In the seemingly endless series of new books related to molecular gastronomy appearing this fall I just found out that Hervé This and Pierre Gagnaire also have a book due in October: “Cooking - The Quintessential Art”. The book is part of the California Studies in Food and Culture series which features interdisciplinary texts and has been characterized as “an intellectual exercise wholly removed from food-entertainment television”. The book is divided in five parts with the following titles which give further clues to the style of the book: The Beautiful Is the Good, Classical Ideas of Beauty, Beauty in the Middle Ages, Artistic Creativity Unbound, and The Present and Future of Cooking.

The book opens with the question “How can we reasonably judge a meal?”, signifying that this is not a cook book. According to the publisher:

This explores an astonishing variety of topics and elaborates a revolutionary method for judging the art of cooking. Many of the ideas he introduces in this culinary romance are illustrated by dishes created by Pierre Gagnaire, whose engaging commentaries provide rare insights into the creative inspiration of one of the world’s foremost chefs. The result is an enthralling, sophisticated, freewheeling dinner party of a book that also makes a powerful case for openness and change in the way we think about food.

Finally it’s time to round up my ten tips for moleceular gastronomy with the shortest of them all:

10. Have fun!

I sincerely believe that whatever you do, you do it better if you enjoy it. This isn’t a very scientific statement, but I’m sure there are bunches of scientific papers proving this, and my excuse is that I wouldn’t know where to start searching for them (perhaps anyone can help?)

If you had fun preparing the food it’s definitely going to taste better when you eat it. And if you enjoy the company of good friends it’s going to taste even better (as pointed out by Hervé This previously). In his elaboration of what molecular gastronomy is (or should be), Hervé This emphasizes that the social phenomena linked to cooking and eating are among the topics that should be studied scientifically. In the first post summing up the 10 tips I mentioned the research done at Grythyttan in Sweden which has resulted in the “Five Aspects Meal Model” which captures a little of this. And I also stated that

average food eaten together with good friends while you’re sitting on a terrace with the sun setting in the ocean will taste superior to excellent food served on plastic plates and eaten alone in a room with mess all over the place

Perhaps this is what Paul Bocuse was touching upon as well when he was interviewed by a local newspaper in Stavanger where the Bocuse d’Or Europe final recently was held. Being questioned about what his greatest culinary experiences were he answered (my translation):

- I’ve travelled a lot and been lucky to taste delicacies from many different countries, but nothing compares to simple dishes were the pot is placed in front of you on the table and where you have the opportunity to help yourself several times until the food gets cold.

Hey - I’d be happy to invite him over for dinner. He sounds like an easy guest to please

One of my intentions with the “10 tips” series has been to move the focus a little bit away from what too many have come to associate with molecular gastronomy - foam, alginate spheres and cooking with liquid nitrogen to mention a few. For me it has been a great oppurtunity to research a number of topics and I’m very thankful for all the feedback from readers! And in case it sounds as if I’m going to quit blogging I can let you know that the number of drafts for future blog posts is steadily increasing… So many interesting topics, so little time … But I’ll try to finish some of them soon.

Not only do I have fun cooking - blogging is also great fun! Here’s my blog as viewed on an OLPC (shown in tablet mode) obtained through the G1G1 program. Notice the screen which in the picture shown operates in a reflective, high-resolution black and white mode that is sunlight readable!

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There is a summary of the “10 tips for practical molecular gastronomy” posts. The collection of books (favorite, molecular gastronomy, aroma/taste, reference/technique, food chemistry) and links (people/chefs/blogs, webresources, institutions, articles and audio/video) at khymos.org might also be of interest.