Molecular Gastronomy V's Progressive Cuisine

[Adam Chef]

Wow, I guess we all agree............ I am amazed!

I think one of the best points in this discussion is that when you take a dish from someone else you will never know what t really means or what has gone into it.

I give you a very good example:

I was living in London many many years ago, and on my way to work every day I would stop at Pret a Manger on park lane and buy a Bacon, Avocado and tomato sandwich. And when I say everyday I mean EVERYDAY! So not only is this one of the greatest sandwiches in the world but the flavor will always take me back to that moment in my life, so what I guess I am saying is that it has sentiment. So I created a new version of this sandwich here in my lab which payed respect to all the elements of the sandwich but yet put them on a level where we can afford to serve them in our Michelin star restaurant, as lets face it, it is not enough for people to be eating sentiment. So for me the best way to eat Avocado is in very thin strips that crush under the weight of your teeth. So I devised a technique on how to take 30cm + strips of Avocado, surprisingly when I laid it down it reminded me of the Vienetta ice cream dessert. So I stuck with this theme but now I needed bread which would not crush the air out of the Avocado, So I made some paper thin toasts from soy bread so it gave a stronger bread flavor for less quantity. So to short story long, I then added some fat from the best Jamón in Spain for the bacon flavor, tomato reduction, Green Tomato pulp and one of the funniest additions was a discovery I made when making a Hellmans Mayonnaise sorbet.

As I am the head Chef of the Lab and we have another head Chef of the restaurant, it was simply called "Avocado Sandwich". As they were not so interested in the why, just the techniques involved :-(

So I guess what I am trying to say is I agree with you! The person copying will never know the "why" and as such may miss many of the more important points in the dish when preparing there copy and a great dish is all about the small points.

If you want to see the final sandwich follow this link to my website:

http://www.madridlab.net/melonas/2009/06/final-avocado-tomato-and-jamon-sandwich/

[Brianemone]

I have always disliked the label of molecular gastronomy, I guess in part it is because I feel it pigeon holes peoples expectations and possibilities. People often think that I am focused on this direction of food, in reality I just love new techniques and ingredients, when I first learnt about braising I did it at least 3 times a week for dinner, where as spherification only held my interest for a limited period of time as it has fewer practical applications.

I much prefer the term Progressive Cuisine as it seems to encompass past and future.