Taking its name from Japanese, umami is a pleasant savoury taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. As the taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and...
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A colloid is a substance microscopically dispersed evenly throughout another substance. A colloidal system consists of two separate phases: a dispersed phase (or internal phase) and a continuous phase (or dispersion medium). A colloidal system may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. A hydrocolloid is defined as a colloid system wherein the colloid particles are dispersed in water. A hydrocolloid has colloid particles spread throughout water, and depending on...
When food is consumed, the interaction of taste, odor and textural feeling provides an overall sensation which is best defined by the English word “flavor”. Flavor results from compounds that are divided into two broad classes: Those responsible for taste and those responsible for odors, the latter often designated as aroma substances. However, there are...
Food provides a multimodal stimulus; it excites more than one sensory system. During the process of eating, all of the five senses are used. With our far senses vision and olfaction we see and smell foods from a distance. With our near senses somatosensation and gustation we feel and taste the food during handling and...
Since the term ‘molecular gastronomy’ became popularised by the main stream media – mainly in relation to the activities and culinary innovations of a number of chefs around the world – its true meaning and core principles seem to have been lost. Molecular gastronomy is most commonly used to describe the new form of culinary style adopted by chefs...
I first got a glimpse of how science is part of the kitchen whilst watching Heston Blumenthal’s Kitchen Chemistry television series. This was swiftly followed by a book that a friend bought for me, titled Molecular Gastronomy- Exploring the Science of Flavour by Herve This. To be totally honest I read about three chapters before...
Since becoming increasingly interested in modernist cuisine (‘molecular gastronomy’) I have become particularly interested in the side affects/ benefits/ dangers of using E numbers in cooking. Commonly used E numbers in fine dining restaurants (and in particularly ‘molecular gastronomy’) include: lecithins, citric acid, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, agar, xanthan gum, gellan and malic acid. I recently began reading...
Professor Charles Spence, author of ‘Sound Design: Using Brain Science to Enhance Auditory & Multisensory Product & Brand Development’ is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory based at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University. He is interested in how people perceive the world around them. In particular, how our brains manage to process the information from...
The nose is a sensory organ crucial for sensing what we eat. Whereas with the mouth we speak of “tastants” when we talk of the chemicals that excite our tastebuds, we use the word “odorant” to refer to the volatile chemical compounds that excite the receptors in our nose. Specifically, the region that is affected...
The profession of chef was not spelled out in his destiny but Miguel Sánchez Romera knew how to read between the lines. Born in Argentina to Spanish immigrants, he first studied Medicine, specializing in neurology and certain diseases such as epilepsy. He then travelled to Spain to work as a doctor but soon felt there was...
To understand the Molecular Gastronomy “movement” its best to start from First Principles. To begin, its useful to re-introduce ourselves with the physiological basis of taste. This means – let us examine the organs that higher vertebrates (specifically we humans) use to taste what we eat.Although we all have mouths and noses, it is easy...
