lundi 18 septembre 2017

Dear Friends,
This morning, an question 

If the wine is polar, why do the Chefs use it in order to dissolve the fat (fat is apolar, and insoluble in the polar solvents, but soluble in the apolar solvents) in the method of making a glace ?  And to make  Maillard Reaction ? 

Indeed there are many importants facts to know, in order to understand something to this question.

First, yes, ethanol is soluble in water because both are compounds whose molecules are "polar".
Indeed, in water, molecules are made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. As oxygen attracts electrons much, the electron density is higher toward the oxygen, and this makes an electric "dipole". And the same for the OH group of ethanol, so that ethanol, being able to form so called hydrogen bonds with water, cand dissolve into it.

Then, yes, it's true that fat (often triglycerides) does not dissolve in water, but can dissolve is non polar material. Indeed, triglycerides would form only weak bonds (van der Waals) with water molecules, and they would "order" water : this makes the dissolution energetically unfavorable (this does not mean that it is not possible, but only that it does not occur spontaneously in practice ; indeed, if you give energy to such molecules, you can disperse them in water).
By the way, yes triglycerides can be dissolved in apolar solvents such as ethyl acetate, but not in all non polar solvents.

Tomber à glace, making a glace : it means boiling a sauce so that the concentration of solutes increases, and generally in the kitchen, the viscosity increases as well because of gelatine concentration.

Indeed, there is not fat when you make a glace from a stock or a broth. Only the concentration of the solution occurs. And if there is some fat, this fat would form fat droplets dispersed in the solution, i.e. one would get an emulsion, and not a solution.

And the Maillard Reaction ? Indeed, it has no meaning to speak of "the" Maillard reaction, because there are many, so that one should speak of Maillard reactions.
Now, Maillard reactions are chemical reactions between proteins and reducing sugars. I don't see clearly why Maillard reactions would occur when one makes a glace of meat. Indeed, if no sugar present, no Maillard reactions. And indeed, it's time that we stop focusing on this Maillard reactions, and concentrations on the millions other chemical processes that occur during cooking: oxidation, hydrolysis, etc.

vendredi 25 août 2017

About molecular gastronomy

#
#
# Today, questions that deserve an answer :
#
# I'm a science student from Barcelona and I'm working on a project that consists on discover which parameters are involved in the development of a sferification. The problem is that although I have seen all of your blogs and interviews about molecular cuisine and molecular gastronomy I have some questions that I would like to ask you.
#
# Firstly, I would like to know the differences between the science of ingredients and the science of culinary processes because even after searching information on the Net it is not clear to me at all.
# Secondly, I wish you could tell me more about the history (origin) about molecular cuisine and its name.
# Thirdly, I want to know your response about what is/are the reasons why you and Mr. Kurtis created a science called molecular gastronomy and why do you think people would have to increase their interest, in particular, on science investigations like yours?. What are the reasons why you are motivated on following your studies about molecular gastronomy?.
# Finally, what councils do you have for a future scientist?

#
# I know you probably are a very busy person but it would be so magnificent to receive an answer of someone of renown as you.
#
#
# Yes, such a message deserves an long answer... and it's also a way of being clearer.
# I take the various points one by one :
#

