With the colossal changes in how we cook and eat, the fields of the culinary arts and culinary science has started to now be merging into one. Many famous restaurants now have cooking laboratories on their premises, while universities and colleges around the country are beginning to offer degrees in culinology ( a degree program that blends food science and technology with culinary art).
Molecular Gastronomy is the application of scientific principles to the understanding and improvement of small scale food preparation. The term was invented by the Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti in a 1969 presentation to the Royal Institution called "The Physicist in the kitchen", and popularized by his collaborator the French scientist Herve This. In simpler terms, molecular gastronomy is the physical and chemical changes that occur in cooking.
Interest in food science has grown in recent years because of the increasing awareness of the vital role of food in the health, well-being, and economic status of individuals and nations and people's curiosity and desire to try new and innovative food dishes. Food science is the study of the chemical composition of food and food ingredients; their physical, biological and biochemical properties and and the interaction of food constituents with each other and their environment.
Heston Blumenthal, 38, is presently at the forefront of this radical style of cooking (molecular gastronomy). His triple Michelin starred restaurant, The Fat Duck, serves dishes like sardine-flavored sorbet, pasta made out of Jello, snail porridge, or a puree of mango and Douglas fir. At El Bulli, the restaurant of Ferran Adria in Spain another molecular gastronomist dishes consist of monkfish liver with tomato seeds and citrus or barnacles with tea foam, or a parmesan cheese ice cream. During the six months his restaurant is closed, Adrià works on new recipes in a laboratory near the Barcelona market.
Lastly, at restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena experiment with their chefs on a daily basis. Upstairs from the restaurant you will find a small food laboratory with pH meters, sonicators and liquid nitrogen.