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patent is first filed (the actual rules on patent
lifetime are more complicated, but that range is
the gist of it). That is the whole point of patent
law: in return for filing a patent that discloses the
secret of how to do something, you get two
decades of exclusive access to the technique.
After that, the idea becomes fair game for anyone
who wants to use it.
There are also hundreds of patents on food
techniques that are currently in effect. Of the many
pieces of equipment and distinctive ingredients
discussed in this book, some are covered by
patents. We have highlighted certain cases where
patents are in place, but it would not have been
practical to discuss all patents on all items featured
in this book. We take no responsibility for ensuring
that the technologies discussed here are not
subject to patents. On the other hand, essentially
any cookbook, magazine, or website that features
cutting-edge techniques faces the same issue.
Diners at Homaru Cantu’s famous Modernist
restaurant moto (see page 69) are sometimes
surprised to see a patent notice on the bottom of
the menu that warns that many of the techniques
used in the restaurant may be patented by the
chef’s company, Cantu Designs. Part of his
business strategy is to patent technologies that he
develops for use in the restaurant.
This brings up a question that we are often
asked: can Modernist chefs patent new dishes and
techniques? I am an inventor by profession; as of
this writing, I have received 115 patents on my
own inventions across a number of technological
fields, and I have applications pending for more
than 500 othersand thousands more indirectly
through the inventions created by my company.
But so far very few of these are related to cooking.
As much as I love to cook and to invent, it is
actually quite difficult to come up with a genuinely
new invention in cooking that is patentable. The
first reason is novelty: in order to qualify for a
patent, a technique has to be truly new. The reality
is that most ideas in cooking aren’t new in the
sense required by the patent office.
The next hurdle is economic. It costs money to
get a patent; between legal fees and fees to the
patent office, you’re looking at $10,000 to $25,000
or more to obtain a U.S. patent, and fees in most
other countries are similarly high. This investment
typically gives you patent rights only in a single
countryit costs that much again if you want
rights in another country.
Of course, getting the patent is only part of the
battle; you then need to license the patent to
someone or to start a company to produce the
product yourself. A cooking technique that is
relevant to high-end, low-volume Modernist
restaurants almost certainly has too little economic
value to make it worth the cost of the patent.
If the idea works on a large scale and would be
relevant to industrial food production, that is a
different storythen it could be very worthwhile
to file a patent, as it was for Curt Jones with Dippin’
Dots. But then your competition is the processedfood
industry with its inventions of the past
century, so creating something truly new and
patentworthy is difficult. The year of exclusivity
that ancient Sybaris gave its chefs was, in hindsight,
much simpler and more practical than the protection
intellectual property law gives chefs today.
What Next?
The Modernist revolution is still in its infancy.
The Fat Duck and elBulli have traded positions on
various lists as the best restaurants on Earth, but
most cities still don’t have a Modernist restaurant.
Indeed, there are a comparative handful of
restaurants practicing a fully Modernist style, and
most of them are listed in sidebars in this chapter.
Over time, that will change, and the Modernist
movement will expand in new directions. We can
already see that happening, as young chefs take up
the cause and seek to apply their skills in new
ways. The future for the Modernist movement
seems very bright.
The next stages in the Modernist revolution will
have several aspects. At the high end, a set of
talented chefs are marching forward with ever
bolder and more novel creations. At this point,
there are no signs of the revolution slowing or of
chefs running out of creative new ideas.
This doesn’t mean all Modernist cooking will
look like today’s examples. The first generation of
Modernists chefs have their own distinctive styles,
much as the Impressionists had theirs. But Impressionism
didn’t last forever; subsequent
generations of artists created their own movements
under the umbrella of “modern art.” The
same thing will happen with Modernist cuisine.
New schools and movements will emerge, with
their own aesthetic principles and styles. It may be
quite different from today’s Modernist food, but
we think it will still be Modernist in spirit.
Meanwhile, other ambitious chefs are adopting
the Modernist approach in their cuisine. Foams,
gels, and other inventions of the Modernist
movement are appearing on more and more
menus as a bright spot of innovation in an otherwise
more conventional setting.
This second group of chefs may not be expanding
the scope of Modernist cuisine with utterly
novel techniques, but they are creating exciting
food that is stylistically Modernist and helps
introduce the approach to a wider group of people
outside the lucky few who can visit the restaurants
of Modernist masters. Over time, many of these
early adopters will themselves rise to master status.
An interesting phenomenon is that many New
International restaurants begin their experimentation
with new techniques via the pastry chef. Pastry
has always been a more technically oriented
discipline than savory cooking. To pastry chefs,
Modernist techniques and methods don’t seem so
foreign. Pastry chefs like Johnny Iuzzini of Jean
Georges, Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin, and
many others like them help bring techniques of the
Modernist revolution to the more conservative
New International kitchens in which they work.
Home chefs are part of the arc of adoption,
too. Sous vide machines designed for home use
are now on the market, and eGullet.org and other
THE HISTORY OF
Sous Vide at Home
Home chefs were largely excluded from the first phase of
the sous vide revolution. In the early 1980s, Canadian
researcher Pierre de Serres developed a sous vide-like
system for home cooks. De Serres’s system included a
SmartPot that was similar to a conventional crock pot or
slow cooker and acted like a simplified water bath. Instead
of using a vacuum packer, de Serres advocated using open
plastic bags that hung in the water from clips at the top. This
technique kept the open end of the bag out of the water. The
system was sold in Canada but never caught on broadly.
Amateur sous vide largely began in 2004, when I posted
Internet forums are giving people access to
information that was previously almost impossible
for nonprofessionals to come by (see Sous
Vide at Home, below). A few pieces of equipment,
like centrifuges and freeze dryers, may
remain out of reach to the home cook, but
virtually all of the most important techniques in
the Modernist repertoire can be executed in a
well-equipped residential kitchen.
Finally, the Modernist movement has had some
important trickle-down benefits for chefs cooking
in other styles. The path that Blumenthal started
out onusing the latest scientific knowledge and
technology to perfectly execute classic dishesis
now being followed by many chefs.
Sous vide got its start this way at Maison
Troisgros. It has since been adopted by Thomas
Keller, whose book, Under Pressure, made the
technique accessible to cooks in the Englishspeaking
world. If Keller’s impeccable cuisine can
be made sous vide, what excuse is there for other
chefs not to apply the method to their own?
The trickle-down effect won’t stop at sous vide.
Techniques like centrifugation, vacuum filtering,
dehydration, and many others also have a role in a
New International kitchen. So do ingredients like
xanthan gum. Over time, we will see more and
more cooks and chefs using these Modernist
approaches to create food that may not appear to be
overtly Modernist in style. Indeed, in volume 5 of
this book, you will find Modernist recipes for
familiar-looking hamburgers, Southern barbecue,
a request for sous vide recipes and guides to cooking sous
vide at home on the Internet site eGullet.org. This thread
soon became a central point of communication between
professional chefs (many of whom use the site) and amateurs.
Both groups learned a lot; indeed, a great deal of
technical information on sous vide first appeared on
eGullet instead of in books or articles. As of this writing,
the thread contains about 3,700 postings on sous vide by
hundreds of contributors. It has been viewed more than
550,000 times and is a major clearinghouse for information
on sous vide.
72 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
HISTORY 73