lundi 18 septembre 2017

Dear Friends,
This morning, an question 

If the wine is polar, why do the Chefs use it in order to dissolve the fat (fat is apolar, and insoluble in the polar solvents, but soluble in the apolar solvents) in the method of making a glace ?  And to make  Maillard Reaction ? 

Indeed there are many importants facts to know, in order to understand something to this question.

First, yes, ethanol is soluble in water because both are compounds whose molecules are "polar".
Indeed, in water, molecules are made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. As oxygen attracts electrons much, the electron density is higher toward the oxygen, and this makes an electric "dipole". And the same for the OH group of ethanol, so that ethanol, being able to form so called hydrogen bonds with water, cand dissolve into it.

Then, yes, it's true that fat (often triglycerides) does not dissolve in water, but can dissolve is non polar material. Indeed, triglycerides would form only weak bonds (van der Waals) with water molecules, and they would "order" water : this makes the dissolution energetically unfavorable (this does not mean that it is not possible, but only that it does not occur spontaneously in practice ; indeed, if you give energy to such molecules, you can disperse them in water).
By the way, yes triglycerides can be dissolved in apolar solvents such as ethyl acetate, but not in all non polar solvents.

Tomber à glace, making a glace : it means boiling a sauce so that the concentration of solutes increases, and generally in the kitchen, the viscosity increases as well because of gelatine concentration.

Indeed, there is not fat when you make a glace from a stock or a broth. Only the concentration of the solution occurs. And if there is some fat, this fat would form fat droplets dispersed in the solution, i.e. one would get an emulsion, and not a solution.

And the Maillard Reaction ? Indeed, it has no meaning to speak of "the" Maillard reaction, because there are many, so that one should speak of Maillard reactions.
Now, Maillard reactions are chemical reactions between proteins and reducing sugars. I don't see clearly why Maillard reactions would occur when one makes a glace of meat. Indeed, if no sugar present, no Maillard reactions. And indeed, it's time that we stop focusing on this Maillard reactions, and concentrations on the millions other chemical processes that occur during cooking: oxidation, hydrolysis, etc.

vendredi 25 août 2017

About molecular gastronomy

#
#
# Today, questions that deserve an answer :
#
# I'm a science student from Barcelona and I'm working on a project that consists on discover which parameters are involved in the development of a sferification. The problem is that although I have seen all of your blogs and interviews about molecular cuisine and molecular gastronomy I have some questions that I would like to ask you.
#
# Firstly, I would like to know the differences between the science of ingredients and the science of culinary processes because even after searching information on the Net it is not clear to me at all.
# Secondly, I wish you could tell me more about the history (origin) about molecular cuisine and its name.
# Thirdly, I want to know your response about what is/are the reasons why you and Mr. Kurtis created a science called molecular gastronomy and why do you think people would have to increase their interest, in particular, on science investigations like yours?. What are the reasons why you are motivated on following your studies about molecular gastronomy?.
# Finally, what councils do you have for a future scientist?

#
# I know you probably are a very busy person but it would be so magnificent to receive an answer of someone of renown as you.
#
#
# Yes, such a message deserves an long answer... and it's also a way of being clearer.
# I take the various points one by one :
#

