Khymos » Alicia http://blog.khymos.org - dedicated to molecular gastronomy Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:41:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Cooking science – condensed matter http://blog.khymos.org/2011/08/22/cooking-science-condensed-matter/ http://blog.khymos.org/2011/08/22/cooking-science-condensed-matter/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:06:11 +0000 Martin Lersch http://blog.khymos.org/?p=2684

The book Cooking science – Condensed matter by Adria Vicenc came out last year, but only recently did it appear on my radar. This 75 page preview suggests that it is part coffee table book and part documentation of modern Catalan cuisine combined with short essays on various topics such as food preservation and synaesthetic cooking. Add to that a dash of technology and large photos and descriptions of a sous vide water bath, a rotary evaporator, a freeze drier etc. It’s kind of like a light version of Modernist Cuisine. In his introduction Ferran Adria states that: “As has happened throughout history in the majority of the stages of human evolution, the new technologies act as a support for the progress of cookery”. This is technology with a purpose: better food!

More information in Catalan, Spanish and English is available from the Materia Condensa website. The book features QR codes which lead to various digital resources (also available directly from the website).


The book features a periodic table of preserves (full resolution view available through this preview) which I’ve now added to my list of other food related periodic tables. Fun? Yes! Useful? Probably not…

]]> http://blog.khymos.org/2011/08/22/cooking-science-condensed-matter/feed/ 0 International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science http://blog.khymos.org/2009/03/25/international-journal-of-gastronomy-and-food-science/ http://blog.khymos.org/2009/03/25/international-journal-of-gastronomy-and-food-science/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:28:23 +0000 Martin Lersch http://blog.khymos.org/?p=876

The International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science (IJGFS) is planned for launch this year. Elsevir is mentioned as a publisher, but there is currently no further information on the Elsevir website. The journal is initiated by AZTI-tecnalia, a Spanish technology center specializing in marine and food research, in collaboration with ALICIA, a Catalan research centre focusing on technological innovation in kitchen science and the dissemination of agronourishment and gastronomic heritage. The restaurant Mugaritz and the websites aliment@tec and Ciencia y gastronomia also have their logos on the IJGFS website. The objective of the journal is to “fill the gap in the expanding fields of Gastronomy and Food Science, by adopting a scientific approach”.

In addition to scientific papers and review articles they plan to publish “original recipes” which is novel and unusual for a scientific journal. I must say that I’m curious about how the peer review process of “original recipe” contributions will be. How do you judge novelty and originality of a recipe? For scientific work this is easier as there are comprehensive databases of previously published work. No such database exists for recipes. Nevertheless, it is a goal for the journal to become a communication channel betwen chefs and food scientists, and we’ll probably see recipe contributions from both groups. If the concept of the journal works out and they actually manage to get contributions from chefs and scientists (and hopefully also some joint contributions) the journal will become a quite unique addition to the more food science oriented journals!

From the descriptions it seems that the journal will cover scientific, technological and practical aspects of molecular gastronomy, even though they completely avoid using the molecular gastronomy! Instead they list the following areas of interest: Gastronomy in perspective, Food Science and Gastronomy and Innovation in Gastronomy. Regardless of which labels they use, this all sounds very interesting to me!

An invitation to contribute has been sent out by email and in case you didn’t receive one but would like to contribute I’d recommend you to check out the online invitation and fill out the application form. I’ll return with an update once the journal goes live.

]]> http://blog.khymos.org/2009/03/25/international-journal-of-gastronomy-and-food-science/feed/ 4 “Dialogos de Cocina” with molecular gastronomy webcasts http://blog.khymos.org/2007/03/13/dialogos-de-cocina-with-molecular-gastronomy-webcasts/ http://blog.khymos.org/2007/03/13/dialogos-de-cocina-with-molecular-gastronomy-webcasts/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:49:08 +0000 Martin Lersch http://blog.khymos.org/2007/03/13/dialogos-de-cocina-with-molecular-gastronomy-webcasts/ Dialogos de Cocina took place in San Sebastian, Spain, on March 12 and 13. Monday’s program featured a session on Technology, Technique and Science which should be of great interest to the molecular gastronomy community. The sessions have been made available as webcasts available in English, French and Spanish. Look out for the following topics:

Monday, March 12

16.00-16.30
Other Ways of Thinking, Toni Massanes (Fundación Alicia).

16.40-17.10
Other Ways of Understanding, Antonio Duch (Fundación Azti).

17.20-17.50
Other Ways of Doing it, Harold McGee.

18.00-18.30
Other Ways of Seeing it, Davide Cassi.

18:40-19:40
What can Science Offer us in Addition to Techniques and Technology?,
Round table discussion with Toni Massanes (Fundación Alicia), Antonio Duch (Fundación Azti), Harold Macgee (writer), Davide Cassi (scientist), Heston Blumenthal (chef).

Update: Kate Hill at IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) has written an extensive report on the meeting.

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