Pair your accounts.

Export articles to Mendeley

Get article recommendations from ACS based on references in your Mendeley library.

Pair your accounts.

Export articles to Mendeley

Get article recommendations from ACS based on references in your Mendeley library.

You’ve supercharged your research process with ACS and Mendeley!

STEP 1:
Click to create an ACS ID

Please note: If you switch to a different device, you may be asked to login again with only your ACS ID.

Please note: If you switch to a different device, you may be asked to login again with only your ACS ID.

Please note: If you switch to a different device, you may be asked to login again with only your ACS ID.

MENDELEY PAIRING EXPIRED
Your Mendeley pairing has expired. Please reconnect
ACS Publications. Most Trusted. Most Cited. Most Read
Molecular Gastronomy, a Scientific Look at Cooking

OR SEARCH CITATIONS

My Activity
Publications

Figure 1Loading Img
Download Hi-Res ImageDownload to MS-PowerPointCite This:Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42, 5, 575-583
    Article

    Molecular Gastronomy, a Scientific Look at Cooking
    Click to copy article linkArticle link copied!

    View Author Information
    INRA Team of Molecular Gastronomy, UMR 214 INRA/AgroParisTech, 16 rue Claude Bernard, 75005 Paris, France
    * E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: +33 1 44 08 72 90. Fax: +33 1 44 08 16 53.
    Other Access Options

    Accounts of Chemical Research

    Cite this: Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42, 5, 575–583
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/ar8002078
    Published May 19, 2009
    Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society
    Request reuse permissions

    Abstract

    Click to copy section linkSection link copied!

    Food preparation is such a routine activity that we often do not question the process. For example, why do we cook as we do? Why do we eat certain foods and avoid other perfectly edible ingredients? To help answer these questions, it is extremely important to study the chemical changes that food undergoes during preparation; even simply cutting a vegetable can lead to enzymatic reactions.

    For many years, these molecular transformations were neglected by the food science field. In 1988, the scientific discipline called “molecular gastronomy” was created, and the field is now developing in many countries. Its many applications fall into two categories. First, there are technology applications for restaurants, for homes, or even for the food industry. In particular, molecular gastronomy has led to “molecular cooking”, a way of food preparation that uses “new” tools, ingredients, and methods. According to a British culinary magazine, the three “top chefs” of the world employ elements of molecular cooking. Second, there are educational applications of molecular gastronomy: new insights into the culinary processes have led to new culinary curricula for chefs in many countries such as France, Canada, Italy, and Finland, as well as educational programs in schools.

    In this Account, we focus on science, explain why molecular gastronomy had to be created, and consider its tools, concepts, and results. Within the field, conceptual tools have been developed in order to make the necessary studies. The emphasis is on two important parts of recipes: culinary definitions (describing the objective of recipes) and culinary “precisions” (information that includes old wives’ tales, methods, tips, and proverbs, for example). As for any science, the main objective of molecular gastronomy is, of course, the discovery of new phenomena and new mechanisms. This explains why culinary precisions are so important: cooks of the past could see, but not interpret, phenomena that awaited scientific studies. For French cuisine alone, more than 25 000 culinary precisions have been collected since 1980.

    The study of the organization of dishes was improved by the introduction of a formalism called “complex disperse systems/nonperiodical organization of space” (CDS/NPOS). CDS describes the colloidal materials from which the parts of a dish are made; NPOS provides an overall description of a dish. This formalism has proven useful for the study of both scientific (examining phenomena to arrive at a mechanism) and technological (using the results of science to improve technique) applications. For example, it can be used to describe the physical structure of dishes (science) but also to examine the characteristics of classical French sauces (technology).

    Many questions still remain in the field of molecular gastronomy. For example, one “Holy Grail” of the field is the prediction of physical, biological, chemical, and organoleptic properties of systems from their CDS/NPOS formula. Another issue to be worked out is the relationship between compound migration in food and chemical modifications of those migrating compounds. These questions will likely keep scientists busy in the near future.

    Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society

    Subjects

    what are subjects

    Read this article

    To access this article, please review the available access options below.

