To many of us, who are not accustomed to gastronomic delights, molecular cuisine seems something out of the ordinary. Although its adherents assure: the use of knowledge about the physical and chemical properties of products will make it possible to create healthy dish with excellent taste. So, let's lift the veil and find out what molecular cuisine is, how to cook delicious dishes at home and get acquainted with recipes.

A huge number of different conjectures and rumors revolve around the unusual cuisine. Like, natural chemistry, and not food at all. But let's not rush, because any food is a chemical. More precisely, digestion of food is a real chemical process.

Hence, any kitchen is chemistry, including molecular. The question is what we will digest. Besides, think about it, what do traditional chefs study during their studies? That's right, it's not about mining coal.

By the way, not all chefs are professionals this type gastronomic art. Remember how the heroes of the famous TV series “Kitchen” also did not greet the fashion specialist very warmly at first, but only until they tried her dishes.

You may be surprised, but each of us knows the techniques of amazing cuisine, and without even suspecting it. Have you prepared fish aspic yet? Well, this is the real molecular one.

Molecular cuisine - what is it?

These are very healthy dishes, just exotic and unusual for us. The term was introduced into widespread use in 1992 of the last century by two scientists: British physicist Nicholas Curti and French chemist Hervé Thys. And the first chef to prepare a delicious and shocking dish was Heston Blumenthal in 1999, who proposed caviar mousse with white chocolate.

If you try to accurately define what it is - molecular cuisine, then in a nutshell the definition will mean a special approach to preparing dishes. Knowing the processes that occur during cooking, the specialist processes the products in a special way. At the same time, the consistency of the products, their taste, color and aroma changes. The solid ones become liquid, the liquid ones become rock hard, the thick ones begin to foam.

Each molecular specialist receives a specialized education. The task is to learn about the physical and chemical properties of food products, methods of processing, heating, and the intricacies of working with special equipment and much more.

The main task of each dish is to deceive the senses and greatly surprise. Just imagine: in a restaurant they brought you food that is similar to something you are already familiar with, but in reality the taste sensations are completely different. In addition, the flavor of the food was generally served separately. The unusual thing is that they will offer you up to 30 different dishes at the same time. Only the portions are insignificant and there is no need to worry about your stomach: sometimes the entire portion will fit in a teaspoon.

And what names! Just listen: solid borscht, liquid bread, transparent dumplings.

Interesting! For those who want to lose weight, molecular cuisine is a godsend. Just imagine, you’re on a diet, and your teeth are itching with the desire for, for example, chocolate. And they will offer it to you, only your favorite delicacy will be made from healthy carrots.

And the desired effect is achieved thanks to special technologies and various devices.

It will be useful for novice molecular scientists who want to feed their household at home to learn about the most popular cooking technologies:

• Freezing food. You don’t need to take it literally; you won’t use the refrigerator. In molecular gastronomy, liquid nitrogen is used for this purpose. Substance has its own minus temperature at 196 o C, and allows you to freeze any product almost instantly. And quick freezing completely preserves everything beneficial features, concentrates taste and color. In addition to nitrogen, dry ice is often used.
• Emulsification. Business card Any molecular gastronomy restaurant consists of dishes made from airy foam. This foam is called espumas by experts and is made from any product. Everything is used - potatoes, bread, meat, salt. With the help of soy lecithin, they turn into an unusually delicate foam - mousse, giving the impression that fruit juice was used.
• Sous vide technology. We are talking about heat treatment food products using a water bath. Special packages are used for this. Cooking lasts from several hours to several days at 60 o C. Any meat processed in this way is incredibly aromatic and juicy.
• Thickeners and food additives. Everyone knows what gelatin is, but molecular gastronomy uses agar-agar and carrageenan, made from algae. With their help, ordinary dishes are prepared from unusual products. You can make spaghetti from oranges, the eggs will taste like peach.
• As food additives Gum, albumin and maltodextrin are used to turn the fat into powder. In addition, there are other substances that can transform any product into a different state. For example, sodium alginate, if diluted in liquid, will become a thickener. Once mixed with calcium lactate, you will have a gelling agent with any flavor. Imagine you were served red caviar, but it tastes like real strawberry jam.
• Creation of gels. Special substances can make a liquid product in the form of a gel. Using this technology, for example, the famous “hot and iced tea” was created. The impression is that from one cup you drink first hot and then cold tea. In fact, there are not two different liquids in the cup, but two gels, and they do not mix due to different densities.
• Transglutaminase. A complex term means the ability to glue proteins together and, obtaining a homogeneous structure from meat and fish, create other products on this basis. An enzyme capable of doing this was studied and isolated in Japan back in 1959. And now the substance is used in the production of semi-finished meat and fish products, and not only in molecular gastronomy.