# 1. spherification: indeed, when it is recognized that this is simply jeffication, then it is easier to study... and there are many scientific articles about that, the most interesting being those where the jefficication is even triggered by a monovalent ion such as sodium, whereas the simplistic theory says that divalent calcium ions have to make bridges with alginate molecules.
#
# 2.  the differences between the science of ingredients and the science of culinary processes ? Simply read carefully what is written.
# On one hand, the science of food ingredients is the investigation of all plant and animal tissues (primarily) that are used as food ingredients. For example, how much  beta caroten is there in the various parts of the roots of Dauca carota L.? Or how many different compounds of the family of betalains are there (there was a very good recent paper about that) ? Etc.
# On the other hand, the science of culinary processes is... the science and culinary processes : here, one focuses on culinary processes, and the details of food ingredients have (almost) no importance. By the way, one should be very clear about the word "science", because there is so much confusion about science and technology. Sciences of nature, such as molecular gastronomy, are sciences, which means that the question is to look for the mechanisms of phenomena : why does a steak turns brown when grilled? why does a soufflé expand? why is water trapped in a gel? The goal is to produce knowledge, and the method is :
# - identify a phenomenon
# - characterize it
# - group the data into laws (equations)
# - look for mechanisms quantitatively compatible with the laws in order to produce a theory
# - try to refute the theory by looking for theoretical deductions from the theory, and make experiments for testing such deductions.
# On the other hand, the technology question is different: you use some scientific knowledge in order to improve processes.
# And here is an (apparent) paradox and the source of much confusion (by weak minds): even if molecular gastronomy is focused on phenomena occurring during culinary processes, it is a scientific activity, and not technology. Of course, there are many innovations flowing from the understanding of culinary processes, and from molecular gastronomy, but science is science, and technology is technology (sometimes called engineering).
#
# 3. the history about molecular cuisine ?
# First let's observe that you speak of "molecular cuisine", and not "molecular cooking", and not of molecular gastronomy
# - molecular gastronomy is a scientific activity, introduced in 1988 (the name, because the activity began earlier)
# - molecular cooking is defined as a modern way of cooking, technically speaking: I promoted it with no name since 1980, and I gave the name in 1999 only, because of much confusion about what chefs do and what scientists do. More precisely, I invented this name in front of a French TV, at a meeting in Paris with the Innicon project, where chefs from Europe where coming to get some technology results (the würtz, the geoffroy, etc. taught to Heston Blumenthal, Alberto Adria, and others). Later, I proposed a difference between molecular cooking (the technique) and molecular cuisine (the style based on the introduction of new techniques)
#
# 4. why Nicholas and I created the scientific discipline that we called molecular gastronomyl? Because we are scientists ! Indeed, the goal of science is to make discoveries, by studying phenomena... and we were sure that because nobody was interested in cooking, at that time, there were many phenomena that were not studied, hence the possibility of make many discoveries !
#
# 5. why the interest in food increased? There are probably many reasons, but certainly the fact that well being increased in many countries contributed: instead of having barely enough food, people had enough, and could improve. Moreover, science is a key element for innovation, as I teach to the Erasmus Mundus Plus master students of our program "Food Innovation and Product Design"
#
# 6. why I am daily -all days of the year- at the lab, doing scientific research? Because science is the great pride of the human mind! Because it is fascinating to observe that "the word is written in mathematical language"! Because knowledge is a way to promote tolerance, international cooperation.  Because science goes along with education: one school more, one prison less!
#
# 7. which advices for a future scientists? Maths, maths, and maths! Epistemology, and focusing. Someone who knows is someone who learned. We need seconds for learning so many things, methods, values, information, notions, concepts!
# Ars longa,
# vita brevis,
# occasio praeceps,
# experimentum periculosum,
# iudicium difficile
# But this quotation is not positive enough, and I prefer publishing here my own list:
#
# Quelques idées pour aider à se supporter quand on se voit dans un miroir
#
# Mer isch was mer mocht
# Hervé This, adapté d'un proverbe alsacien
#
# IL FAUT S’AMUSER A FAIRE DES CHOSES PASSIONNANTES
# H. This
#
# Nous sommes ce que nous faisons : quel est ton agenda ?
# H. This
#
# Une colonne vertébrale !
# H. This
#
# Tout fait d'expérience gagne à être considéré comme l'émanation de généralités que nous devons inventer (abstraire et généraliser)
# H. This
#
# Quels sont les mécanismes ?
# La science en général
#
# Les mathématiques nous sauvent toujours : « que nul ne séjourne ici s’il n’est
# géomètre »
# Platon
#
# Ne pas oublier de donner du bonheur.
# H. This
#
# Tu fais quelque chose ? Quelle est ta méthode ? Fais le, et, en plus, fais-en la théorisation.
# H. This
#
# Surtout ne pas manquer le moindre symptôme
# H. This
#
# Je ne sais pas, mais je cherche !
# H. This
#
# De quoi s’agit-il ?
# Henri Cartier-Bresson
#
# Puisque tout est toujours perfectible, que vais-je améliorer aujourd’hui ?
# H. This
#
# « Dois-je croire au probable ? ».
# H. This ?
# A rapprocher de :« En doutant, nous nous mettons en recherche, et en cherchant nous trouvons la vérité ».
# Abélard
# Et de :
# "Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions également commodes, qui l'une et l'autre nous dispensent de réfléchir".
# Poincaré
#
# Combien ?
# La science en général
#
# D’r Schaffe het sussi Wurzel un Frucht
# Proverbe alsacien
#
# Ni dieu ni maître
# La devise des anarchistes
#
# Tout ce qui mérite d’être fait mérite d’être bien fait
# ?
# La vie est trop courte pour mettre les brouillons au net : faisons des brouillons nets !
# Jean Claude Risset
#
# Se mettre un pas en arrière de soi même?
#
# Le summum de l’intelligence, c’est la bonté
# (et la droiture)
# Jorge Borgès
#
# Regarder avec les yeux de l’esprit
# H. This
#
# Vérifier ce que l’on nous dit
# Ne pas généraliser hâtivement
# Ayez des collaborations
# Y penser toujours
# Entretenez des correspondances
# Avoir toujours sur vous un calepin pour noter les idées
#
# Ne pas participer à des controverses
# Michael Faraday et Isaac Watts
#
# Penser avec humour des sujets sérieux (un sourire de la pensée)
# H. This
#
# « Comme chimiste, je passai cette oeuvre à la cornue ; il n'en resta que ceci : »
# ; se dissoudre dans, infuser, macérer, décoction, cristalliser, distiller, sublimer, purifier, alambiquer
# Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
#
# « Et c’est ainsi que la chimie est belle »
# H. This d’après Alexandre Vialatte
#
# Morgen Stund het Gold a Mund
# Proverbe alsacien
#
# Y penser toujours
# Louis Pasteur
#
# Ne pas confondre les faits et les interprétations
# Elémentaire
#
# Quand les lois sont mauvaises, il faut les changer
# H. This
#
# Ne pas faire de lois qui punissent les bons élèves, et ne pas faire des lois pour punir les mauvais si on ne les applique pas.
# Un conseil de H. This aux prétentieux qui font des lois
#
# Un homme qui ne connaît que sa génération est un enfant
# Cicéron
#
# Dieu vomit les tièdes
# La Bible
#
# Il n’est pas vrai que « La tête guide la main », ce qui est prétendu par une
# poutre du Musée du compagnonnage, à Tours : la tête et la main sont
# indissociables
# H. This
#
# Les calculs !!!!
# Tous les scientifiques dignes de ce nom
#
# Tout changer à chaque instant (vers du mieux !)
# H. This
#
# Chercher des cercles vertueux
# H. This
#
# Comme le poète, le chimiste et le physicien doivent maîtriser les métaphores
# H. This
#
# Le moi est haïssable
# Blaise Pascal
#
# Quels mécanismes ?
# La science en général
#
# N’oublions pas que nos études (scientifiques) doivent être JOVIALES
# Hervé This
#
# L’enthousiasme est une maladie qui se gagne
# Voltaire
#
# Clarifions (Mehr Licht)
# Goethe
#
# Tu viens avec une question, mais quelle est la réponse (utilise la méthode du soliloque)
# H. This
#
# Pardon, je suis insuffisant, mais je me soigne
# H. This
#
# Comment faire d’un petit mal un grand bien ?
# H. This
#
# Le diable est caché derrière chaque geste expérimental, et derrière chaque calcul
# H. This
#
# Les questions sont des promesses de réponse (faut-il tenir ces promesses). Vive les questions étincelles
# H. This
#
# La méditation est si douce et l’expérience si fatigante que je ne suis point étonné que celui qui pense soit rarement celui qui expérimente
# Diderot
#
# Comment pourrais-je gouverner autruy, moi qui ne me gouverne pas moi- même
# François Rabelais
#
# Prouvons le mouvement en marchant !
# Hervé This
#
# Comment passer du bon au très bon ? Comment donner à nos travaux un supplément d’esprit ?
# Hervé This
#
# Il faut des TABLEAUX : les cases vides sont une invitation à les remplir, donc à travailler!
# Hervé This
#
# Quelqu'un qui sait, c'est quelqu'un qui a appris.
# Marcel Fétyzon
#
# Il n'est pas nécessaire d'être lugubre pour être sérieux (le paraître n'est pas l'être).
# H. This
#
# Si le résultat d'une expérience est ce que l'on attendait, on a fait une mesure. Sinon on a fait une découverte.
# Franck Westheimer
#
# Il faut tendre avec efforts vers la perfection sans y prétendre.
# Michel-Eugène Chevreul
#
# Tu vois une régularité du monde ? Il devient urgent de s'interroger sur sa cause.
# H. This
#
# Une idée dans un tiroir n'est pas une idée
# H. This
#
#

