Fads and Fashions.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Regarding the Catalan chef Ferran Adria's influence on his British counterparts, are you a fan of so called Molecular Gastronomy? Is it a good thing; marketing gobbledygook for what curious chefs have been doing for millenia; or a reverse engineered rationale to justify silliness?

[Shaun Hill]

In fact I attended one of the molecular gastronomy conferences in Sicily a few years ago and wrote the intro for one earlier than that. I found it interesting and of course enjoyed the free trip to Sicily.

The majority of those attending were scientists, some from Universities and some from a major flavour company, Firmenich, in Switzerland. There were three chefsat my session, an american called Fritz Blanc, frenchman Pierre Gagniare and me. Most interesting I thought were Harold McGee who wrote "Curious Cook" and "On Food and Cooking" and american food writer, Shirley Corriher who both were able to communicate on a level below nobel prize standard for people like myself on the reactions of food during cooking and the nature of flavour molecules.

My interest was slightly different from others in that I didn't particularly wish to stretch the boundaries of what's possible rather I wanted to know why gravy works and why tastes which are rank or rotten - in cheese or well hung meat for instance or from musk in the perfume industry - are appealling

The sessions were the brainchild of a Hungarian born physicist called Nicholas Kurti who died a few years back