Cooking equipment

Anyone who is planning to join home molecular cuisine will have to master several special devices that will help them prepare delicious, unusual dishes.

1. Centrifuge. The device has long been known in the dairy industry and farms. It is used to separate cream from milk. But in molecular gastronomy, the centrifuge is used somewhat unusually: foam is made from the products - a paste. For example, from cucumber or tomato you can make the most delicate paste of any color with an incredible aroma.
2. Rotary evaporator. The purpose of the device is that it will allow you to change the pressure during cooking. Any liquids will boil at the lowest temperature, but the essential oil that will inevitably be released will not evaporate and can be collected separately. Essential oil- source of aromas. Once collected, you can give it to other products. Example: Don't like fishy smell? Prepare fish with the aroma of lilies of the valley.

In addition to pots and pans, beginners who love molecular cooking will need:

• Vacuumator – for vacuum packaging.
• Sous vide slow cooker, hotplate injection.
• Thermometer.
• Kremer.
• Liquid nitrogen (can be rented) or dry ice.
• A set of textures (ordered in the online store).

Molecular cuisine recipes

You have already mastered the basic knowledge and know in detail what molecular cooking is, all that remains is to master the recipes. Are you ready for some magic? Although I want to warn you right away, it is quite difficult to prepare a real dish at home. Let's start with simple recipes.

molecular egg

Place the pan with the eggs in the oven at a temperature of 64 o C. Try it after two hours - the taste will be extraordinary.

Tomato soup recipe

• Chicken fillet broth – 350 ml.
• Carrot – 1 pc.
• Leek - half a stalk.
• Cherry – 6 pcs.
• Garlic – 2 cloves.
• Tomato paste - two tablespoons.
• Agar-agar sachet – 1 pc.
• Greens of your choice.

1. Add chopped vegetables and herbs to the chicken broth, add salt, add pasta and cook everything together after boiling for 20 minutes.
2. When the soup has cooled, grind it with a blender, strain through cheesecloth and add an agar-agar sachet.
3. Put it back on the fire and let it boil while stirring. Pour into molds and put in the refrigerator, let the soup harden.

Roll herring under a fur coat

Using the proposed method, you can prepare any salad, for example, Olivier, Mimosa.

Take:

• Beets, potatoes, eggs, carrots, herring.

Preparation:

1. Cut the beets into pieces and grind in a blender. Strain through cheesecloth and pour the resulting liquid into a saucepan.
2. Place agar-agar sachets into the beet liquid, bring to a boil and remove from heat.
3. Take a flat dish and pour hot juice onto it. When it hardens, place boiled and grated eggs, boiled and grated vegetables on the plate, and strips of herring fillet on top.
4. Roll everything up and then cut it into rolls.

You will see a master class on cooking molecular cuisine in the video that I found for you. Bon appetit! With love... Galina Nekrasova.

It would seem that everything that is possible has already been prepared and tried, but cooking continues to develop. The fusion style in “haute cuisine” is being replaced by molecular cuisine, changing the consistency and shape of products beyond recognition. An egg with a white inside and a yolk outside, foamed meat with a side dish of foamed potatoes, jelly with the taste of pickled cucumbers and radishes, crab syrup, thin slices of fresh milk, ice cream with tobacco flavor do not exist in science fiction novels, but in our time.

