Experimental Cuisine Collective inaugural meeting

[Fat Guy]

The Experimental Cuisine Collective is a group, formed by Will Goldfarb, chef-owner of Room 4 Dessert, and members of New York University’s departments of nutrition, food studies, public health and chemistry, that “seeks to use scientific principles and experiments to produce advances in cooking.” In other words, it is a manifestation of the molecular gastronomy movement. I am, apparently, an honorary member.

Today was the group’s inaugural event, a symposium titled “Experimental Cuisine: Science, Society, and Food.” It was a small-venue event (only 100 invitations were extended, mostly to chefs, academics and media) in NYU's Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò on West 12th Street.

The keynote speaker was the French food scientist Hervé This. I had never heard Professor This speak, and was until today only familiar with him from the English translation of his book, “Molecular Gastronomy.” While the book contains a lot of interesting information, I actually found it a bit aggravating. Perhaps it’s my typically American attitude, but I much prefer the organized, in-depth presentations of McGee. In the This book, more questions are asked than answered, and the playful tone of the essays gets to be a bit much.

As soon as This started speaking live, however, his charisma and enthusiasm won me over (as well as most members of the audience). He is a truly gifted public speaker, for which he gets double credit since he was speaking in English, which is needless to say not his native tongue. The playfulness, the questioning, they all came across in a completely different way when experienced live. He was like the fantastic chemistry professor you never had.

At one point, he asked for a chef and a scientist to volunteer from the audience. Franklin Becker, executive chef of Brasserie in New York, volunteered to make mayonnaise while another volunteer (a chemistry professor) observed. The stated goal of the experiment was to demonstrate the effect of lemon juice on the color of mayonnaise, however it never got that far. Instead, as soon as Becker picked up an egg, Professor This shifted into Socratic method and started peppering poor Chef Becker with a million questions and challenges. It was amazing to see a great mind deconstruct something as seemingly simple as mayonnaise. Even the choice of whisk was questioned: “Why did you choose that whisk?” “Because I liked the handle.” “You don’t beat the mayonnaise with the handle, though, do you?” Professor This spoke for almost an hour.

The next speaker was Robert F. Margolskee, a professor of neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He gave a detailed presentation on the state of scientific research on taste receptors. He explained, as best he could to a non-scientific audience, how the different types of taste receptors work. And he discussed several experiments he and others are conducting with enhancers and inhibitors, which he thinks are going to be critical to the future of food science.

For example, a sweetness enhancer could take a tiny amount of sugar and make the taste buds perceive it as a lot of sugar. So you could make a bottle of Coca-Cola with one teaspoon of sugar, but it would taste exactly like Coca-Cola. Or, you could use a bitterness inhibitor to make bitter foods (and pharmaceuticals) less bitter.

Wylie Dufresne, chef-owner of WD-50, spoke about the practical application of molecular gastronomy to cooking. He narrated along with a DVD of a trompe l’oeil dish of “lentils” and “carrots” made from mole and papaya respectively, and served with foie gras. Dufresne turned out to be an engaging speaker, and he also passed out snacks: samples of his version of Funyuns, along with real Frito-Lay Funyuns for comparison.

The last presentation was by the multitalented Mitchell Davis, vice-president for communications of the James Beard Foundation, and a cookbook author, teacher and academic. He endeavored to place molecular gastronomy and the culinary avant garde in historical context. His presentation was quite thorough, with tons of historical and contemporary references, and he moved through the material with incredible speed in order to stick to the conference schedule. The theme that resonated the most with me was that experimental cuisine has been with us in various forms for a long time. He put several quotes up on the screen without attribution, and they all sounded incredibly modern as though they could have been written about Ferran Adria or culinary modernism, but they turned out to be from Careme, Escoffier and other figures from culinary history.

Finally, all the speakers sat for a panel discussion moderated by Florence Fabricant of the New York Times. I’m not sure there was much point in the panel discussion. I think it would have been preferable for the individual presenters to take questions from the audience at the conclusions of their talks. But Ms. Fabricant did a good job, and she needed to because Professor This is kind of a force of nature and is not exactly easy to harness.

