Heston's Discoveries.

[Dirk Wheelan]

I came across this yesterday which seems like an interesting idea, but one thing I wasn't clear about was this reference:

"The new courses are based on some of the discoveries I made a few years back which have affected our whole approach to cooking".

The article is very short and Heston does not expand, but by the context it seems like he is referring to the world in general with 'our', rather than just his close associates, so what are these 'discoveries'?

I know that Heston has been working with some scientists, but I wasn't aware of the wider importance of this relationship.

Dirk.

[Suzi Edwards]

Actually, I read this column every week and I would think that the "our" refers to his kitchen rather than mine, yours or the world at large. My sense is that the register he uses for the column is always very personal, hence "our" meaning that of his crew.

That said, the "I" in the previous sentence would undermine that supposition a bit.

[JudyB]

"The new courses are based on some of the discoveries I made a few years back which have affected our whole approach to cooking".

My guess is that he is probably referring to his whole "molecular gastronomy" approach. A couple(?) of years ago he did a six programme series for Discovery Channel called "Kitchen Chemistry" (see their website for a bit more information).

This series was trying to explain why certain things happen when cooking - talking about cell structure and what happens when vegetables are overcooked etc - so it probably is a reasonable basis for "interesting" science lessons.

Edited January 10, 2005 by JudyB (log)

[alexw]

One of the discoveries he notes is the making of ice cream with liquid nitrogen, which is documented by Mrs Marshall over 100 years ago, he has used her quotation about freezing things with "liquid air" in the guardian earlier this year. Heston also uses her original recipe for both ice cream and edible cone for one of his courses, just to put over the point that the Americans didn't come up with the cone first. And quite lovely it is too.

Alex.

[Adam Balic]

You can still buy her icecream books and well worth it they are too. But, 'icecream cones' are slightly older then her, Wafers thankfully still British though.

[Dirk Wheelan]

So I needn't have got excited. It seems to have been 'discoveries' in the loosest rhetorical sense :0)

[Andy Lynes]

100's of column inches have been devoted to Heston's work at the Fat Duck and his various collaborations, a quick google should sort you out. His book Family Food is also worth a read, as is the Q&A he did for eGullet back in October 2002.

[Dirk Wheelan]

100's of column inches have been devoted to Heston's work at the Fat Duck and his various collaborations, a quick google should sort you out. His book Family Food is also worth a read, as is the Q&A he did for eGullet back in October 2002.

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Yes, I've read the papers too, all I was saying is that the word "discovery" implies, ... well, you know, "discovery".

I know that Heston has revolutionized British cooking etc, but I wouldn't call pop-rocks, tobacco chocolate, and so on, 'discoveries', more like innovations.

Anyway it doesn't matter really.

Dirk.

[Duncan]

Yes, I've read the papers too, all I was saying is that the word "discovery" implies, ... well, you know, "discovery".

I know that Heston has revolutionized British cooking etc, but I wouldn't call pop-rocks, tobacco chocolate, and so on, 'discoveries', more like innovations.

The most obvious thing that might be counted as a discovery is the use of low-calcium water to cook vegetables. See Bean there, done that. It isn't clear from this how far the discovery is Heston's as opposed to Peter Barham, or maybe Heston's discovery was Peter Barham.

[Dirk Wheelan]

It isn't clear from this how far the discovery is Heston's as opposed to Peter Barham, or maybe Heston's discovery was Peter Barham.

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Peter Barham seems to think so, "The Man Behind Blumenthal" (scroll down to 17/02/05)