At the end of the 19th century, the famous chemist Berthelot predicted that by the year 2000, humanity would abandon traditional food and switch to nutritional pills. This did not happen, because to a person, except nutrients, the taste and aroma of the dish, the beauty of serving and a pleasant conversation at the table are required. This is why molecular gastronomy has not gone the route of creating “nutrition pills”, unless you take into account food for space stations. Molecular cuisine prepared in the best restaurants in the world, where recipes for wonderful dishes are developed that cannot be prepared in a regular kitchen or bought in a store. So far, this culinary trend does not go beyond expensive restaurants, but who knows what people will eat in a few centuries... Perhaps food will become “digital”, and dishes will be “downloaded” from the Internet and “printed” on special “printers”.

The term “molecular cooking” is not entirely correct, because the chef works not with individual molecules, but with chemical composition and state of aggregation of products. Chemistry and physics have been especially closely connected with cooking in recent decades, but the foundations of all modern knowledge in this area were laid many centuries ago and have already become universal knowledge. For example, everyone knows that a soft-boiled egg is obtained by reducing the cooking time, and beating the white for a long time turns it into foam. Pickling, fermentation, salting, smoking - man's first experiments in changing products chemically. The physical and chemical aspects of cooking interested scientists back in Ancient Egypt, and in the 18th century, fundamental scientific works appeared describing the processes of cooking and methods for obtaining new dishes. Thus, Lavoisier studied the change in the density of products after cooking. In the mid-20th century, scientists were more interested in the composition of products and their effect on humans. Only at the end of the 20th century did a separate branch emerge - molecular gastronomy, which applied knowledge from the field of chemistry and physics to products.

The founders of molecular gastronomy and cooking were the French scientist Herve This and Nicholas Kurti, a professor of physics from Oxford. In 1999, Heston Blumenthal, chef of the famous English restaurant Fat Duck, prepared the first “molecular dish” for the restaurant - mousse made from caviar and white chocolate. As it turns out, these products contain similar amines and are easy to mix. In 2005, the Institute for Advanced Studies on Flavor, Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts was opened in Reims (France), uniting the world's leading culinary experts.

All our food consists mainly of water, be it plant cells or animal tissues, therefore the properties of water and aqueous solutions are one of the most important issues in molecular cooking. All laws of physics and chemistry apply to cooking. From a chemical point of view, there is nothing strange in the fact that alcohol coagulates protein, but if we transfer this knowledge to the field of cooking, it turns out that a raw egg can be prepared by leaving it for a certain time (about a month) in alcohol or an alcohol-containing drink. Chemistry and physics helped to better understand the processes occurring in products and debunked some culinary myths. For example, when cooking green vegetables, it is not necessary to add salt to preserve taste and color; salt does not increase boiling, but only adds oxygen dissolved in crystals to the water, resulting in boiling; the increase in boiling point is insignificant. The cooking time of a large piece of meat does not depend on the weight, but on the distance from its edges to the center - the larger it is, the longer the meat takes to cook.

After studying the metamorphoses that occur with products, the following steps of molecular cooking followed: improving traditional dishes, inventing new dishes based on common ingredients, inventing new products (additives) and experimenting with combining flavors. The first successful molecular cooking dishes were named after famous scientists. For example, Gibbs (egg white with sugar and olive oil in the form of a gel), Vaquelin (fruit foam), Bame (egg cooked in alcohol).

The scientific approach to cooking is complicated by the fact that dishes must not only be unusual and tasty, but also beautiful. The need to sell the achievements of molecular cooking somewhat slows down the progress of this branch of science, but to some extent helps to study the connections between human feelings. For example, thanks to molecular cooking, it has been found that the tactile sensations during food influence the taste sensations. Taste the ice cream with your eyes closed while stroking the velvet, and then touch the sandpaper. When did ice cream taste better? The consistency and sound “made” of food also greatly influence the taste. Chips manufacturers take advantage of this, emphasizing the crunchiness of the chips with crispy packaging.