# 1. spherification: indeed, when it is recognized that this is simply jeffication, then it is easier to study... and there are many scientific articles about that, the most interesting being those where the jefficication is even triggered by a monovalent ion such as sodium, whereas the simplistic theory says that divalent calcium ions have to make bridges with alginate molecules.
#
# 2.  the differences between the science of ingredients and the science of culinary processes ? Simply read carefully what is written.
# On one hand, the science of food ingredients is the investigation of all plant and animal tissues (primarily) that are used as food ingredients. For example, how much  beta caroten is there in the various parts of the roots of Dauca carota L.? Or how many different compounds of the family of betalains are there (there was a very good recent paper about that) ? Etc.
# On the other hand, the science of culinary processes is... the science and culinary processes : here, one focuses on culinary processes, and the details of food ingredients have (almost) no importance. By the way, one should be very clear about the word "science", because there is so much confusion about science and technology. Sciences of nature, such as molecular gastronomy, are sciences, which means that the question is to look for the mechanisms of phenomena : why does a steak turns brown when grilled? why does a soufflé expand? why is water trapped in a gel? The goal is to produce knowledge, and the method is :
# - identify a phenomenon
# - characterize it
# - group the data into laws (equations)
# - look for mechanisms quantitatively compatible with the laws in order to produce a theory
# - try to refute the theory by looking for theoretical deductions from the theory, and make experiments for testing such deductions.
# On the other hand, the technology question is different: you use some scientific knowledge in order to improve processes.
# And here is an (apparent) paradox and the source of much confusion (by weak minds): even if molecular gastronomy is focused on phenomena occurring during culinary processes, it is a scientific activity, and not technology. Of course, there are many innovations flowing from the understanding of culinary processes, and from molecular gastronomy, but science is science, and technology is technology (sometimes called engineering).
#
# 3. the history about molecular cuisine ?
# First let's observe that you speak of "molecular cuisine", and not "molecular cooking", and not of molecular gastronomy
# - molecular gastronomy is a scientific activity, introduced in 1988 (the name, because the activity began earlier)
# - molecular cooking is defined as a modern way of cooking, technically speaking: I promoted it with no name since 1980, and I gave the name in 1999 only, because of much confusion about what chefs do and what scientists do. More precisely, I invented this name in front of a French TV, at a meeting in Paris with the Innicon project, where chefs from Europe where coming to get some technology results (the würtz, the geoffroy, etc. taught to Heston Blumenthal, Alberto Adria, and others). Later, I proposed a difference between molecular cooking (the technique) and molecular cuisine (the style based on the introduction of new techniques)
#
# 4. why Nicholas and I created the scientific discipline that we called molecular gastronomyl? Because we are scientists ! Indeed, the goal of science is to make discoveries, by studying phenomena... and we were sure that because nobody was interested in cooking, at that time, there were many phenomena that were not studied, hence the possibility of make many discoveries !
#
# 5. why the interest in food increased? There are probably many reasons, but certainly the fact that well being increased in many countries contributed: instead of having barely enough food, people had enough, and could improve. Moreover, science is a key element for innovation, as I teach to the Erasmus Mundus Plus master students of our program "Food Innovation and Product Design"
#
# 6. why I am daily -all days of the year- at the lab, doing scientific research? Because science is the great pride of the human mind! Because it is fascinating to observe that "the word is written in mathematical language"! Because knowledge is a way to promote tolerance, international cooperation.  Because science goes along with education: one school more, one prison less!
#
# 7. which advices for a future scientists? Maths, maths, and maths! Epistemology, and focusing. Someone who knows is someone who learned. We need seconds for learning so many things, methods, values, information, notions, concepts!
# Ars longa,
# vita brevis,
# occasio praeceps,
# experimentum periculosum,
# iudicium difficile
# But this quotation is not positive enough, and I prefer publishing here my own list:
#
# Quelques idées pour aider à se supporter quand on se voit dans un miroir
#
# Mer isch was mer mocht
# Hervé This, adapté d'un proverbe alsacien
#
# IL FAUT S’AMUSER A FAIRE DES CHOSES PASSIONNANTES
# H. This
#
# Nous sommes ce que nous faisons : quel est ton agenda ?