jeudi 24 août 2017

Among the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : Bruno Laurioux

Regularly, I am telling you about the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy. This week, let me tell you about Bruno Laurioux:



Résultat de recherche d'images pour "bruno laurioux"











Educated at the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, graduated in history, Bruno Laurioux taught at the Unviersities  Paris VIII, Vincennes – Saint-Denis then Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, before being elected, in  2005, as a professor  of Middle Age history at the university of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines. 
From 2004 up to 2010, he lectured at the  École Pratique des Hautes Études, section history and philology sciences. 
Then, from 2006 to 2010, he was deputy scientific director, then scientific director  of the Department for sciences of human and society of  CNRS.



Bruno Laurioux is today professor of history of Middle Age and history of food at the University François-Rabelais, in Tours, France.



He is also the president of the Institut Européen d'Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation (IEHCA).


Bruno Laurioux published and directed many research works, and he is today one of the most famous specialist of food in the Middle Age.


The list of his works :  http://lea.univ-tours.fr/membres/publications-de-bruno-laurioux-1-3-519334.kjsp?RH=1345644849786




jeudi 17 août 2017

Hautes Etudes du Goût/Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : Pierre Combris

Among the extraordinary praofessors of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy (Hautes Etudes du Goût, de la Gastronomie et des Arts de la Table, Pierre Combris is very important.