Afterwards there was a reception at Room 4 Dessert, at which I ate a ton of sugar on an empty stomach. It seemed that all in attendance (it was like a who’s who of the New York culinary scene, plus me) were pleased with the event and looking forward to more from the Experimental Cuisine Collective. I’m pretty jaded when it comes to seminars. I reject most invitations because I know they’ll be boring, the speakers won’t be well prepared and the method of presentation is usually inefficient (five hours to get what you could get from eG Forums posts in 20 minutes). But Will Goldfarb promoted this event so enthusiastically, I had to check it out. And I’m glad I did. It was a great afternoon.

[Chris Amirault]

So what's next on the docket for Will & Co.?

[Peter Green]

Steven,

Thanks for this write-up.

Like you, I'd found This' book less than satisfying (and an akward thing to reference), so it's great to get the live version. He sounds like Marshall McLuhan - opaque in print while completely engaging in life.

Did you get a feel for what the future direction of the group will be? I do hope you'll be attending the future events!

Cheers,

Peter

[Fat Guy]

On the experimentalcuisine.org website, there's a "Future Workshops" page.

The planned workshops are divided into "Origins and Development" (examination and demonstration of the work of This, McGee, Adria, et al.); "The Science of Food" (discussion of food science); "The Culture of Food" (how culture shapes ideas about food); "Experiential Cuisine, Restaurants, and Multi-Sensorial Performance" (dining-oriented sessions led by Will Goldfarb); and "Practical Application: Developing A Food-Based Science Curriculum" (oriented towards elementary-school students).

Some of the descriptions list pretty specific plans, e.g., "Yeliz Utku, graduate student in chemistry, will present her recent findings on the development of an unusual lyophilized (freeze-dried) material prepared from coconut milk." Others are more general. Needless to say, in most cases when new groups announce such plans they revise them substantially over time. So it's not clear that all these events will actually happen, or that others won't. But the list gives a good look at the group's vision, and the academic weight and resources of NYU are strong indicators of long-term support.

[soupsister]

The whole thing was educational, fun, interesting, amusing, and thought provoking. Had a great discussion with my chef friend on the walk over to R4D afterward focusing on food and culture and how to get my teenage daughter to like green vegetables. It was a room full of people who provoke thought on all manners of things regarding food. Bravo to Will for pulling it off. I am still convinced he is actually four people because of all the things he accomplishes. Looking forward to what we do next. Thanks to Will for including me in the group and for the many fine glasses of bubbly stuff I rapidly consumed at the reception. How can anyone not like being smushed up against all those charming NY chefs while eating dessert?

[phaelon56]

For example, a sweetness enhancer could take a tiny amount of sugar and make the taste buds perceive it as a lot of sugar. So you could make a bottle of Coca-Cola with one teaspoon of sugar, but it would taste exactly like Coca-Cola.

Just curious - is such an enhancer a hypothetical construct on which research is being done or are such products actually in development in the research arena? Did he happen to comment on that?

[Fat Guy]

Professor Margolskee, in addition to being an academic researcher, is the founder of a private corporation, Redpoint Bio, which focuses on commercial applications for bitter blockers and taste enhancers.

[Fat Guy]

A side note: you may have noticed soupsister's post above. As you can see from her signature line, her name is Judy and she's with the Terra Spice company. Based in Indiana, Terra Spice provides many top restaurants with spices. More relevant to this discussion, however, Terra Spice is a source of retail quantities (as opposed to the 50-gallon drums this stuff usually comes in) of so-called industrial ingredients -- the chemicals that are in use at every restaurant in the molecular gastronomy orbit. Terra sells things like calcium lactate gluconate, four varieties of methyl cellulose, and sodium alginate. Terra doesn't officially do individual sales, but if you just call them up (number on website) they'll most likely accommodate you.

[icecreamparty]

thanks to all for the support of the event and the afterparty

we will keep you informed as to the upcoming schedule

and welcome the input of the egullet community regarding potential seminar topics

cheers

ppy