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About Khymos Blog Marketplace Molecular gastronomy History Definitions Flavor/flavour pairings Meat Boiling eggs Recipes Recipe collection Wine Tools Links People Institutions Audio & video Articles Webresources Molecular mixology Wine Education Suppliers TGRWT Books Favorites Molecular gastronomy Aroma & taste Reference & techniques Cookbooks Food chemistry Wine Historic interest Other languages Everyday chemistry Presentation/photography Videos Films and Docu's Norwegian page Babelfish translation German, French Italian, Portugese Spanish, Chinese Japanese, Korean Last updated 2009-01-20 webmaster (at) khymos.org Copyright © 2003-2009 Martin Lersch	Some definitions of molecular gastronomy: The application of scientific principles to the understanding and improvement of domestic and gastronomic food preparation. (Peter Barham) The art and science of choosing, preparing and eating good food. (Thorvald Pedersen) The scientific study of deliciousness. (Harold McGee) Combining the 'know how' of cooks with the 'know why' of scientists Hervé This in his article "Molecular Gastronomy" in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie lists five focus points for molecular gastronomy (these originated from his PhD thesis): Question culinary know-how and proverbs Understand culinary processes and recipies Introduce new products, new tools and new methods Invent new dishes End the bad public image that science often has However, in a recent article, he comments that this five-point scheme was a major mistake because 3 and 4 are technological, not scientific, and 5 is political. Because of this, he has recently changed the objectives of what he thinks molecular gastronomy should be. He notes that a dish contains a “love” component, an “art” component and a “technical” component. And molecular gastronomy should investigate these three, but only from a scientific point of view. Or formulated in a slightly more precise fashion (adapted from here): Investigate the social phenomena linked to culinary activity Investigate the chemical and physical aspects of the artistic component Investigate the technical component by a) modeling definitions and b) collecting and testing culinary precisions, as well as the reasons for their appearance It should also be noted that Hervé This reserves the term "molecular gastronomy" for the scientific investigations, whereas techniques and dishes which evolve from this kind of research should be termed "molecular cooking" or "molecular cuisine". As a result, no restaurant or chef should use the term "molecular gastronomy". As more and more cooks have embraced the term "molecular gastronomy" as something trendy, others have abandonded the term. As a result there is quite some confusion about what it really means. For a starter, read what Michael Ruhlman and Harold McGee write about this. Find links to more extensive descriptions of molecular gastronomy in the articles and webresources sections. I have also compiled a comprehensive list of books about molecular gastronomy. For a continuous update, check out the blog. Tags: molecular gastronomy