing countries are more important in the accelerating of world economy.
Uh..ok, the situation is changing so fast that the human mind can't comprehend but Deutsche Bank "experts" can predict the future. Uh...right. No contradiciton here, just accept what Pravda says.
Never mind that they are raising funds by selling Pravda-branded merchandise through Cafe Express...an American commercial site.
Click on the "Science and Health" sub-category and you will see 3 main areas: Discoveries (which includes a story titled, "Ageing and dying is just a freak" about nanotech to let people live forever because science fiction authors think about it, UFOs, and Technologies. That 3rd category includes articles about how every living creature on earth will be given a unique barcode, indispensable Russian Navy submersibles (if only they would learn the difference between nets and hammocks) and the story about food which will last forever.
Yeah, Pravda, the science reference for those without grounding in reality.
One has to watch this documentary about Ferran Adria to understand why the world beats a path to his door.
Wanted : A Signature.
"For example, here is a Pravda article which says that NASA is preparing sandwiches which will still be edible after seven years."
They just need to make the sandwich out of Twinkie-matter and it'll last indefinitely.
It has been shown that dietary aluminum does not cause alzheimers, but that alzheimers leads to a buildup of aluminum in the brain.
This is like saying obesity causes diabetes instead of saying high blood sugar causes obesity AND diabetes.
This is like saying that tabacco products don't cause cancer, your genes do. This is like saying all heart attacks are genetic. You simply pass responsibility to the victim, its the victims fault for having bad genes. It's the victims fault for getting cancer. I bet if you were the lawyer fighting for Vioxx you'd blame the victims for taking the pill their doctors told them to take.
Corporations know their food causes cancer, they arent innocent. Corporations like Kraft LIKE killing people, its their job. They have been killing people efficiently for years, and its legal because you defend them by making it seem like its some accident that the french fries cause cancer due to how its heated. Well duh, learn a new way to make french fries. This is as silly as saying "Well if you smoke you deserve cancer!"
No one deserves cancer. Tabacco companies should be REQUIRED to release healthy products. If anyone can legally kill people by releasing poison food, well the nano technology is going to kill billions of people.
I know I won't be touching any of this nano food, I've learned not to touch ANYTHING processed and unless I can see its an apple and know what farm it came from I'm not eating it. The equation is simple.
Eat natural organic food and live, or eat processed food and die.
Consume organic products and live, or consume artificial products and die.
These are the options, live healthy or die young. So now we have to teach children to be paranoid about food. Kids growing up today wont even be able to try junkfood mainly because the junkfood only gets more toxic. Kraft will make foods so toxic that eating it once a year will give you cancer, and when this happens millions of loyal Kraft fans will die of cancer and society will connect the dots.
You buy from Phillip Morris and you die from Phillip Morris. You buy from Kraft and you die from Kraft. You buy the wrong goods from the wrong people and your health is sabatoged.