MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY CHEERS TO CRYO MARGARITA! Cryo SPHERES THAT BURST MargariTA IN YOUR MOUTH TO OFFER INTENSE POPS OF FLAVOUR. CUNNINGLY CREATED FOOD THAT LOOKS LIKE IT IS ONE THING BUT IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. DISHES WHERE YOU TASTE MULTIPLE FLAVOURS IN A PLANNED SEQUENCE. ONES THAT INCORPORATE AROMAS AND SOUNDS OR TEXTURES. It’S CLEVER CUISINE. IT IS MOLECULAR COOKING THAT INCORPORATES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL APERBERRY AND SAHA APERBERRY C TOOLS FOR EVER NEWER AND MORE EXCITING EXPERIENCES. CHEF ABHIJIT SAHA, CHEF ABHIJIT SAHA, PRIYA PATHIYAN EXPLORES PHOTO PHOTO HOw… 60 61 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA DECEMBER 2014 MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY CHEMISTRY AND FOOD SCIENCE HAVE JOINED HANDS TO DISH OUT SOME FANTASTICALLY DRAMATIC RASPBERRY caviar WITH STRAWBERRY CREATIONS, THANKS TO SOME BRILLIANT MINDS AT Foam AND caramel WORK IN PROFEssIONAL KITCHENS course of dried kelp, hijiki seaweed, baby eels, razor clams, cockles, mussels and sea urchins, displaying in a way that was reminiscent of the sea shore, with an ocean ‘spume’ and edible sand. He served this on a glass- topped box that was filled with real sand. To add to the experience, there was an iPod in a conch shell attached to headphones that played the ooking has been about science sound of seagulls and the right from the first time a waves crashing on a beach. human cracked an egg and These tableside theatrics Cdecided to crisp it up in a bit of are not only an impressive animal fat. Maybe even before indication of culinary skills that. It’s been a continuous but also necessary for a journey of experimentation restaurant and its chef to be down the decades. And today, taken seriously in gourmet restaurants across the world circles and talked (or are raising the bar to evolve tweeted) about. ever more interesting versions Many Indian chefs are of classic preparations or clued in to this phenomenon. create entirely new ones. Of the three restaurants Experts are applying the that Abhijit Saha, Founding science of how different Director & Chef of Avant ingredients react at molecular Garde Hospitality owns, levels and using these two keep modern culinary reactions to be the foundation techniques centre-stage. His for presenting food in a very award-winning signature visual, sometimes interactive, Indian restaurant is Saha in and often surprising format. Singapore and Caperberry in Think of the newly ginger- Bengaluru, where he hosted haired Heston Blumenthal, and impressed MasterChef no stranger to the average Australia’s celebrity judges Indian who has watched a Gary Mehigan and George few seasons of Masterchef Calombaris in 2012. When we Australia, who wields his ask him to pick one creation molecular magic wand at that incorporates molecular The Fat Duck in London. His cooking that he is personally REAMSTIME D famous Sounds of the Sea proud of, he finds that hoto P dish, created in 2007, was difficult, as the tasting menu all about his multi-sensory at Caperberry changes every philosophy. He created a two months and there are 62 63 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA DECEMBER 2014 MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY CHURROS MODERN - WITH A MOLECULAR so many dishes that he has Carpaccio or the live New TOUCH innovated with. It’s all about Age Tiramisu. Also, the THE DESI DEMYSTIFICATTION the right ingredients and duck in different versions,” techniques, experimenting he says. Some of his dishes SARABJIT KAUR, MASTERS STUDENT IN FOOD with Indian flavours that are INNOVATION & PRODUCT DESIGN AT THE MOLECULAR also enhanced by molecular AGROPARIsTECH, FRANCE, EXPLAINS… cooking techniques are the COOKING Gol Guppa Spherification, In Indian cuisine we have a lot of interesting OFTEN RELIES Sous vide cooked lamb physiochemical phenomena going on. For ON LED- roulade with Kakori Kebab instance, the swelling of a roti or the spongy Spices and live maple wood texture of khaman dhokla. We study these BLINKING smoke and Spiced Cryo phenomena under Molecular Gastronomy. WATER BATHS, Espuma which have been There’s also the study of Culinary Precisions, quite a hit. which are age-old practices used in cooking. SYRINGES, Similarly, Gaggan Anand, For instance, the fact that resting the dough PH METRES who went through the paces before making rotis keeps them soft for a long AND SHELVES with Ferran Adria at the time. Molecular Cooking is the use of scientific erstwhile El Bulli, recently principles in cooking. For example, making a OF FOOD impressed Mumbai’s luxe Kulfi with liquid Nitrogen or serving lassi in an CHEMICALS lunch bunch with his dhokla ice sphere. That will be similar to pani-puri but LIKE XANTHAN foam and chocolate pani the pani will be replaced by lassi and the puri will puri. His eponymously be a hollow ice sphere. and perfecting each creation. named restaurant Gaggan Note by Note (NBN) cooking is using “And our patrons have in