When the Sous-Chef Is an Inkjet

In my search for another topic to write about, I discovered this article by the New York Times. The article is about what is by far the strangest thing I’ve read in my journey thus far. It covers many topics, as it is more an article about a person than molecular gastronomy alone, but the frontrunner is printing out food. Which is weird to type, but exactly what this man, Homaru Cantu, does. Presently, he claims the process is painstaking, and he’s going to buy a 3-D printer soon to save him time and allow for more innovation. But for the time being, Cantu prints images on an inkjet printer and flavors the back of the paper to whatever he desires.

                The menu at his restaurant, Moto, is pretty expensive; but it also consists of 20 courses. He is also still experimenting with foods, something I have found he has in common with most chefs who embrace molecular gastronomy. This is the great thing about the fusion of science and food: there is no finish line. Cantu discovered how to make paper edible, and now he wants to make edible silverware, or print out 3-D foods or make pills which are flavored as different foods. The creativity doesn’t stop in molecular gastronomy.

                Cantu experiments with sushi, but he doesn’t limit himself to it. He uses many different flavors to create many different dishes (and sometimes, their menus!) The wonderful thing about this article is it describes the process of how he flavors the paper. I don’t think I’d ever have the means to do something like this, but hey, if I really wanted to, I could be eating paper by next week. The article also describes some of Cantu’s latest ideas.

                The idea I found most interesting was his desire to acquire a class IV laser to cook food. The article says class IV lasers are used for “surgery or welding”, but Cantu envisions what he calls “inside out bread”. Using something with so much power to cook foods is a fascinating idea, and if he manages to buy a laser, the possibilities are virtually endless. I find myself brainstorming what I would do if I had such a laser.

                So far, I have learned that the fuel of molecular gastronomy is creativity. Reading about all of the fantastic things people have managed to do with food give me hope for the future- if chefs can be engineers, what can’t we accomplish?

Sous-Vide

Another new technique which has been categorized as molecular gastronomy is sous-vide cooking. As I read this article, I discovered the origins of this kind of cooking, as well as what exactly it is and what it creates. The method developed in France in the mid-70s, but (according to this article) it wasn’t exactly an original idea. I had no idea, but apparently humans have been encasing foods in a covering and cooking it in a water bath for centuries. I had never heard of sous-vide cooking prior to a few months ago, so the idea that it’s been going on for ages is enthralling.

                Clearly these ancient chefs were on to something, as cooking food in this manner makes it retain more flavor and ultimately much more juicy. Cooking meat seems to be the most popular way to utilize sous-vide cooking, which makes sense because of the nature of meat. The article claims that this manner of cooking was slow to catch on in America because we have been on a “crust kick” in the past few decades. It argues that Americans leaned more towards things cooked exceptionally quickly and very well done in the 80s and 90s, making sous-vide seem unappealing. I find the idea of sous-vide cooking to be fascinating, however. After all, no one likes tough meat and this seems to be a perfect solution to that problem.

                Sous-vide is the process of vacuum sealing a food and then immersing it in water which is at the temperature you want your food to eventually be. There are many advantages to this method besides tender meat. Sous-vide cooking produces little to no waste, as the food is all kept in the same place and is all used in the process. It also makes it almost impossible to burn or overcook a food, as long as the water is kept as the correct temperature (which a sous-vide machine will do for the chef).

                While a great idea, I find sous-vide cooking to be inaccessible to the average chef. While it is possible to perform this technique without buying the expensive machine, it is still necessary to purchase some essential tools if you want your food to turn out properly. A precise thermometer is required, as well as a vacuum sealer. Without a machine, one must keep careful watch over the food cooking, ensuring it does not go over the desired temperature. This seems rather tedious, and is not something most working class people would have the time to do.

Additives: Sodium Alginate

     Since I read about spherification, I have become more and more interested in the process and the tools involved. I read about sodium alginate here, and learned a lot about one of the key ingredients in the spherification process. Sodium alginate is derived from a brown seaweed- its properties were first discovered in 1881. Over 100 years later, we are incorporating this strange chemical into food to assist in making solid spheres which burst into liquids in our mouths.
     Sodium alginate assists in the flexibility of the seaweed/algae. It's no surprise that it's also used in food with a similar purpose. When sodium alginate is combined with a calcium solution, the little spheres or "pearls" that I read about in the previous article form. This is a cold process, which is different from the warm process that occurs when agar is used to make gels.
     Alginate isn't terribly popular in the food industry. In fact, the majority of its applications are in paper and printing. According to this info page, the food processing industry uses 30% of the world's alginate, as a thickener or emulsifier. Only recently did the food preparation industry begin to use it as a gelling substance, thanks to molecular gastronomy.
     This link is going to be bookmarked for when I (hopefully) make some sort of pearls later on in my ISP. It has interesting tips at the end, some of which were shown in several of the spherification videos I watched alongside this information page ("Blueberry Caviar" and "Spherical Tzatziki"). Timing is key to this process, as the spheres begin to thicken from the inside out. Most videos I watched worked towards a semi-solid outside and a liquid interior, so the pearl bursts in one's mouth; therefore, getting the timing just right is imperative. The pH of a food to be spherified is also important, so I don't intend to try to spherify lemons or anything too acidic. I think I'd like to try spherifying apples, or a more common example, olives, when I get the materials for spherification.

How Stuff Works: Molecular Gastronomy

     The inspiration for my ISP came from this article, written by William Harris of the How Stuff Works team. Molecular gastronomy's name alone is rather intimidating, but the tools and knowledge required to perform it are even more surprising. This article breaks molecular gastronomy down in a way similar to how molecular gastronomists break food down.
     Beginning with the history of molecular gastronomy, Harris introduces the reader to Hervé This, who started the field of molecular gastronomy after he failed miserably at a soufflé. Soufflés are notorious for their difficulty, as one is required to follow directions precisely in order to keep the soufflé from being ruined. This was a physical chemist, and naturally his scientific mind wanted to know why he was required to add eggs two at a time, instead of adding them all in at once.
     This found the answer within the molecular structure of food. With his partner, Nicholas Kurti, This created the field of molecular gastronomy. This field has already begun to produce PhDs, and has lead to the creation of many unique foods. 
     Initially, people were unhappy with the molecular gastronomy, thinking that it took the "heart" out of cooking, turning cooking into a boring, scientific field. But I strongly disagree with this point of view. Adding science to cooking has not changed it from an art to a science- it's fused them together, blurring the lines between emotion and logic. This is the greatest feat of molecular gastronomy, because it allows people to put their heart and soul into food while also making it the best it can be.
     The article explains some of the details of molecular gastronomy, and describes some of the tools used while also explaining several techniques of molecular gastronomists. I think the most interesting technique described was "spherification", which creates small, liquid-filled beads out of juice. One combines calcium chloride, water, alginate, and a juice (the article uses olive juice as an example) to create tiny balls of food (liquid olives!) This is a fascinating process which I think I would like to try. It seems the most accessible of the techniques listed, since it requires no fancy, expensive equipment or difficult-to-get chemicals. I liked the example the author used later on, of "apple caviar", where a chef created apple balls which looked similar to caviar. 
     This article got me interested in molecular gastronomy, as it is a new field that is still in the growing process. We can use molecular gastronomy to create fantastic new foods, and pair new flavors. The fact that molecular gastronomy is so new and exciting probably explains my draw to it, as well as my love of both cooking and science.