By the way, molecular cuisine and the fast food industry have differences. Potato chips, candies and drinks in many flavors are achievements chemical industry. Molecular cooking uses only natural ingredients. Therefore, molecular cuisine dishes are balanced and healthy.

A cook preparing “molecular dishes” uses a variety of tools and devices that heat, cool, mix, grind, measure mass, temperature and acid-base balance, filter, create a vacuum and apply pressure. Standard techniques, used in molecular cooking: carbonization or enrichment with carbon dioxide (carbonation), emulsification (mixing insoluble substances), spherization (creating liquid spheres), vacuum distillation (alcohol separation). To perform these tasks, special products are used:

• Agar-agar and carrageenan - algae extracts for making jelly,
• Calcium chloride and sodium alginate form liquids into caviar-like balls,
• Egg powder (evaporated white) - creates a denser structure than fresh white,
• Glucose - slows down crystallization and prevents fluid loss,
• Lecithin - connects emulsions and stabilizes whipped foam,
• Sodium citrate - prevents fat particles from connecting,
• Trimoline (invert syrup) - does not crystallize,
• Xanthan (soybean and corn extract) - stabilizes suspensions and emulsions.

The principles of molecular cooking can also be useful in everyday life when working with traditional products:

• When baking, the correct temperature is very important. Using a special thermometer will improve both taste and appearance baked goods, baked meats and vegetables. Remember that the temperature at the edges of the oven is significantly higher than in the center.
• Consider thermal conductivity and heat capacity various materials. Freeze souffles and ice cream in metal containers; defrost the meat metal surface, not in the microwave; beat the cream at low temperature. To shorten the cooking time of meat, first fry or bake it over high heat for 5-10 minutes, then cover with a lid or foil and turn off the flame to allow the heat to reach the inside, then cook over low heat.
• Control the texture of the dish. Heating makes the proteins tough, and the tender structure of the meat is due to the fact that collagen turns into gelatin at 70°C. The soufflé rises due to the evaporation of water. Addition cold water When whipping the egg whites, it will make the foam more fluffy. If you keep the meat in a salty solution from several hours to 2 days, it will remain juicy after cooking. Partially thawed ice cream or meat will become tough when re-frozen due to enlarged ice crystals. Fish becomes juicier if cooked with lemon juice, and pineapple juice has a positive effect on the juiciness of meat. Dry greens can be revived by placing them in cold water for 10-20 minutes.
• Remember that taste is perceived 80% by the nose and only 20% by the tongue, so in the presence unpleasant odors even the most delicious dish will seem tasteless. Salt in small quantities enhances the sweetness. Salt and acid enhance each other. Vanilla and cinnamon enhance the sweetness, while black pepper reduces it. Capsaicin contained in peppers activates heat receptors and creates a feeling of hotness. Buy spices whole and grind them yourself. To speed up the process, add sugar or salt. Add coarse spices at the beginning and fine spices at the end of cooking.
• Prolonged exposure to one taste and smell makes it unnoticeable, so try to use several different tastes and smells in the finished dish. (For example, a sprinkling of lemon jelly in mashed potatoes makes the potatoes taste bright.) The smell and texture of the food affect the taste (for example, soft ice cream with a vanilla flavor tastes sweeter than hard, unflavored ice cream).
• Do not rely entirely on cookbooks, as your area may have different water, temperature, humidity, altitude above sea level, which cannot but affect the metamorphosis of products.
• Experiment, confirm or refute your hypotheses using “experimental” and “control” groups, and remember to write down the results of the experiments.

For a person not accustomed to culinary delights, molecular cuisine will seem something out of the ordinary. This is not surprising: the room, equipped with unknown instruments, flasks and test tubes, will seem more like a chemical laboratory than a kitchen. This atmosphere reigns in the territory of a chef who defends a scientific approach to cooking, because he is not only a culinary specialist, but also a chemist, physicist and biologist. Proponents of molecular gastronomy argue that using knowledge of chemical and physical properties product will allow you to create the most healthy dish with impeccable taste.

We have selected some amazing examples that demonstrate the magical possibilities of molecular gastronomy.

