Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

1
T HE HISTORY O F
Trade Secrets
and Indian curries. We hope that this book will play
a role in the dissemination of techniques to a wide
array of chefs who can use them as basic building
blocks in forging their own culinary vision.
The restaurants at the forefront of Modernist
cuisineelBulli, The Fat Duck, Alinea, Mugaritz,
wd~50, and many otherseach follow their own
styles and culinary vision. In the future, we will
see chefs develop more new styles and develop
new movements dedicated to them. Modernist art
got a kick start from the Impressionists, but the
movement surely did not end there. In the same
way, we think Modernist cuisine has a future that
includes a broad application of creativity beyond
anything we have seen so far.
In addition to trademarks, copyrights, and patents, there is a
fourth branch of intellectual property law: trade secrets. A
trade secret is a method, recipe, or approach that is hidden
from public view. In that sense, it is very different from
patents, copyrights, or trademarks, which are registered
with the government and thereby disclosed to the public.
It is up to the owner to keep a trade secret. If someone else
does her own research and re-creates the secret recipe or
technique, she has every legal right to use it. The only protection
provided by the law is a prohibition against outright
theft of the secret.
Colonel Sanders’s recipe for fried-chicken batter, which
famously contains “a blend of 11 herbs and spices,” is a trade
secret, as is the recipe for Coca-Cola. Like many companies,
KFC and Coca-Cola opted to use trade secrets instead of
patents because trade secrets are forever, whereas patents
typically last for about 20 years before becoming part of the
public domain.
Coca-Cola has maintained the secrecy of its soft-drink
formula for more than 100 years, at least in principle. Of
course, the reality is that the formula has changed over the
years: high-fructose corn syrup has replaced sugar, and there
have been many adjustments to the other ingredients.
Another advantage of trade secrets is that they apply to
things that would not be eligible for patent or copyright
protection. Most recipes fall into that category.
Critics point out that many companies use their “secret”
formula primarily as marketing hype. Although they do keep
the formula secret, it is unlikely that disclosing that formula
would dramatically change the company’s sales. This is
Of course, controversy over the new cuisine will
continue to erupt as the movement becomes part
of the culinary mainstream. People from the old
order will (quite naturally) feel threatened by it. In
reality, the Modernist revolution does not threaten
traditional food and will never make it obsolete.
But many lovers of traditional cuisine will surely
continue to feel threatened and worry, just as
traditionalists did when Modernist painting and
architecture emerged.
Indeed, architecture is probably a closer
analogy to cooking than painting or other art
forms are, because architecture has a strong
utilitarian aspect. People must have buildings for
shelter, and as a result, most buildings on Earth
particularly true now that the tools of modern analytical
chemistry make it easier than ever to reverse engineer a
formula or recipe.
There is little doubt that the Colonel’s 11 herbs and spices
could be identified and quantified by any competitor who
spent enough time in the lab. Indeed, the Internet is rife with
people’s best guesses about secret recipes and formulas. A
recent product called OpenCola even promotes itself on the
basis of having a published, open-source recipe.
Despite the limitations, large food companies do engage
in legal fights over trade secrets. Bimbo Bakeries USA, the
makers of Thomas’ English Muffins, filed a lawsuit in 2010 to
block one of its executives from taking a job with Hostess
Brands, a rival commercial baked-goods company. In a court
brief, Bimbo’s lawyers argued that at Hostess, the executive
“could produce an English muffin that might look a bit
different, but that would nevertheless possess the distinctive
taste, texture, and flavor character that … have been the
foundation of the product’s success.”
Most serious chefs don’t see much value in secrets and have
a tradition of being open with their recipes. They know that it
is hard to keep secrets, with sous chefs and stagiers coming
and going. Modernist chefs, in particular, tend to be quite
willing to share what they have learned with others. Gaining
credit as an innovator makes more sense than trying to keep
secrets. That philosophy doesn’t apply to some areas of
cooking, which are steeped in secrecy—for example, chili or
barbecue in the American South, bouillabaisse in Marseille, or
cassoulet in southwestern France. With these foods, it’s
typical to find people jealously guarding their secret recipes.
are quite mundane; warehouses, office buildings,
shopping malls, and homes all need to exist for
very prosaic reasons. Yet architecture can also be
an exhilarating art form. The work of architects
like Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Santiago Calatrava,
and Tadao Ando (to name just a few) can serve
both artistic and functional purposes. They are
works of high art that also give us shelter.
