Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

MODERNIST INGREDIENTS
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Modernist cooking is in many ways defined by its
use of ingredientsas well as techniques and
equipmentthat are still new or unfamiliar to
most chefs. And just as Modernist techniques
such as slow, low-temperature sous vide cooking
in water baths and fast freezing in liquid nitrogen
have raised some new kitchen safety issues,
Modernist ingredients like gellan, xanthan gum,
and other exotic-sounding compounds have led
some to voice concerns that Modernist food might
pose health risks. We are frequently asked, “Aren’t
your dishes chock full of chemicals?”
We respond to that question with the honest
answer, “Of course they arejust like all food.”
After all, everything in food is a chemical compound.
Just 90 elements occur naturally on Earth.
All matter on Earth is made from those elements,
linked in various ways into compoundsthat is,
chemicals. All food, even the most natural or
organic, thus also consists entirely of chemical
compounds.
This book uses the same alphabet and the same
vocabulary of words as other books do. Yet this
book is clearly different from a spy novel, a mathematics
textbook, or even other cookbooks. What
makes it unique is not the letters or words in it, but
rather how those basic building blocks are composed
into sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.
In the same way, all matter on Earth is composed
of the same “alphabet”the elements
which are further composed into new “words”:
chemical compounds. The manner in which these
compounds are combined in a particular food
gives it a unique taste and texture in the same way
that the words in sentences and paragraphs make
a particular text unique.
When people ask about “chemicals” in food,
what they really mean is: “Are there bad chemicals
in this food that could harm me?” The short
answer is “No,” but the full answer is complex and
interesting enough that it warrants further
examination.
Many people are suspicious of food additives
that they perceive as “chemicals,” which have
become associated in the popular imagination
with low quality or health hazards. The reputation
for low quality is a result largely of the heavy use
of such additives by the packaged food industry,
which is driven primarily by a search for cheaper
ready-to-eat food products with longer shelf lives.
Ideally, everyone would like to maintain high
quality along with lengthy shelf life and low prices,
but the reality is that in most cases something has
to give, and quality is usually what suffers.
Preservativesadditives that counteract the
normal processes by which food goes staleslow
spoilage, but they don’t prevent food products
from degrading on the shelf. So stored food is
almost never as good as it was when freshbut it’s
usually the aging, not the preservatives, that
lowers the quality. Nevertheless, these products
tend to give all synthetic food ingredients a bad
reputation.
Artificial flavors pose another quality issue.
A synthetic flavoring product usually captures
only a few limited aspects of a natural flavor.
Natural flavor usually emerges from a complex
mixture of dozens or even hundreds of different
flavor compounds. A synthetic flavoring typically
matches only a small number of these, so it lacks
the rich complexity of the original taste.
For example, vanillin, the synthetic version
of vanilla, creates a sensory experience that is
nowhere near as compelling as that produced by
natural vanilla beans. Although synthetic vanilla
is an inferior substitute for the original, it exists
because it is cheap to produce.
Firmenich, Symrise, Takasago, and other
dedicated companies produce product flavorings
and essences that are high in quality (and often
Pectin is one of the hydrocolloid gums that have revolutionized
Modernist cooking. Yet it has been used by jam and jelly makers
for a very long time. It is purified from orange peels.
250 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
FOOD AND HEALTH 251