1. Tomato soup

Scientists' research into ingredients that can turn food into a gel has led to the widespread use of agar-agar. Thanks to this ingredient, the soup we are used to takes on a completely new consistency. Without tasting the dish, you would never guess that this is soup turned into spaghetti. However, the taste of all products is revealed in the mouth, and everything falls into place.

2. Forest haze

One of the commonly used devices in molecular gastronomy is the smoking gun. With this you can give the dish the smell of a fire and a “smoky” taste. You can smoke anything in this way: fruits, tea, cigars, ice cream or flowers. In many restaurants, a show is created from this process, and smoking occurs in front of the customers within a few seconds. One of these dishes is shown in the photo: cold smoked salmon with vegetables and forest products, served on a wooden slice.

3. Raspberry caviar with strawberry foam and caramel

Such an unusual interpretation of a fruit dessert cannot but surprise. Chefs of molecular gastronomy often use whipping products into foam - an essence that has a strong natural aroma. At first glance, it may seem that foam does not play a special role in the dish, but this is not so. There was a case when a visitor to a molecular cuisine restaurant ordered a nondescript white foam, but after tasting it, he felt the aroma of fresh rye bread and the rich taste of a sandwich with butter. One should not underestimate this or that detail, how all the ingredients of a dish occupy Right place in strictly measured quantities. Foam can be created from almost anything, including strawberries.

4. Herring under a fur coat

Molecular cuisine is not only about unexpected flavor combinations, but also about the most common dishes known to all people. For example, the famous New Year's salad with herring fits perfectly into the list of the most delicious dishes molecular gastronomy. The salad differs only in its interesting presentation: all the ingredients are assembled in the form of Japanese rolls, served with beetroot sauce. People who have tried the salad in this form claim that when chewing all the ingredients, the taste of the well-known salad is recreated in the mouth.

5. Pumpkin and banana pie

This dish is clearly not associated with the usual perception of pie. Looking at it, it is difficult to guess what products were used for cooking and how. This is the case when the appearance of the dish does not at all live up to taste expectations. In your bowl there is a substance that looks like ice cream, but once in your mouth it turns into a real pumpkin pie.

6. Dessert for breakfast

One of the goals of molecular gastronomy is to surprise the client. When you have scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, don't rush to add salt or pepper. IN in this case, despite the appearance of the dish, there is vanilla yogurt, mango and chocolate on the plate. Such an unusual tandem of picture and taste leaves an unforgettable impression.

7. Vinaigrette

Another interpretation of the well-known vegetable salad. In it, beets appear in the form of jelly, a mixture of vegetables - in the form of foam, and an emulsion serves as a dressing for the dish. Thanks to research in the field of mixing water with fats, the consistency of the sauce and the entire dish is stabilized, maintaining its ideal appearance until the last bite is eaten.

8. Blood sausage soup

The food pairing method is widely known in molecular gastronomy. Its main principle is the combination of products according to their common aromatic components. For example, not based on the usual gastronomic combinations, they created a soup from blood sausage and pumpkin. Its consistency is more like a piece of meat. But the dish turns out to be juicy, rich and leaves the aftertaste of just eaten soup.

9. Carrot air and tangerine granite

A molecular gastronomy chef can enclose liquid in a sphere, turn ice cream into powder, and combine many ingredients into a smooth jelly. People especially impressed by molecular gastronomy claim that the foam in this dish is light, like air, with the aroma and taste of fresh carrots. And the tangerine, despite its hard texture on the outside, is juicy and soft on the inside.

10. Radishes in cream sauce

For lovers fresh vegetables Scientist chefs have invented a dish that is served directly in a pot of soil. To enjoy a radish, restaurant visitors will have to literally pull it out of the edible soil and dip it in cream sauce. The soil can be made from whatever comes into the cook's mind, since molecular gastronomy allows you to turn almost any ingredient into edible soil.

If all the ingredients of a dish are present, each person can transform own kitchen into molecular. The Internet contains not only recipes, but also tips from famous chefs, as well as many videos. We invite you to see how easily the chef encloses the famous Cuban cocktail in a sphere.

