Father of molecular gastronomy, Hervé This, claims to have solved world hunger
Test-tube chef Hervé This, who pioneered molecular gastronomy, believes chemical compounds are the ingredients of the future, writes Bianca Bosker.
It was dinnertime and Hervé This (pronounced "Tees") was preparing a steak. Explaining that a pleasant sirloin is 40 per cent water and 60 per cent protein, the French chemistry professor dumped four tablespoons of water into six tablespoons of powdered egg. (As it happens, he was wrong: the proportions are closer to 70 per cent water, 20 per cent protein and 10 per cent fat.) In went a pinch of allyl isothiocyanate, for a mustardy kick.
"What about having the potato in the steak, instead of French fries on the side," This (who is "the funniest, most entertaining scientist I've ever met", says 's food editor, Susan Jung) asked the standing-room-only crowd of pastry chefs, professors and fermenters who had packed a lecture hall at New York University last October to hear him speak. He used a microwave propped on a table as a lectern, and moved aside his other ingredients - the dehydrated egg, along with vegetable oil, salt and sugar - to rummage through a case of clear glass vials stoppered with black lids. He unscrewed a small bottle of methional oil, which has a cheesy-potato flavour, and the room's fresh-carpet smell gave way to baked potato mixed with high-school gym.
"So here is some potato," he said, pouring the methional into his dough. "How many potatoes do you need?"
At a time when much of the culinary world believes in farming like pioneer settlers and looking its meat in the eyes, This wants us to abandon peas and carrots ("Middle Ages!") for their constituent parts - glucose, sucrose, cellulose, amino acids and more. He showed his audience a picture of wooden shelves stocked with rows of identical white containers and a scale.
"This is the kitchen of the future," he declared. "Beautiful boxes - some contain liquids, some contain powder."
