Yesterday, I had the chance to do an interview with Patrice Demers, a renowned chef in Montreal, especially for his appearance on the show Les Chefs and Patrice pastry. As in Paris, I arrived at the restaurant not knowing what I was getting into. I had previously been warned that Patrice had a very interesting way to include science in the lab, but I did not expect a scientific knowledge as thorough. Although for Patrice, molecular cuisine seems to refer to everything about science in the kitchen (not the innovation of cooking techniques), he confessed that when he did not understand certain phenomena present under his eyes, his recipes seemed incomplete. He also explained how his team apply certain molecular techniques. For example :
Gelatin is a pure protein obtained from animal raw materials containing collagen. It contains up to 90% proteins (eight of the nine essential amino-acids for human life), 2% minerals and 8% water. It is both an emulsifier and a gelling agent. Gelatin is first used in molecular cuisine for its thermo-reversible properties: it gels at a temperature below 15 degree Celsius and liquefies at a temperature of about 35 degree Celsius.
Vacuum cooking consists in sealing the ingredients in bags and diving them into a water bath set to the degree through a heat pump. It avoids the evaporation of liquid and the loss of weight and oligo-elements. Is is also called low temperature cooking : cooking times are noticeably longer as it is necessary to eliminate the risk of bacterial growth. This technique also allows to keep cooked food for several weeks because when not in presence of oxygen, contamination risks are minimized.
Gelatin is a pure protein obtained from animal raw materials containing collagen. It contains up to 90% proteins (eight of the nine essential amino-acids for human life), 2% minerals and 8% water. It is both an emulsifier and a gelling agent. Gelatin is first used in molecular cuisine for its thermo-reversible properties: it gels at a temperature below 15 degree Celsius and liquefies at a temperature of about 35 degree Celsius.
Vacuum cooking consists in sealing the ingredients in bags and diving them into a water bath set to the degree through a heat pump. It avoids the evaporation of liquid and the loss of weight and oligo-elements. Is is also called low temperature cooking : cooking times are noticeably longer as it is necessary to eliminate the risk of bacterial growth. This technique also allows to keep cooked food for several weeks because when not in presence of oxygen, contamination risks are minimized.