Bangkok, Thailand, was compounds like protein powder for creating food. loved the results. Be it a proclaimed the 17th best In NBN, we use only chemical compounds as deconstruction of Salad restaurant in the world ingredients. For flavours as well we use chemical Caprese, the imitation earlier this year. compounds. For example, using protein powder Gresham Fernandes, for making Chicken tikka. So, Indian dishes and Group Executive Chef, Fine flavours can be used for NBN cooking. Dine Division at Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, and the man behind Delhi’s NEW age Smoke House Room’s genius, PINA colada spent three months at Noma last year to understand the REAMSTIME (BELOW) REAMSTIME Nordic cuisine and molecular D techniques. “At that point, we had forayed into degustation menus and 20-course meals at Smoke House Room. We APERBERRY AND SAHA; AND SAHA; APERBERRY had travelled a lot - Spain, C France, the UK - just eating at restaurants, thinking what CHEF GRESHAM we wanted to do in our own FERNANDES country. Working at Noma CHEF ABHIJIT SAHA, PHOTO PHOTO HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT... 1969 1988 1992 1994 HUNGARIAN-BORN, OXFORD-BASED KURTI MEETS FRENCH PHYSICAL CHEMIST A SET OF WORKSHOPS CALLED ‘SCIENCE AND HERVÉ THIS PROPOSES THE PHYSICIST NICHOLAS KURTI GIVES A HERVÉ THIS AND THEY CONDUCT SEVERAL GASTRONOMY’ ARE HELD IN ERICE, ITALY, BRINGING THEORY OF NOTE BY NOTE LECTURE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTE EXPERIMENTS TOGETHER AND FIRST TOGETHER SCIENTISTS AND PROFESSIONAL COOKS CUISINE AND PIERRE GAGNAIRE CALLED ‘THE PHYSICIST IN THE KITCHEN’ REFER TO THIS MODERNIST COOKING AS FOR DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND COLLABORATES WITH HIM ‘MOLECULAR AND PHYSICAL GASTRONOMY’ TRADITIONAL COOKING PREPARATIONS 64 65 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA DECEMBER 2014 MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY for three months, I got a different perspective on how people cook there with ON A NEW NOTE very few ingredients, how to keep it fresh and the ideas PHYSICAL care about professionals (in a CHEMIST way), but I use them to show churning,” he says. HERVÉ the way. This is part of my For him, it’s all about THIS, WHO strategy. But remember that using the techniques to WORks AT I am working for the public. create something that can’t THE INTER- We deserve modern tools for otherwise be done. “For NATIONAL cooking, not Middle Age pans! instance, if you want to try CENTRE FOR and freeze a gin and tonic, MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY In your opinion, who are it can only be done using AGROPARIsTECH-INRA IN the current chefs doing the PARIS, IS CONSIDERED THE liquid nitrogen,” he says. most innovative work in GODFATHER OF MOLECULAR And it’s imperative that molecular cooking? COOKING. He’S THE MAN Ah! You have to know that molecular cooking isn’t used WHO WAS INVITED TO molecular cooking is a very old just because it’s there, but LECTURE ON LIQUID stuff, as I proposed it in 1980. because it serves a purpose, NITROGEN WHEN HE WAS Today, I am in New York in order he emphasises, explaining, 12 AND THE ONE WHOSE to show the new thing, called “Foams have always been SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS Note by Note Cooking. And around. They’re basically just AND RESULTANT Pierre Gagnaire is the first in an incorporation of air into KNOWLEDGE HAVE the world who could do this! INSPIRED AND IMPACTED anything. Cappuccinos in the CHEFS ACROss THE WORLD, What exactly is Note by 1920s had foam. But that was FROM HESTON BLUMENTHAL created to keep the coffee Note cooking? TO PIERRE GAGNAIRE! It began in 1994, when I hot as it was cold in Italy. EXCERPTS FROM OUR dreamt of the day when Similarly, the way filter coffee INTERVIEW WITH THE MAN recipes gave advice like ‘add is poured at a height from cup WHO FAMOUSLY UNBOILED to your bouillon two drops an egg… to cup in South India makes it of a 0.001 percent solution creamy. It’s there for a reason, If all cooking is about of benzylmercaptan in pure not just to impress.” science, then how is molecular alcohol’. The ingredients used cooking different? in Note by Note cuisine include In my view, cooking has water, ethanol, sucrose, amino SOME KEY JIGGS KALRA BY IBRARY MOLECULAR L nothing to do with science, acids and lipids. For example, ASALA ASALA and science has nothing to in wine made by Note by Note M TECHNIQUES do with cooking! Indeed, cuisine, the following might be PHOTO cooking is technique + art. added: water, anthocyanins (for INCLUDE hot Science is looking for the colour), sugars, ethanol, amino ICE, JELLY mechanisms of phenomena, acids (for flavour), glycerol, and science does not make phenols, quinones, and organic NOODLES, anything except producing acids. Pierre Gagnaire and I AROMA LEAF, ‘explanations’, models, developed Note by Note dishes theories. When you use the for between six months and a FOAMS, result of science, it’s for year and presented the first LIQUID education or for technology.