Who invented molecular gastronomy, and is it science or cooking?
The name was coined by a physicist and a chemist to test old kitchen wisdom. The famous chefs it was later pinned on say it doesn't describe their cooking.
▶ Start the storyMolecular gastronomy was named by two scientists, not chefs. The term "molecular and physical gastronomy" was coined in 1988 by Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and French physical chemist Hervé This, and it means the scientific approach of cuisine mainly from the perspective of chemistry. In a talk called The Physicist in the Kitchen, Kurti lamented that we can measure the temperature of Venus's atmosphere but don't know what goes on inside our soufflés.
This started collecting culinary precisions, old kitchen wives' tales and cooking tricks, on 24 March 1980, and tested them to see which held up. His collection eventually numbered some 25,000. In 1992 the name became the title of workshops in Erice, Italy, originally called Science and Gastronomy, that brought scientists and professional cooks together.
So is it science or cooking? Both, depending on who you ask. The term was originally meant only for the scientific investigation of cooking, but it has been adopted for cooking itself and for a style of cuisine. Many of the famous chefs it describes do not accept the term for their style of cooking.
A research programme
- Study of culinary transformations
- Founded by Kurti and This
- Tests kitchen lore
A style of cuisine
- Chefs embracing science and hydrocolloids
- Many of its chefs reject the label
- No agreed name
No single name has ever been agreed for the style, and molecular gastronomy keeps being used as a blanket term, particularly in the media.
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Recap
Molecular gastronomy began as science of cooking, then became a label for a style many chefs reject.
💡 A trick to remember it · A lab coat first, a chef's hat later, and the hat never quite fitted.
Surprising fact · Famous chefs often linked to it, such as Ferran Adrià and Thomas Keller, said in 2006 that the term does not describe any style of cooking.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (20 claims) cites at least one of these.