04.25.2007

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For more Hartman Group articles on DINING, click here...

04.18.2007 "Postmodern Dining"

11.29.2006 "Understanding the Foodie Consumer"

09.20.2006 "Rethinking Food Safety"

04.26.2006 "The Rise of Single-Serve Packaging"

10.20.2005 "The Uncertain Future of Meal Preparation Retail"

11.11.2004 "What's for Dinner?"

09.23.2004 "Asian Dinner Mixes and the Family Meal"

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Postmodern Dining: Molecular Gastronomy

A Tinderbox Commentary

The ascension of the Alice Water's inspired movement toward "all things fresh, local and seasonal," reached its apex in recent years. Key fresh departments in grocery perimeters have all but decimated the once revered center store. Likewise many better grocers proudly display the pedigrees of produce, dairy, meats and seafood for all to ponder.

Our parents had the sad misfortune of eating plain, old beef. We, on the other hand, can choose between the grass-fed character of Misty Isles Farms beef or the supreme marbled texture of Snake River Farm's "Kobe style" beef, the latter attributed to their fondness for the Wagyu cattle.

The same goes for restaurant menus, where something as simple as a roasted chicken with mushroom entree is often accompanied by elaborate descriptions of the bird's pedigree, birthplace and lifestyle habits ("Johnson Farms, free-range, spring harvested chicken"), not to mention your mushroom's harvesting techniques ("locally foraged").

And just as many grocers, restaurant chains and food manufacturers are finally beginning to understand the fact that the Alice Waters movement is for real and has captured the imagination of the American consumer, it is only fitting that the next step in sophisticated food experiences is to swing boldly, 180 degrees in the opposite direction. We are referring, of course, to the meteoric rise of what analysts have dubbed "molecular gastronomy" - the application of arcane, esoteric processing technologies and innovative techniques to break food down to its constituent elements before then refashioning it into something entirely different - and new!

Led by the 1990s experimentation of Ferran Adria at the famed restaurant El Bulli in Spain, American chefs have followed suit with a smattering of high-tech, experimental restaurants in Chicago (Alinea, Moto), New York (wd-50) and all parts in between. Class IV lasers, edible parchments, foams, aromatic airs, froths, smokes, freeze-dried powders and paint-sprayer "snows" are the new tool and techniques deployed by chefs who've grown tired of the local, seasonal, organic mantra Waters and crew have been preaching for the past 30-odd years.

Case in point, Grant Achatz's restaurant Alinea was named the best restaurant in America this year by Gourmet magazine. The restaurants features a 25 course, $195 tasting menu that is, by most standards, extreme. Consider Meg Hourihan's description of a single course:

"Seeing the 'granola' suspended in its rosewater enveloped on a thin wire was seeing food transformed not just to art, but to sculpture. Eating off a pillow as it slowly deflated and perfumed the air with the scent of orange blossoms sounds overwrought; it was intoxicating. The interplay between device and delicacy was uplifting and fun, yet in no way detracted from the usability. In fact it made the experience quite intellectual, as you were confronted not just with the flavors of the meal, but with expectations of how it could be consumed. Why do we need forks again?"

As with all emerging movements or trends, it is often challenging to nail down exactly what "molecular gastronomy" stands for or represents. After lengthy analysis, the closest description we can come up with is the deployment of any and all of the available scientific techniques and apparatus (i.e., tools) to transform the food into something anew. But the goal is not merely to transform the food into something quirky, unique or different. Rather, the emerging molecular gastronomy spirit seeks to transform the food into something superior. Much as in the case of the Calvinist spirit that encouraged the Potestant Ethic, this is the use of technology and creativity in pursuit of a "higher state of being" (ah, perfection).

Importantly, as we all participate in this style of food worship, we are sacrificing considerable control of the restaurant experience. The food has now emerged as a larger-than-life force that seeks to enslave the complicit. Consider the following descriptions of a single course at Alinea:

"CARROT. Smoked paprika, orange. This is a single ball in a small amount of liquid in a shot glass. The server instructs you to take this all into your mouth in one shot and to make sure your lips are sealed. When you touch the ball in your mouth, it explodes with a purity of flavor that is simply unmatched."

As well as this description of a single course at wd-50 in Manhattan:

"Cocoa Dashi, Lemon Yogurt Noodles. The yogurt came in a cute dropper bottle, and we were to squeeze it into the steaming dashi. The agar-agar in the emulsion reacted with the heat of the soup to solidify. This was fun in a 'chemistry set gone amok' sort of way. And while each element worked well together, the combination somehow staggered - there was a pleasant bitterness to the yogurt on its own that was negatively accentuated by the broth."