# H. This
#
# Une colonne vertébrale !
# H. This
#
# Tout fait d'expérience gagne à être considéré comme l'émanation de généralités que nous devons inventer (abstraire et généraliser)
# H. This
#
# Quels sont les mécanismes ?
# La science en général
#
# Les mathématiques nous sauvent toujours : « que nul ne séjourne ici s’il n’est
# géomètre »
# Platon
#
# Ne pas oublier de donner du bonheur.
# H. This
#
# Tu fais quelque chose ? Quelle est ta méthode ? Fais le, et, en plus, fais-en la théorisation.
# H. This
#
# Surtout ne pas manquer le moindre symptôme
# H. This
#
# Je ne sais pas, mais je cherche !
# H. This
#
# De quoi s’agit-il ?
# Henri Cartier-Bresson
#
# Puisque tout est toujours perfectible, que vais-je améliorer aujourd’hui ?
# H. This
#
# « Dois-je croire au probable ? ».
# H. This ?
# A rapprocher de :« En doutant, nous nous mettons en recherche, et en cherchant nous trouvons la vérité ».
# Abélard
# Et de :
# "Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions également commodes, qui l'une et l'autre nous dispensent de réfléchir".
# Poincaré
#
# Combien ?
# La science en général
#
# D’r Schaffe het sussi Wurzel un Frucht
# Proverbe alsacien
#
# Ni dieu ni maître
# La devise des anarchistes
#
# Tout ce qui mérite d’être fait mérite d’être bien fait
# ?
# La vie est trop courte pour mettre les brouillons au net : faisons des brouillons nets !
# Jean Claude Risset
#
# Se mettre un pas en arrière de soi même?
#
# Le summum de l’intelligence, c’est la bonté
# (et la droiture)
# Jorge Borgès
#
# Regarder avec les yeux de l’esprit
# H. This
#
# Vérifier ce que l’on nous dit
# Ne pas généraliser hâtivement
# Ayez des collaborations
# Y penser toujours
# Entretenez des correspondances
# Avoir toujours sur vous un calepin pour noter les idées
#
# Ne pas participer à des controverses
# Michael Faraday et Isaac Watts
#
# Penser avec humour des sujets sérieux (un sourire de la pensée)
# H. This
#
# « Comme chimiste, je passai cette oeuvre à la cornue ; il n'en resta que ceci : »
# ; se dissoudre dans, infuser, macérer, décoction, cristalliser, distiller, sublimer, purifier, alambiquer
# Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
#
# « Et c’est ainsi que la chimie est belle »
# H. This d’après Alexandre Vialatte
#
# Morgen Stund het Gold a Mund
# Proverbe alsacien
#
# Y penser toujours
# Louis Pasteur
#
# Ne pas confondre les faits et les interprétations
# Elémentaire
#
# Quand les lois sont mauvaises, il faut les changer
# H. This
#
# Ne pas faire de lois qui punissent les bons élèves, et ne pas faire des lois pour punir les mauvais si on ne les applique pas.
# Un conseil de H. This aux prétentieux qui font des lois
#
# Un homme qui ne connaît que sa génération est un enfant
# Cicéron
#
# Dieu vomit les tièdes
# La Bible
#
# Il n’est pas vrai que « La tête guide la main », ce qui est prétendu par une
# poutre du Musée du compagnonnage, à Tours : la tête et la main sont
# indissociables
# H. This
#
# Les calculs !!!!
# Tous les scientifiques dignes de ce nom
#
# Tout changer à chaque instant (vers du mieux !)
# H. This
#
# Chercher des cercles vertueux
# H. This
#
# Comme le poète, le chimiste et le physicien doivent maîtriser les métaphores
# H. This
#
# Le moi est haïssable
# Blaise Pascal
#
# Quels mécanismes ?
# La science en général
#
# N’oublions pas que nos études (scientifiques) doivent être JOVIALES
# Hervé This
#
# L’enthousiasme est une maladie qui se gagne
# Voltaire
#
# Clarifions (Mehr Licht)
# Goethe
#
# Tu viens avec une question, mais quelle est la réponse (utilise la méthode du soliloque)
# H. This
#
# Pardon, je suis insuffisant, mais je me soigne
# H. This
#
# Comment faire d’un petit mal un grand bien ?
# H. This
#
# Le diable est caché derrière chaque geste expérimental, et derrière chaque calcul
# H. This
#
# Les questions sont des promesses de réponse (faut-il tenir ces promesses). Vive les questions étincelles
# H. This
#
# La méditation est si douce et l’expérience si fatigante que je ne suis point étonné que celui qui pense soit rarement celui qui expérimente
# Diderot
#
# Comment pourrais-je gouverner autruy, moi qui ne me gouverne pas moi- même
# François Rabelais
#
# Prouvons le mouvement en marchant !
# Hervé This
#
# Comment passer du bon au très bon ? Comment donner à nos travaux un supplément d’esprit ?
# Hervé This
#
# Il faut des TABLEAUX : les cases vides sont une invitation à les remplir, donc à travailler!
# Hervé This
#
# Quelqu'un qui sait, c'est quelqu'un qui a appris.
# Marcel Fétyzon
#
# Il n'est pas nécessaire d'être lugubre pour être sérieux (le paraître n'est pas l'être).
# H. This
#
# Si le résultat d'une expérience est ce que l'on attendait, on a fait une mesure. Sinon on a fait une découverte.
# Franck Westheimer
#
# Il faut tendre avec efforts vers la perfection sans y prétendre.
# Michel-Eugène Chevreul
#
# Tu vois une régularité du monde ? Il devient urgent de s'interroger sur sa cause.
# H. This
#
# Une idée dans un tiroir n'est pas une idée
# H. This
#
#