Yet the styles of the great masters of architecture
are in no way the same. A museum or bridge by
Calatrava is instantly recognizable to anyone who
has even a passing familiarity with his work. Gehry
or Piano, if given the same commission, would
create totally different structures. We see these
distinctions in competitions, where many architects
present proposals for a major new building.
Of course, most of the world’s buildings weren’t
created by famous architectscutting-edge
architects only design a tiny fraction of them.
Many architects don’t aspire to artistry; others do,
but they have a traditional aesthetic that does not
push the boundaries. Most buildings are still
constructed in a very traditional style.
In the same way, most food isn’t meant to be
Further Reading
For a list of cookbooks by chefs mentioned
in the chapter, see the further reading list
near the end of volume 5, on page 5·II.
Barham, P. The Science of Cooking.
Springer, 2001.
Blumenthal, H. Family Food.
Penguin Global, 2006.
Brillat-Savarin, J. A. Physiologie du Goût.
Echo Library, 2008.
Carême, M. A. L’Art de la Cuisine Française
au XIX e Siècle. Adamant Media, 2001.
Child, J. Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Corriher, S. O. BakeWise: The Hows and
Whys of Successful Baking. Scribner, 2008.
Dauin, A. Le Nouveau Cuisinier Gascon.
Stock, 1981.
Escoffier, A. The Escoffier Cookbook and
Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery.
Crown Publishers, 2000.
high art. It is made to satisfy people’s hunger and,
one hopes, to give a bit of pleasure along the way.
Chefs on the line at a steak house and short-order
cooks at a diner serve an important role in society,
much like the architects who design buildings that
are not at the cutting edge of architecture, but still
serve a functional purpose.
Food can also be high art. Some of that can be
art that falls within a traditional culinary aesthetic,
but the scope of art is much broader than that.
The Modernist revolution is perhaps the purest
expression of food as art. Stripped of rules and
conventions, and with dishes that provoke thought
and engage the diner in a culinary dialogue,
Modernist cuisine is the first major culinary
movement that self-consciously sets out to be art.
Much like great architecture, Modernist food
generally isn’t for everyday consumption, and
because it is intellectually demanding, it may not
be for everyone. Like many artistic movements,
Modernist cuisine has a theoretical framework for
achieving its goals. And when it succeeds, it does
so magnificently, creating dining experiences that
could not exist in any other way.
Fernandez-Armesto, F. Near a Thousand
Tables: A History of Food. Free Press, 2003.
García, D. Dani García: Técnica y contrastes.
Montagud Editores, 2004.
Grocock C., Grainger, S. Apicius.
Prospect Books, 2006.
Hill, S., Wilkins, J. Archestratus: Fragments
from the Life of Luxury. Prospect Books, 2011.
Kamozawa, A., Talbot, A. H. Ideas in Food:
Great Recipes and Why They Work.
Clarkson Potter, 2010.
Marshall, A. Fancy Ices. Marshall’s School of
Cookery, 1885.
McGee, H. The Curious Cook: More Kitchen
Science and Lore. Wiley, 1992.
McGee, H. Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to
Making the Best of Foods and Recipes.
Penguin Press, 2010.
Montagne, P. Larousse Gastronomique.
Crown Publishers, 1961.
Pegge, S. The Forme of Cury.
BiblioBazaar, 2006.
Extreme architecture, like Frank Gehry’s
magnificent Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
coexists with far more conventional and
traditional buildings around it.
Poggioli, R. The Theory of the Avant-Garde.
Harvard University Press, 1981.
Roca, J., Brugus, S. Sous Vide Cuisine.
Montagud Editores, 2005.
Sokolov, R. Why We Eat What We Eat: How
Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats.
Touchstone, 1993.
Steingarten, J. The Man Who Ate Everything.
Vintage, 1998.
This, H. Building a Meal: From Molecular
Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism.
Columbia University Press, 2009.
This, H. Cooking: The Quintessential Art.
University of California Press, 2010.
This, H. Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the
Science of Cooking. Columbia University
Press, 2007.
This, H. The Science of the Oven.
Columbia University Press, 2009.
Varenne, F. La Varenne’s Cookery. Prospect
Books, 2006.
Wrangham, R. Catching Fire: How Cooking
Made Us Human. Basic Books, 2010.
76 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
HISTORY 77