Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

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T H E H I S T O R Y O F
Modernist Cuisine Elsewhere
too, did not see a use for the technique.
In some cases, all of these roles are played
simultaneously by one person. That is a rarity,
however; the development of ideas is messy, and
these various phases can occur in any order. With
this messiness in mind, we have assembled a
timeline of some of the major developments in
Modernist cuisinesee page 78. Like the story of
liquid nitrogen or sous vide, the story of how any
culinary idea evolves is complicated, and we can’t
analyze each case exhaustively. The timeline is
based on our own research, which included an
informal survey of chefs.
Ideas with Owners
Being the first person to achieve a culinary
milestone has reputational advantages, but there
is another potential source of value: ownership of
intellectual property. In the ancient Greek city of
Sybaris, chefs who invented a new dish were
allowed to make it for a year without any competition.
In the modern world, similar (albeit
longer) periods of exclusivity are conferred by
intellectual property laws, but unfortunately in
Chefs around the world have embraced Modernist techniques.
We have had Modernist meals in remote mountain
lodges in Patagonia and other far-flung places. We can’t
possibly list every Modernist chef, but here is a sample of
the leading proponents worldwide.
In Japan, Yoshiaki Takazawa produces his own take on
Modernist food with strong Japanese influences at his
restaurant Aronia de Takazawa in Tokyo. It is a very personalized
experience—the restaurant only has two tables. Koji
Shimomura is the chef at Edition Koji Shimomura, another
Modernist restaurant. Seji Yamamoto has a more traditional
Japanese restaurant, Nihonryori RyuGin, that includes
a few Modernist touches.
Alvin Leung Jr. of Bo Innovation in Hong Kong cooks what
he calls “X-treme Chinese cuisine.” Anatoly Komm at Varvary
in Moscow uses Modernist techniques to reimagine
Russian classics like borscht and pelmeni. Claudio Aprile of
Colborne Lane in Toronto is one of the leading Modernist
most cases, not for chefs or their dishes.
From a legal standpoint, there are three primary
branches of intellectual property law: trademark,
copyright, and patent law. The first one isn’t
much help to most chefs, because trademark law is
primarily about names. For example, you can brew
your own brown-colored soda, but you can’t call it
Coca-Cola, because that name is a registered
trademark. Trademarks can only protect your
product’s name and other branding devices (such
as symbols and phrases), not the recipe or cooking
techniques used to make the product.
The second branch of intellectual property law
is only slightly more useful to chefs. In general,
copyright laws in most countries are about the
artistic expression of an idea. Classic examples of
copyrighted works include music, writing (both
fiction and nonfiction), and graphic art. The
content of this book is protected by copyright
lawyou’re not supposed to reprint it or copy
text or photographs from it without permission
from the copyright holder. But you could write
your own book, even on the same topic. The
legality of that book would hinge on whether it
included any literal copying. Reexpressing
chefs in Canada. In Italy, Modernist-inspired interpretations
on Italian themes can be found at several restaurants,
including Osteria La Francescana (chef Massimo Bottura), Le
Calandre (chefs Max and Raf Alajmo), Combal.Zero (chef
Davide Scabin), and Cracco (chef Carlo Cracco).
Belgium has L’Air du Temps (chef Sang-hoon Degeimbre),
Le Postay (chef Anthony Delhasse), and Restaurant Apriori
(chef Kristof Coppens). The Netherlands has Oud Sluis, with
chef Sergio Herman. In Germany, restaurant Maremoto, run
by chef Cristiano Rienzner, produces what he calls “metaphoric
cuisine.” Chef Juan Amador operates l’Amador,
featuring Modernist cuisine in a Spanish style.
In Austria, chef Martin Schneider produces Modernist
food at the Landhotel Kirchdach, as does Heinz Hanner of
Restaurant Hanner. Chef René Redzepi’s restaurant Noma
has recently been named the best in the world by at least
one survey. Located in Copenhagen, it features a new
approach to Nordic cuisine.
similar ideas with different words does not, as a
general rule, violate copyright.
