Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Transmogrify. Not a word I want to describe my meal.

I think of this as the start of re-poncification of chefs.

I don't understand the harsh sentiments expressed here.

Throughout history human beings have used Innovation, trial & error and experimentation as a way to make what we forage or grow edible. Through technological developments we went from eating raw grains to using a couple of rocks, and then to modern milling techniques to produce flours. This has given us pasta, bread, polenta, and many other foods that we get at our favorite restaurant.

At some point in human evolution we recognized that food was more than sustenance...that it could be a sensual experience that satisfied more than our need for nutrients. The aroma of bacon frying, the texture of a chewy bagel, the perfect pairing of a wine & cheese, the beauty of a colorful plate of sushi, all of these are examples of how food preparation is also an art form.

I would agree that a frozen hollow ball of vegan carrot cake is weird; Edible menus are a novelty, not food; A tank of liquid nitrogen will probably never become commonplace in the average home. However, like the development of all art forms, scientific advances give the artist new tools & techniques to advance his or her craft.

There has always been a yearning by cooks to push boundaries, improve the look and taste of food. The need to advance his or her craft has always existed for both the home cook and the professional chef. The only thing that has changed is the tools available. This has resulted in some chefs choosing to cook in more of a lab, than a kitchen. They use the scientific method rather than simple trial and error to achieve better or different results. They ask: "What if" and then try to make it a reality.

In the past month or so, there have been articles & postings regarding: Carbonated Fruit, emulating Dom Demarco's Pizza, the best way to age steaks, no knead bread, and many other topics that are examples of Molecular Gastronomy, albeit on a very basic level.

Cook's Illustrated & America's Test Kitchen are cited often as favorites in Serious Eats polls, as is Alton Brown's Good Eats. The premise of those mediums is to take a methodical, experimental and scientific approach to finding the perfect way to cook something...these are at a slightly higher level using a bit more science than the trial and error in our home kitchens.

Those up and coming chefs who have chosen to pursue Molecular Gastronomy are not fakes. They are simply a new generation of chefs who are following a relatively new branch of the Culinary Arts.

A perfect example of this is Grant Achatz, founder, owner & executive Chef of Alinea in Chicago. This restaurant is more than the novelties. It melds old school fundamentals with cutting edge kitchen science to provide a fantastic dining experience. Additionally, everything from the dinnerware to the furniture to the suits worn by the staff is customized by collaborators to create harmony.

The place is far more than just edible menus...It is a top notch restaurant that could serve anything. He and his team, however, choose to provide a unique experience with some foods that cannot be prepared with conventional methods. It is not meant to be a common, everyday night out for dinner. Rather, Achatz & chefs like him offer food with textures, flavors and sensations that provide an extraordinary experience.

It is like going to the museum or an art gallery for your taste buds.

For the record, Ferran Adria was 7 when Nicholas Kurti presented his paper "The Physicist in the Kitchen" (1969) which is considered to be the quantified start of Modern Molecular Gastronomy....And Kurti recognized Brillat-Savarin as one of the original proponents of scientific discovery in the kitchen. Kurti along with Herve This are considered by Adria, Blumenthal and most others as the modern founders of the Molecular Gastronomy culinary discipline (Kurti coined the term).

The point is that, while there are a number of modern practitioners, they like all the others, are simply advancing forward an art created by their predecessors.