    Get instant access

    Purchase Access

    Read this article for 48 hours. Check out below using your ACS ID or as a guest.

    Recommended

    Access through Your Institution

    You may have access to this article through your institution.

    Your institution does not have access to this content. Add or change your institution or let them know you’d like them to include access.

    Cited By

    Click to copy section linkSection link copied!

    This article is cited by 37 publications.

    1. Christopher J. Welch, Timothy Nowak, Leo A. Joyce, and Erik L. Regalado . Cocktail Chromatography: Enabling the Migration of HPLC to Nonlaboratory Environments. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2015, 3 (5) , 1000-1009. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00133
    2. Haohao Fu, Yingzhe Liu, Ferran Adrià, Xueguang Shao, Wensheng Cai, and Christophe Chipot . From Material Science to Avant-Garde Cuisine. The Art of Shaping Liquids into Spheres. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2014, 118 (40) , 11747-11756. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp508841p
    3. Subha R. Das . The Kitchen Chemistry Sessions: Palatable Chemistry through Molecular Gastronomy and Cuisine. 2013, 77-97. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2013-1130.ch007
    4. Kaan Kasaroğlu, Özgür Sarıbaş, Mehmet Emre Güler. Gastronomi ve mutfak sanatları eğitim programlarının incelenmesine yönelik bir araştırma. Balıkesir Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 2024, https://doi.org/10.31795/baunsobed.1397978
    5. Marlene Rojas-Le-Fort, Isabel Patricia Valdivieso-López, Rodrigo Duarte-Casar. Representations of Ecuadorian cuisine in the coast and the highlands regions through the free listing technique. Discover Food 2023, 3 (1) https://doi.org/10.1007/s44187-023-00061-9
    6. Dustin S. Stoltz, Marshall A. Taylor. Materiality and Change in Social Fields. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 2023, 53 (4) , 454-470. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12376
    7. Erik C. Fooladi, Maiju Tuomisto, Janni Haapaniemi. Food in science, science in food – Interdisciplinarity in science/chemistry and home economics lower secondary curricula across three countries. International Journal of Science Education 2023, 45 (17) , 1485-1505. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2023.2213801
    8. Antonio Jimenez-Mavillard, Juan Luis Suarez. A computational approach for creativity assessment of culinary products: the case of elBulli. AI & SOCIETY 2022, 37 (1) , 331-353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01183-3
    9. Erik C. Fooladi, Anu Hopia. Revisiting the “porridge feud” in 19th century Norway: How knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines may reveal new clues to historical cooking practices. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 2022, 27 , 100475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2022.100475
    10. Çağla Özer, Cansu Ağan. The Influence of Aging Egg on Foaming Properties of Different Meringue Types. Journal of Culinary Science & Technology 2021, 19 (6) , 475-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/15428052.2020.1790073
    11. Carlos Velasco, Charles Michel, Charles Spence. Gastrophysics: Current approaches and future directions. International Journal of Food Design 2021, 6 (2) , 137-152. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijfd_00028_2
    12. Mie Thorborg Pedersen, Per Lyngs Hansen, Mathias Porsmose Clausen. Gastronomy unravelled by physics: Gastrophysics. International Journal of Food Design 2021, 6 (2) , 153-180. https://doi.org/10.1386/ijfd_00029_1
    13. Hervé This. An Essay on Gastronomics, a Part of Foodomics for Molecular Gastronomy. 2021, 211-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.22796-0
    14. Antonio Jimenez-Mavillard, Juan Luis Suarez. Diffusion of elBulli’s innovation: Rate of adoption in Allrecipes and Epicurious. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 2020, 22 , 100243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2020.100243
    15. Róisín M. Burke, Pauline Danaher, David Hurley. Creating bespoke note by note dishes and drinks inspired by traditional foods. Journal of Ethnic Foods 2020, 7 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-020-00071-3
    16. Fangfang Zhao, Jingkun Liu. Effects of the cooking modes on commonly used pesticides residue in vegetables and their chronic dietary exposure risk in South China. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 2020, 37 (1) , 121-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2019.1681594
    17. Julia Bazarnova, Svetlana Eliseeva, Nadezhda Zhilinskaya, Natalya Barsukova, Ekaterina Aronova, Aleksey Korzh, . Metabiotics in molecular nutrition: history and practice. E3S Web of Conferences 2020, 161 , 02005. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202016102005