As a result, copyright laws (in most of the
countries we are familiar with) don’t protect the
ideas behind a recipethe particular combination
of ingredients or ways they are assembled. Nor do
they prevent others from preparing the dishes
described by the recipes. These laws generally only
restrict people other than the copyright holder
from reprinting the recipe as it is published in a
book or other copyrighted work.
So it’s illegal to copy a recipe verbatim but not
illegal to pinch the idea and recast it in your own
style. Even relatively minor changes can be
enough to turn someone else’s recipe into your
own (at least as far as copyright law goes). And
there’s no legal obligation to cite the source of
inspiration for that recipe, though ethical writers
T HE HISTORY O F
Copying in Modernist Cuisine
Arguably, the phrase that ignited the Modernist movement
was chef Jacques Maximin’s pronouncement, “Creativity is
not copying.” When Ferran Adrià heard these words in
1986 (see page 33), he vowed to stop using cookbooks and
began developing his own recipes. Over the years, his style
evolved to place an ever greater emphasis on creativity.
Today, Adrià has inspired countless other chefs and,
ironically, now has many imitators.
So what is the role of imitation in Modernist cuisine? Is
true creativity antithetical to copying? Since novelty is so
important in this style of cooking, many Modernist chefs are
especially bothered by copycats.
Perhaps the most famous example of copying in Modernist
cuisine is the case of the Australian chef Robin Wickens,
who completed stages at Alinea, wd~50, and other Modernist
establishments, then produced exact replicas of a dozen
or so of their dishes at his Melbourne restaurant, Interlude.
In 2006, the online forum eGullet.com exposed the uncanny
similarities between Wickens’s dishes and those served at
the American restaurants. “He copied them so well I was
almost impressed,” Alinea chef Grant Achatz said. Following
the incident, Wickens wrote to Achatz and wd~50 chef Wylie
Dufresne to apologize.
A few weeks after blowing the whistle on Wickens, eGullet
exposed another case of copying, this time in Tokyo. Tapas
Molecular Bar, in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, was serving a
tasting menu that seemed to be identical to one originally
generally do so out of professional courtesy.
The third type of intellectual property law is
patent law. In some sense, it is the opposite of
copyrightit is designed to protect the fundamental
idea rather than the exact instantiation. Patents
only cover certain things; you can patent machines,
chemical compositions (including recipes),
software, and many other technological inventions.
Patent law applies to numerous aspects of food
preparation. Many food ingredients and techniques
are patented. At various points in this
book, we discuss patented techniques such as
espresso making (see page 4·372), pressure fryers
(see page 2·120), cheese emulsifiers (see page
4·218), Spam (see page 20), and methods of
carbonating whole fruit (see page 2·469). Most of
these patents have already lapsed into the public
domain, which happens roughly 20 years after the
served by José Andrés at his Washington, D.C., restaurant,
minibar. Like Wickens, the chef at Tapas Molecular Bar had
worked at the restaurant from which the dishes were apparently
copied. When Andrés learned of the similarities, he
called his lawyer and attempted to get the Mandarin Oriental
to pay him a licensing fee or change its menu.
Unfortunately, chefs have little legal recourse in cases
such as this, because in most countries copyright laws
restrict only the publication of cookbooks or recipes
elaborated with commentary or detailed guidance; neither
copying the simple list of ingredients nor making the
dishes themselves is covered. Most artists retain the
copyright to individual works: writers own their short
stories, photographers own their images, and composers
own their songs, even when these works appear on the
Internet. Chefs do not have the same kind of ownership of
their recipes. Thus, copying in cuisine is mostly a question
of professional ethics.
Chefs can, however, patent their recipes or technological
innovations if the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agrees
that the idea is truly novel. Getting a patent can be costly
and may take years, but some Modernist chefs, notably
Homaro Cantu of moto in Chicago, have applied for such
patents. Cantu’s famous “printed food” even contains a legal
notice: “Confidential Property of and © H. Cantu. Patent
Pending. No further use or disclosure is permitted without prior
approval of H. Cantu.”
70 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
HISTORY 71