In both cases, diners have accepted the fact that to properly appreciate molecular gastronomy they must not only surrender any pretense of control over the dining experience (these dishes are never ordered or requested, they simply arrive), they must also work to create the experience. In the next logical extension of this trend, one would expect to see diners rolling up their sleeves and helping out in the prep kitchen. Which is increasingly what we see in contemporary dinner parties. Whereas sophisticated socialites in the early 1900s invited friends and colleagues to their homes to consume meals prepared by a staff of domestic laborers, contemporary socialites often prefer to engage their guests in the various stages of food preparation. One may still observe domestic laborers manning the bar, but when it comes to food the general trend is toward doing it yourself.

But the most important take away here is in regard to the apparent paradigm shift away from all things fresh, seasonal and local; a renewed interest in and reliance upon the very food processing techniques that its predecessor (fresh, seasonal and local) seemingly sought to dismantle. Consider these descriptions of two of the more popular food processing techniques known to molecular gastronomy, as detailed on the food blog Chow.

"Spherification. Also known as ravioli, spheres are what you get when you mix liquid food with sodium alginate, then dunk it in a bath of calcium chloride. A sphere looks and feels like caviar, with a thin membrane that pops in your mouth, expunging a liquid center. Popular experiments from the chefs above have included ravioli made from purees of things like mangoes and peas.

Meat glue. One of the greatest hits of the movement has been Wylie Dufresne's 'shrimp noodles,' which, as the name states, are noodles made of shrimp meat. They were created using transglutaminase, or meat glue, as it's known in wd-50's kitchen, a substance that binds different proteins together and is more familiarly used in mass-produced foods like chicken nuggets."

One can't help but to imagine the lowly Twinkie as having a similar origin narrative.

But for all the (apparent) renewed interest in food processing techniques via the molecular gastronomy movement, it would be a serious mistake to believe these developments portend a greater consumer interest in processed foods in the near future. The critical difference here is that the techniques deployed by food scientists in the heyday of the processed foods era - during the 50s, 60s and 70s and extending into the present - represent a naive human belief in the need to dominate and control the food experience. In other words, the goal of traditional processed food manufacturers was to create homogenized, reliable, convenient, shelf-stable food products to be enjoyed on our own terms, as we saw fit.

The twist in the case of molecular gastronomy is that we are deploying similar sets of technologies to create elevated food experiences that now command our respect, attention and participation. Whereas we once relied upon food processing technology to subjugate food experiences to the human will and spirit, we now stand in awe of the power of food science technology to create the "larger than life" food experiences that we worship with reverence. In this, we mortals have become unwitting actors in a most Foucauldian nightmare, willing to work increasingly harder to ensure our maximum enjoyment. Where our mothers and fathersrelied on processed foods to enjoy (largely uninspired) food on their terms, we seek processed foods that promise considerably more, but whose promise rests upon our desire to turn the pursuit of sophistication and passion into work.

So what does this mean for ordinary schmoes?

By comparison to the case of the Authenticos, the implications for molecular gastronomy are more obvious and direct.

• As this trend continues to gain traction - and trust us it will - one can expect to find more simplified and streamlined exhibits of molecular gastronomy crowding restaurant menus. Just last week we observed that our Amuse Bouche course at a very well-known, established Chicago restaurant consisted of a Margarita foam in a shot glass that the waiter instructed us was to be "slammed down hard, like a drunken tourist in Mexico." More watered down variants of now-classic molecular gastronomy preps such as foams and froths are now commonplace on many more traditional restaurants. Plotting the course of these preps will likely prove lucrative work for food consultants.

• On a more general level, we believe this trend toward molecular gastronomy represents the early rumblings of a more permanent shift away from user-controlled processed foods. That is, we believe the food consumer of the next 50-odd years will grow increasingly tired of processed foods whose only appeals are convenience, reliability, homogeneity and affordability.

  This may strike many analysts as counterintuitive, particularly because dimensions like convenience always score so high in focus groups and on concept tests. What we need to remember, however, is that convenience is similar to dimensions such as price and one-stop shopping. These are dimensions whose appeal is so hard-wired into our cultural psyche as to prevent us from accurately projecting their importance, let alone accurately accounting for their role in past behavior. Simply put, even though we may only rarely shop by price, seek out convenient solutions or actually participate on one-stop shopping, our stated beliefs are another story.

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