Multi-Michelin-starred French chef Pierre Gagnaire will today unveil the world’s first entirely synthetic gourmet dish, which comprises apple and lemon flavoured jelly balls that are creamy on the inside and crackling on the outside.
Gagnaire has worked for months with food scientist Hervé This to create the recipe from chemical compounds. Entitled “le note à note”, the dish is a combination of ascorbic acid, glucose, citric acid and a few grams of 4-O-a-glucopyranosyl-D-sorbitol, a sugar substitute otherwise known as maltitol.
Hervé This hailed the dish as a step into the future of haute cuisine. “Tomorrow's chefs will frown upon plain vegetables, such as carrots and will instead use the molecules which make up carrots - caroteniods, pectins, fructose and glucuronic acid,” he said.
Is this really the future of fine dining?
Mmmm, glucopyranosyl, my favourite sugar substitute ...
But what does it taste like?!!
This undeniably shows the rate in which our industry is advancing, and I truly believe that Blumenthal, Adria and Gagnaire (to name the most well known) are the culinary pioneers of our time, The impact that they have had on professional cooking, and the influence that they have had on many chefs, is something that cannot be ignored.
However, the question ´is this fine dining´ still remains unanswered. There are many arguments for and against this type of cuisine, and there always will be, which is one of the things that makes what these chefs are doing so interesting.
I truly admire the attention to detail and the persuit of excellence that these guys bring to their kitchens every day, and one big factor must be recognised in their defense: with the exception of El Bulli, The Fat Duck and Pierre Gagnaire, how many of the chefs in the world´s 50 best restaurants are still in their kitchens each and every day?
Personally, I don't see this as an advancement at all, other than perhaps of Gagnaire's career. Are people not bored of this sort of thing yet? I rather think this is sort of missing the zeitgeist of the era. More and more people are growing their own food. Costly gastronomic ingredients and experiments 'a la' Fat Duck and El Bulli, although fantastic, are losing their lustre. There is a real shift towards traditional cooking and rustic dishes, both in what people demand at restaurants and what people cook at home. Value for money has become paramount, which means cheaper ingredients are becoming fashionable - cheaper cuts of meat, once-discarded fish and home grown, seasonal vegetables. I would see the refinement of such ingredients into spectacular dishes far more of an advancement than a mouthful of extractions and agars etc. Undoubtably, molecular gastronomy is amazing and fun, but it belongs to an era which has now ended. To the many, it is inaccessible. It has made its mark, especially with regards to how professional chefs cook (I'm thinking of vac-packing steaks and water bathing here), but the advancement of gastronomy does not, I believe, lie in this direction.
I completely agree with what you are saying regarding value for money being paramount (especially during these times), and like I said, it is the arguments for and against this type of cooking that makes it so interesting (and whether or not it can actually be defined as 'cooking').
It is not so much the dishes themselves that I admire, but more the persuit of excellence and dedication that these chefs show in what they are trying to accomplish. I am not in a position to state how long this type of cooking will be in the spotlight for, but one thing I will say it that, even if the waiting lists for their restaurants start to diminish, I do believe that they will keep doing what they are doing as long as they can afford to, simply because it is what they do.
I have never had the desire to work in that type of establishment, simply because that style of service does not suit me as a front of house employee, but I will always follow what is going on in that area of gastronomy because, like you said, it is amazing and fun!
As to the future of cooking, I feel that remains to be seen, especially with no one knowing when the current economy will take a turn for the better.
Interesting stuff. Ultimately, the world is big enough for all sorts of restaurants and all sorts of cooking philosophies to thrive. It's easy to dismiss the sort of work Gagnaire, Adria and Blumenthal are doing as 'the Emperor's new clothes', but I think that misses the point. No one expects (or wants) every restaurant to start offering totally synthetic menus; but elements from the pioneering work these chefs are doing are sure to find their way into the mainstream in future. Many people must have wondered what on earth was going on when they heard Hendrix playing his guitar through effects pedals, or Eno experimenting with Moogs - but now echoes of their work can be heard throughout popular music.