jeudi 24 août 2017

Among the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : Bruno Laurioux

Regularly, I am telling you about the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy. This week, let me tell you about Bruno Laurioux:



Résultat de recherche d'images pour "bruno laurioux"











Educated at the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, graduated in history, Bruno Laurioux taught at the Unviersities  Paris VIII, Vincennes – Saint-Denis then Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, before being elected, in  2005, as a professor  of Middle Age history at the university of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines. 
From 2004 up to 2010, he lectured at the  École Pratique des Hautes Études, section history and philology sciences. 
Then, from 2006 to 2010, he was deputy scientific director, then scientific director  of the Department for sciences of human and society of  CNRS.



Bruno Laurioux is today professor of history of Middle Age and history of food at the University François-Rabelais, in Tours, France.



He is also the president of the Institut Européen d'Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation (IEHCA).


Bruno Laurioux published and directed many research works, and he is today one of the most famous specialist of food in the Middle Age.


The list of his works :  http://lea.univ-tours.fr/membres/publications-de-bruno-laurioux-1-3-519334.kjsp?RH=1345644849786




jeudi 17 août 2017

Hautes Etudes du Goût/Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : Pierre Combris

Among the extraordinary praofessors of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy (Hautes Etudes du Goût, de la Gastronomie et des Arts de la Table, Pierre Combris is very important.





Pierre Combris is an economist, emeritus research director at INRA.

Since 1996, he his the head of the Laboratory on Consumption Research. He studies food economy and food habits, as well as the mechanisms of choice by consumers.
He personnally studies the evolution of food concumption in France, from the 50's to today.
Also he is interested in the processes of choice in function of the characteristics of food and of the available information.

He his a member of the board of the Institut Français pour la Nutrition, expert for the Fonds Français pour l'Alimentation et la Santé.

jeudi 27 juillet 2017

Hautes Etudes du Goût/Advanced Studies in Gastronomy

I am not sure that I told you enough about our Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : this is a very successful educational institute, with the most extraordinary specialists teaching "gastronomy", i.e. the reasoned knowledge about man's nourishment.

Today, I am happy to tell you that my friend Jean-Christophe Augustin, from the French Académie d'agriculture de France, is teaching at this institute :



Jean-Christophe Augustin is professor at the National Veterinary School of Alfort, in the Hygiene, Food quality and security unit.

He is in charge of the « food microbiology » module for the Advanced Veterinary Studies Certificate, with a specific focus on « Food safety and quality management ».

He is an expert at ANSES (French Agency for Food Safety).

He has authored numerous teaching publications as well as scientific papers.

jeudi 18 mai 2017


Dear Friends

I did not tell you much, recently, about the professors of the Hautes Etudes du Gout, sorry.

This week : Gérard Liger-Belair

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "gérard liger-belair"














Gérard Liger-Belair is Professor of the  University  Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)


He created there the team Effervescence, Champagne and Applications (GSMA – UMR CNRS 7331), which studies the processes linked with the dynamic of bubbles in liquids with dissolved gases (from the bubbles of champagne to the foams of the industry).

For the last decades, he developed an expertise on foams and bubbles, objects which attracted physicists, chemists and mathematicians.
The processes associated with bubble formation in champagne were poorly known until recently. However, in a glass of champagne, all the steps from birth to death of bubbles can be studied. Generally bubble are created on immersed particles, on the glass, and it evolves until detaching, reaching the surface.
These tiny spheres of carbonic dioxyde generate a wealth of phenomena of unpredicted complexity, and which are responsible for the whole sensation of the drinker. For about 15 years, Gérard Liger-Belair and his colleagues are developing analytical tools for studying bubbles.

Géard Liger-Belair published about 100 scientific articles, and about 10 books, among which  :


- Effervescence ! la science du champagne, Odile Jacob, 2009
- Voyage au cœur d’une bulle de champagne, Odile Jacob, 2011
- Champagne, la vie secrète des bulles,Cherche-Midi,2014


He got scientific prizes for his research and publications. 


vendredi 14 avril 2017

Another teacher of the Hautes Etudes du Goût : Sidonie Naulin



Every week, I am happy to tell you about the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy, Hautes Etudes du Goût.

This week  : Sidonie Naulin





Sidonie Naulin is assistant professor of sociologie at Sciences Po Grenoble and in the Pacte Laboratory. She is studiying economic sociology, media sociology and food sociology.

A former students of the Ecole Normale Supérieur, with an agregation in social sciences, she did her PhD at the University Paris Sorbonne on food critic, trying to understand how is produced the information about food.
This PhD was published as a book in June 2017 (Presses universitaires de Rennes). From discussions, interviews, observations and a quantitative survey of text statistics, this book deals with the environment of culinary and gastronomic journalism. This history of this activity is done, and its current market is analyzed. Some chapters deal with particular biographies, daily work and celebrity analysis of some food critics, envisioning also  the new competitors who are food bloggers.

Today, she is interested by the biographies of chefs. She is participating to the ANR Capla project, in which she is doing a survey of chefs cooking in homes using internet sites for making contacts with customers.
She is going to study the biographies of cooks from data given by the LinkedIn social network.