In case you didn’t know the current world record for the world’s fastest ice cream is 10.34 seconds! To obtain the record you have to make one liter of ice cream from milk, sugar and flavoring (no eggs). Liquid nitrogen is used to rapidly cool and freeze the ice cream mixture. The current record was achieved by Andrew Ross (UK) at Cliffe Cottage in Sheffield,​ South Yorkshire,​ UK, on 6 June 2010. Prior to that the world record belonged to Peter Barham who in 2005 shaved two seconds of his previous record, ending at 18.78 seconds. To conclude his presentation on how food can be used to make students interested in physics and chemistry Peter decided to beat the current world record. Here’s a video of how it went:

Want to read more about the history of liquid nitrogen ice cream and find recipes? Then you should visit the webpages of The institute for liquid nitrogen ice cream experimental studies!

The Flemish Primitives aims to bring together chefs and scientists to promote culinary innovation. The last two editions held in Brugge focused on food pairing and new technologies. This year the event had moved to Oostende and the more spacious Kursaal (a good choice!). The event had also been stretched over two days, starting with 10 master classes in five parallel sessions on Sunday followed by a Gala dinner prepared by 13 Belgian chefs. The second day followed the format from previous years. The focus was on a group of Belgian chefs, the so-called Flemish Primitives as well as specially invited guests from abroad including René Redzepi and Michel Bras. All chefs prepared food live on stage. In between the chefs there was also time for two sessions with researchers from KU Leuven and a presentation of Modernist Cuisine by Chris Young.

Bruno Goussault, Sang-Hoon Degeimbre and Thomas Bühner busy giving their sous vide master class

As a scientist the master classes were of greatest interest to me, especially since the science played a less central role on the second day of TFP. I attended one master class about sous vide by Bruno Goussault, Sang-Hoon Degeimbre and Thomas Bühner and one by Quico Sosa on his range of flavors, extracts and condiments. Expect separate blog posts about these master classes.

Quico Sosa passionately advocated the use of pure flavors in cooking. -We don’t know the flavor of a fresh product anymore because we can’t buy it!, he claimed.

For the first time this year a number of awards were handed out. The “TFP Research award for the researcher or lab that has done remarkable work with importance for chefs” (only papers by Belgian scientists published during the last year were considered for this price though) went to a group from the Catholic University of Leuven who studied the flavor of a ripening banana: Instrumental based flavour characterisation of banana fruit (DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2009.05.024). The “TFP award for an international personality for supporting chefs in culinary solutions for go-between science and gastronomy” (how can anyone remember that name?) went to Bruno Goussault, the grandfather of sous vide who has more or less thaught all the major chefs most of what they know about sous vide.

Bruno Goussault receives the award for his life-long dedication to promote sous vide cooking from Bernard Lahousse

All in all it was once again a fascinating event. I admire TFP for bringing together science and cooking. It’s done in a very subtle way, the emphasis is always on the cooking and the chefs. Personally I could have wished for a little more focus on the science this year, but given that there are mainly chefs in the audience it’s a difficult balance. But with the delicate “wrapping” that TFP provides I’m sure the chefs could have taken a larger dose of science

René Redzepi won the Culinary Linchpin award of the year, and a bit startled he asked: What award was this? What did I win? (I admit that I didn’t know what a linchpin was either…)

Gene Bervoets holding one of the TFP awards which also deserves a mention: the prizes were 3D reproductions of the tiny air channels inside pears and apples as studied by Bart Nicolaï and his team using the ESRF synchrotron facility in Grenoble. Quite fascinating!

René Redzepi cooking on stage with Michel Bras and Sergio Herman

Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson lit a fire on stage to grill white cabbage. Good thing the smoke alarm didn’t go off!

With the risk of totally missing the point of his presentation: Kristof Coppens handled liquid nitrogen in a glass container without wearing safety goggles (yes – it was pyrex glass, but still…). This is stupid! Everyone: Please don’t learn from his example! Learn how to handle liquid nitrogen safely: Always wear safety goggles. Glass can easily shatter due to the extreme temperature differences involved.

And last but not least: Dominique “Shock-o-latier” Persoone left no one disappointed! Here his “Brazilian lips” (in co-operation with Sergio Herman and Alex Atalla) from the Gala dinner. When served a droplet of liquid was added to the sigarette, generating smoke!

I recently became aware of an excellent site focusing solely on liquid nitrogen ice cream! Ever heard about “The institute for liquid nitrogen ice cream experimental studies” or TILNICES for short? They’re located at the Department of Chemistry at the Tennessee Technological University. It seems that the site is still under construction, but several recipes are already available plus a number of papers (available for download as pdf files).

[Thanks to John Placko on the MG mailing list for mentioning the site]

I’ve just returned from the conference Euro Food Chem XIV which took place in Paris from August 29th to 31st 2007. One of the topics was “Molecular Gastronomy: objectives, development, international collaboration”, which as you might have guessed, was the reason I went there. There were several oral presentations and a whole number of poster presentations of interest to molecular gastronomists. It was great meeting again people who attended the 2004 Erice meeting. I also had the pleasure of interacting with several of Hervé This’ former and present students who share the same enthusiasm for molecular gastronomy and the application of scientific thinking to home cooking.

Hervé This and myself at the conference dinner (Photo by Daniel Kalnin)

Molecular gastronomy was only one of four topics at the conference, but fortunately Hervé This had arranged a special “Chefs meet scientists” session on the second day of the conference which attracted a large number of people in addition to those attending the EuroFoodChem conference.

The auditorium was packed for the “Chefs meet scientists” session

Following an introduction by Hervé This, there were presentations of molecular gastronomy activities in France, Spain and Portugal. These activities are directed towards both chefs and the general public. Representatives from Air liquide, a manufacturer of liquid nitrogen, had a presentation of various uses of liquid nitrogen for “cooking” purposes, followed by shorter presentations of tools, techniques and ingredients. The molecular gastronomy blogging community was well represented, and I was delighted to meet the people behind Food for design (Bernard Lahousse from Belgium), Jocooking (Joana Moura from Portugal) and Lamargueritaseagita (Jorge Ruiz Carracal from Spain) – their blogs are hereby recommended!

Hervé This fills in on Joana Moura’s presentation

Representatives from Air liquide demonstrating liquid nitrogen applications. In the picture a stainless steel disk has been cooled and is then used as an “inverted griddle”

Anne Cazor from Cuisine Innovation explains clarification of stock using traditional organic chemistry glass ware

All in all the conference and in particular the “Cheefs meet scientists” session and talking to people was truly inspiring and an excellent opportunity for me to catch up on what is moving in molecular gastronomy these days!