Molecular Under Microscope

Is avant garde cookery that brings science to the stovetop on the nose, asks David Sutherland.

WHEN Heston Blumenthal, the man who created snail porridge and headed the molecular gastronomy revolution, declared it "dead", he wasnt hoping to bury the culinary movement, just the term.

After all, why would the British chef, whose Fat Duck restaurant led the way in bringing science back into the kitchen, read the last rites over the most exciting concepts to hit our restaurant plates since nouvelle cuisine? Whats more, the biggest names in the international restaurant business owe their reputations in part to this scientific approach to cooking.

Were talking about Ferran Adria from El Bulli in Spain, Thomas Keller from the French Laundry in the US and Pierre Gagnaire from Pierre Gagnaire in France. But international food writers at this years Melbourne Food and Wine Festival declared the term increasingly soulless and labelled it showing off. And as new trends have begun to emerge, the chefs say the technique used to produce whimsical foams, smokes and hard-shelled liquids has been co-opted around the world by some with questionable skills.

Award-winning English food editor William Sitwell, French food writer Benedict Beauge and New York restaurateur Gabrielle Hamilton — who visited Melbourne for the festival in March — say the end has to justify the means. There is no point dressing up pedestrian food in 21st-century garb in the hope it will fool the diner into believing it tastes better because it looks complicated.

During their speeches, Sitwell, Beauge and Hamilton suggested that molecular gastronomy had been hijacked by lesser lights and given a bad name. "Its fine when it is used to inject some fun into dining, but the problem is that too many people jump on the bandwagon. People are getting fed up with poor imitations," says Sitwell.

So who dreamt up this confusing, confronting label? Physicist and food lover Nicholas Kurti coined molecular gastronomy to describe his research into the chemical reactions of foods in 1969. In 1992, he organised an international workshop with French scientist Herve This, author of Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavour.

Innovative local chef Robin Wickens, from Fitzroys two-hat restaurant Interlude, has enthusiastically embraced modern techniques and equipment associated with the movement with much success. He cooks about 95% of his meat and fish "sous vide" — in plastic in a temperature-controlled water bath — and regularly uses agar-based gels in place of heavily reduced creams.

"We use those techniques and ingredients here because I believe they produce a better end product," he says. "Not because theyre considered cool or trendy."

While not a fan of the term molecular gastronomy, Wickens believes that it refers to "keeping up-to-date with new techniques, new equipment and new thoughts".

"You take any other profession and its just standard to take up these new things if they improve the way you do your job," he says. "Cooking is the same."

He agrees with Sitwell that poor chefs producing poor food for the sake of showing off have given molecular gastronomy a bad name.

"Its not about putting the most inappropriate ingredients together in a dish to impress someone that youre radical," he says. "That sort of cooking is disgusting, and has made it harder for other people simply trying to create top quality food using modern technology and techniques."

In Sydney, Tetsuya Wakuda has been known to toss together unusual ingredients, but he doesnt consider himself a gastro-scientist like Ferran Adria. In the late 1990s, Adria started experimenting with liquid nitrogen, pressurised gases to create foamed sauces and natural gelling agents. He spends six months of the year in his elBullitaller laboratory — and the other six in his restaurant. "Im always inspired (by him) but its not for me," says Wakuda. Still, he keeps a close eye on this techno 21st-century cuisine.

During this years food festival, chefs showed how employing the technology with discretion and skill — plus fun — could produce wonderful, texturally interesting food.

New Zealands Martin Bosley cooked grouper to a lovely moist consistency sous-vide style; Gilles Choukroun from France created a delicious airy "creme au siphon" foam by passing the stock from a veal stew through a gas siphon; and Spains Oriol Balaguer formed delicate twists and turns of chocolate through a deft manipulation of temperature and technique.

Ben Shewry from Attica believes that no amount of techno-trickery will disguise poor produce or poor skill but a kitchen that turns its back on technology may miss out on the opportunity to create modern magic. Food using such technology should be done with the same amount of "love, integrity and passion as traditional food", he says.

with HELEN GREENWOOD

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