    18. . 研究室紹介　酪農学園大学　農食環境学群　食と健康学類　食品物性学研究室. Nihon Reoroji Gakkaishi 2019, 219-220. https://doi.org/10.1678/rheology.47.219
    19. Hervé This. The science of molecular gastronomy and the art of innovative cooking. FEBS Letters 2019, 593 (9) , 887-891. https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.13373
    20. Charles Spence, Jozef Youssef. Assessing the long-term impact of the molecular gastronomy movement on haute cuisine. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 2018, 14 , 35-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2018.10.001
    21. Hervé This. Solution to Hollandaise challenge. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2016, 408 (27) , 7543-7544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9874-4
    22. Yrjö H. Roos, Peter J. Fryer, Dietrich Knorr, Heike P. Schuchmann, Karin Schroën, Maarten A. I. Schutyser, Gilles Trystram, Erich J. Windhab. Food Engineering at Multiple Scales: Case Studies, Challenges and the Future—A European Perspective. Food Engineering Reviews 2016, 8 (2) , 91-115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12393-015-9125-z
    23. Hervé This. Solution to rubbery egg challenge. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2016, 408 (1) , 9-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9123-2
    24. Róisín Burke, Hervé This, Alan L. Kelly. Molecular Gastronomy. 2016https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100596-5.03302-3
    25. Hervé This. Solution to Maillard and grilled steak challenge. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2015, 407 (27) , 8173-8174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9001-y
    26. Mehmet Sarıoğlan. New Orientations in Gastronomy Education: Molecular Gastronomy. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2014, 143 , 320-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.412
    27. Erik Fooladi, Anu Hopia. Culinary precisions as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue. Flavour 2013, 2 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/2044-7248-2-6
    28. Hervé This. Celebrate Chemistry. Recent Results of Molecular Gastronomy. European Review 2013, 21 (2) , 158-174. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798712000336
    29. Sophia Roosth. Of Foams and Formalisms: Scientific Expertise and Craft Practice in Molecular Gastronomy. American Anthropologist 2013, 115 (1) , 4-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01531.x
    30. Wenbing Hu. Interplay Between Phase Separation and Polymer Crystallization. 2013, 223-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0670-9_11
    31. Hervé This. Solutions are solutions, and gels are almost solutions. Pure and Applied Chemistry 2012, 85 (1) , 257-276. https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-CON-12-01-01
    32. Yong-Yeol Ahn, Sebastian E. Ahnert, James P. Bagrow, Albert-László Barabási. Flavor network and the principles of food pairing. Scientific Reports 2011, 1 (1) https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00196
    33. Linda Weberskirch, Alan Luna, Sara Skoglund, Hervé This. Comparison of two liquid-state NMR methods for the determination of saccharides in carrot (Daucus carota L.) roots. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2011, 399 (1) , 483-487. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-4311-6
    34. Hervé This. Whipped egg-white challenge. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2010, 397 (5) , 1639-1640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3767-8
    35. Carmen Ortiz Mellet, José M. García Fernández. Difructose Dianhydrides (DFAs) and DFA-Enriched Products as Functional Foods. 2010, 49-77. https://doi.org/10.1007/128_2010_50
    36. . Introduction. 2010, xxix-xxx. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-84569-495-1.50029-0
    37. Herve This. ChemInform Abstract: Molecular Gastronomy, a Scientific Look at Cooking. ChemInform 2009, 40 (32) https://doi.org/10.1002/chin.200932268
    Download PDF
    Go to Accounts of Chemical Research
    Get e-Alerts
    Get e-Alerts

    Accounts of Chemical Research

    Cite this: Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42, 5, 575–583
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/ar8002078
    Published May 19, 2009
    Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society
    Request reuse permissions

    Article Views

    9058

    Altmetric

    -

    Citations

    37
    Learn about these metrics

    Article Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.

    Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.

    The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated.