no chemicals please !!!
Most of us agree that molecular gastronomy is not necessarily the luckiest pick for what is going on now in the culinary world. I prefer to call it “avent garde cuisine”, and it is just an evolutionary step in our kitchens. Well this subject has been discussed many times on other blogs and I don’t plan on discussing this again.
Though somehow I feel we can not rid the stigma of “I don’t like chemicals in my food” or “I was trained old school and don’t like the modern stuff”
As an offspring of a family of restaurateurs and chefs from my mother side and chemists from father side I somewhat hope to be able to relate to both statements above; and as hard as i try i can not.
As a chemist I would say we are surrounded by chemicals, we are composed by chemicals and we cook with chemicals. I just think of the two most used chemicals in any kitchen. H20 and NaCl. One we call hydrogen oxide or water, basis of life, our earth is covered by 70% of it and our bodies consist of an even higher percentage. The other sodium chloride or salt, essential to our vital functioning of our bodies and one of the first minerals mined by manhood.
As a chef looking through our shelfs we find even more complicated chemicals and compounds of organic and even inorganic matter. I really could elaborate on that matter and my father, uncle and three of my cousins all chemists would be proud of me doing so. I wont since I think I made my point. Chemicals are everywhere in our kitchen …. like it or not
The other statement I hear so often also stuns me. “..I learned to traditional way ..” of “…old school..”
that is great for you. Again, if 50.000 years ago manhood would have kept eating raw meat, harvested grains in their raw state and never changed we would still do so today. Manhood found, though not clear exactly when, that roasted meat was more tender, palatable and easier to chew and digest. Well here we go, the evolution of cooking started and ever since has been refined.
“.. but this is not what I meant, I mean I don’t like the processed stuff…” oh please. give me a break. ever since we started cooking we also tried to find ways to also preserve our food. First there we used salt, yes the same chemical we call NaCl, which we used to cure our meats with; smoke, black pepper, followed soon. We also learned to ferment and pickle, all these are processed foods. And yet they are integral part of our ancestors survival through winter and are still part of todays cooking. Anything we touch in our kitchen in order to modify it to make it palatable to our guests is a process. Just as simple as peeling a carrot is a process. Going out into the garden picking a tomato and cutting it in quarters and sprinkling it with NaCl is a even more complex process than just peeling a carrot.
Today we are at a point where we utilize our previous knowledge, apply it, question it, challenge it, redefine it or sometimes even toss it. We use science to understand the underlying physics and chemistry to deliver an even better product. What exactly is wrong with that? Barely 100 years ago we fired our stoves with wood, then came the gas. Anybody could imagine cooking without it? Well even wasteful from an energy standpoint we still do so. And over the years other technologies and techniques emerged, like electric stove tops, induction, sous vide, combi-ovens (yes love those RATIONALs). If wood would have been the best choice we would all still cook on wood fired stove tops. Don’t get me wrong there is a certain romantic to it, on the other hand I cant imagine getting wood in the morning, firing up the stove and wait an hour or two to get my first cup of coffee.
“… but you don’t understand what I am trying to say, I don’t want to use all these powders, when I don’t know what they are…”
Then read the label and learn about them. If you eat seaweed then agar shouldn’t be a stranger to you. Just because it is another form. If one seems not to have a problem using powdered sugar (and I am sure most can not tell me the chemical formula of sugar either) why would be agar or any other powdered or pure form of any substance so different?