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Have you ever tried orange spaghetti, smoked mackerel ice cream, coffee meat or beef tea? Thanks to molecular gastronomy, all these and many other dishes have long existed not only in science fiction films, but also in our lives. Today, molecular cuisine has become one of the most fashionable and exotic trends in haute cuisine. With the help of physicochemical mechanisms, it changes the consistency and shape of familiar products beyond recognition and at the same time remains healthy and tasty. Whether this is so, we will figure it out.

The connection between science and cooking

“The trouble with our civilization is that we are able to measure the temperature of the atmosphere of Venus, but we have no idea what is going on inside the soufflé on our table.” This saying belongs to one of the founders of molecular gastronomy and cooking, physicist from Oxford University Nicholas Curti.

During his lifetime, Kurti loved to cook. And one day it occurred to him interesting idea: He decided to apply his scientific knowledge to cooking. The scientist began to study various principles and cooking techniques, develop new products and create amazing dishes. Thus, the physicist wanted to tell society about science and its influence on daily life.

And he told. In 1969, Kurti gave a talk at the Royal Society, “The Physicist in the Kitchen.” A little later, he organized several international seminars in Erice (Italy) on the topic “Molecular and physical cooking”, where he demonstrated how to cook meringues in a vacuum chamber, sausages - using car battery, make “Baked Alaska” - cold on the outside and hot on the inside - using a regular microwave oven and much more. All his speeches greatly impressed the audience, who could not even imagine that molecular gastronomy would soon be used everywhere.

In addition to Nicholas Curti, the French scientist and chef Hervé Thys also studied the interaction of chemistry, physics and gastronomy. He derived molecular formulas for classic sauces, learned how to change the taste of dishes using physical and chemical reactions and unusual ways heat treatment. In 1988, Thies coined and introduced into general use the term “molecular and physical gastronomy”, which is actively used today.

But all this is theory and only a little practice. And when did molecular cuisine dishes begin to complement the usual menu?

In 1999, the chef of the famous English restaurant Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal, prepared the first molecular dish - mousse made from caviar and white chocolate. Since then, molecular cuisine has become an integral part of some restaurants, and the first successful dishes were named after famous scientists. For example, gibbs is an egg white with sugar and olive oil in the form of a gel, waklen is a fruit foam, and bame is an egg cooked in alcohol.

Is molecular gastronomy beneficial?

Enough time has passed since 1999. Today, molecular cuisine dishes are served in many restaurants around the world. People specially come to some establishments to try, for example, liquid bread, hard borscht or fudge egg. Many will say that this is all chemicals, because in their natural state these products cannot have such a consistency. In some ways they are right, only chemistry in molecular gastronomy is a chemical process, and not something harmful. All the supplements here are natural and healthy. Let's talk about the most popular ones.

1. To make jelly, in addition to the usual gelatin, molecular cuisine also uses algae extracts agar-agar and carrageenan;

2. Calcium chloride and sodium alginate will turn any liquid into a ball like caviar;

3. Egg powder is just evaporated protein, which will create a dense, non-sagging foam;

4. Glucose – will slow down crystallization and prevent fluid loss;

5. Sodium citrate – will prevent fat particles from combining;

6. Trimoline (invert syrup) – does not crystallize, unlike sugar;

7. Xanthan (soybean and corn extract) – stabilizes suspensions and emulsions.

Thanks to these and many other additives, molecular cuisine dishes acquire unusual images and tastes. But for everything to work out, it is also necessary to use special technologies, which we will discuss later.

Technologies in molecular gastronomy

1. Freezing

To prevent food from spoiling, it must be frozen. In molecular gastronomy, the person responsible for this process is liquid nitrogen, which has a temperature of 196°C. By the way, it instantly freezes any dish and at the same time preserves its beneficial properties, color and taste.

2. Emulsification

Espumas, or espuma, is an airy foam or mousse that can be made from absolutely any product, even potatoes, salt or meat. The effect of espuma is obtained using a special additive - soy lecithin, taken from pre-filtered soybean oil.

3. Vacuumization

Vacuumization in molecular gastronomy is the heat treatment of products in a water bath. To do this, for example, meat is placed in special bags and placed in a water bath at a temperature of 60°C for several hours.

Transglutaminase. Rotary evaporator. Centrifuge. Vacuum and liquid nitrogen. We guarantee that when reading these terms, at worst, you did not have any associations, and at best, you imagined a laboratory and scientific experiments, but not at all kitchen appliances and cooking methods. We are ready to go all-in and dispel your ideas about laboratories and kitchens, because we will talk about a progressive trend in cooking - molecular gastronomy.

Molecular gastronomy is a widely used term that refers to the technique of preparing food using physical and chemical laws. The cooking process is considered as a combination of molecules with special chemical and physical properties. The presence of innovative methods for preparing familiar dishes using scientific methods and devices not only evokes a feeling of delight, but also leaves no one hungry. In a molecular kitchen you will not find a frying pan spitting oil or a boiling pot of broth. There is no abundance here that is usual for a typical restaurant. kitchen utensils. Chefs, who are more like physicists and chemists, conjure over the dishes, creating amazing combinations of flavors that boggle the imagination. On your table, beef may combine with the taste of chocolate, foamy Borodino bread may appear, or egg whites may appear in the form of caviar, which is created drop by drop using a pipette.

The progenitor of molecular cooking is considered to be the Hungarian nuclear physicist Nicholas Kurti. While he spent half his life developing nuclear weapons, he remained involved in the philosophy of culinary arts. And so, at the end of his years, in tandem with the French chemist Evreux Tisza, he began studying such issues as the boiling point of eggs and the electromagnetic field that changes during the process of smoking fish. In 1990, at a culinary seminar in the Italian town of Eric, where physical and Chemical properties food, the term “molecular gastronomy” was introduced. The ideological organizer of this event was the Englishwoman Elizabeth Thomas. As the wife of a scientific physicist and a professional chef, Thomas has become a culinary conduit to the world of science.

It was these seminars that inspired the most famous molecular chefs today, Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria, to search for new experiences and create non-standard taste tandems and consistency of dishes. By the way, they made the right choice with their choice of direction and achieved great success. The Spanish restaurant El Bulli, which belongs to Ferran Adria, has been among the top ten best restaurants in the world for several years in a row. To taste the creations of scientific chefs, you need to sign up a year in advance. According to well-known restaurant critics, there are about two million people who want to become clients of El Bulli, and the restaurant is only able to accommodate eight thousand visitors. The restaurant has only been open for six months, and for the rest of the season, Adria and his employees are working on new dishes, locked in their laboratory. This restaurant rightfully deserves the title of trendsetter in molecular gastronomy, because where, if not here, artistic imagination relies on science and gives impetus to the development of cooking. This becomes clear as soon as you enter the establishment. Due to the complex and lengthy cooking process, visitors are not given the opportunity to choose from the menu; some dishes take 24 hours to prepare. The sequence of serving dishes, and there are from 20 to 30 of them, is planned in advance. Each dish fits in a spoon, and the average bill of this establishment is 2,000 euros. According to Adria, visitors come to his restaurant not to fill their stomachs, but for new experiences and impressions.

No less famous is The Fat Duck restaurant, which belongs to Heston Blumenthal. Of course, not every restaurant is awarded the Order of the British Empire for its contribution to the development of national gastronomy. It features such eccentric dishes as oatmeal with the taste of snail, ice cream with the taste of bacon and scrambled eggs, and puree with the smell of a leather car interior made from black olives. Blumenthal has achieved the title of culinary alchemist by focusing on creating dishes that can evoke all the senses at once.
In the near future, molecular gastronomy is not predicted to become widespread, but every self-respecting chef is familiar with this cooking technique. It already exists in many restaurants around the world, and in others there are at least hints of its appearance in the future. The main thing is that too troublesome independent preparation, high cost and lengthy preparation of serving do not leave this exotic round of cooking only as an object from the realm of fantasy.