Pierre Combris is an economist, emeritus research director at INRA.

Since 1996, he his the head of the Laboratory on Consumption Research. He studies food economy and food habits, as well as the mechanisms of choice by consumers.
He personnally studies the evolution of food concumption in France, from the 50's to today.
Also he is interested in the processes of choice in function of the characteristics of food and of the available information.

He his a member of the board of the Institut Français pour la Nutrition, expert for the Fonds Français pour l'Alimentation et la Santé.

jeudi 27 juillet 2017

Hautes Etudes du Goût/Advanced Studies in Gastronomy

I am not sure that I told you enough about our Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy : this is a very successful educational institute, with the most extraordinary specialists teaching "gastronomy", i.e. the reasoned knowledge about man's nourishment.

Today, I am happy to tell you that my friend Jean-Christophe Augustin, from the French Académie d'agriculture de France, is teaching at this institute :



Jean-Christophe Augustin is professor at the National Veterinary School of Alfort, in the Hygiene, Food quality and security unit.

He is in charge of the « food microbiology » module for the Advanced Veterinary Studies Certificate, with a specific focus on « Food safety and quality management ».

He is an expert at ANSES (French Agency for Food Safety).

He has authored numerous teaching publications as well as scientific papers.

jeudi 18 mai 2017


Dear Friends

I did not tell you much, recently, about the professors of the Hautes Etudes du Gout, sorry.

This week : Gérard Liger-Belair

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "gérard liger-belair"














Gérard Liger-Belair is Professor of the  University  Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)


He created there the team Effervescence, Champagne and Applications (GSMA – UMR CNRS 7331), which studies the processes linked with the dynamic of bubbles in liquids with dissolved gases (from the bubbles of champagne to the foams of the industry).

For the last decades, he developed an expertise on foams and bubbles, objects which attracted physicists, chemists and mathematicians.
The processes associated with bubble formation in champagne were poorly known until recently. However, in a glass of champagne, all the steps from birth to death of bubbles can be studied. Generally bubble are created on immersed particles, on the glass, and it evolves until detaching, reaching the surface.
These tiny spheres of carbonic dioxyde generate a wealth of phenomena of unpredicted complexity, and which are responsible for the whole sensation of the drinker. For about 15 years, Gérard Liger-Belair and his colleagues are developing analytical tools for studying bubbles.

Géard Liger-Belair published about 100 scientific articles, and about 10 books, among which  :


- Effervescence ! la science du champagne, Odile Jacob, 2009
- Voyage au cœur d’une bulle de champagne, Odile Jacob, 2011
- Champagne, la vie secrète des bulles,Cherche-Midi,2014


He got scientific prizes for his research and publications. 


vendredi 14 avril 2017

Another teacher of the Hautes Etudes du Goût : Sidonie Naulin



Every week, I am happy to tell you about the teachers of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Gastronomy, Hautes Etudes du Goût.

This week  : Sidonie Naulin





Sidonie Naulin is assistant professor of sociologie at Sciences Po Grenoble and in the Pacte Laboratory. She is studiying economic sociology, media sociology and food sociology.

A former students of the Ecole Normale Supérieur, with an agregation in social sciences, she did her PhD at the University Paris Sorbonne on food critic, trying to understand how is produced the information about food.
This PhD was published as a book in June 2017 (Presses universitaires de Rennes). From discussions, interviews, observations and a quantitative survey of text statistics, this book deals with the environment of culinary and gastronomic journalism. This history of this activity is done, and its current market is analyzed. Some chapters deal with particular biographies, daily work and celebrity analysis of some food critics, envisioning also  the new competitors who are food bloggers.

Today, she is interested by the biographies of chefs. She is participating to the ANR Capla project, in which she is doing a survey of chefs cooking in homes using internet sites for making contacts with customers.
She is going to study the biographies of cooks from data given by the LinkedIn social network.

mardi 11 avril 2017

The Iqemusu company is on the road. Champagne !




Iqemusu, the first society to sell pure tasting notes for
avant-garde chefs, launches its store: www.iqemusu.com

Note-by-note cooking is now available to any chefs in 
the world. Iqemusu launches its website and presents its first range, composed by 24 culinary notes related to the smell. Each chef can now sublimate its dishes thanks to various olfactory experiments. Grab a bottle and let yourself be carried away by the scents that open the doors of a world to be built.

Go to iqemusu.com to ask for our catalog and pre-order
online the first notes of a culinary universe free from any
taste barriers.

All pre-orders will be shipped on April 24th.
 
 
May I repeat that I don't get a penny for this kind of announcement, nor in the company. But I shall promote any note by note initiative

jeudi 6 avril 2017

Remarkable teachers for the Hautes Etudes du Goût : Pascal Schlich

Pascal Schlich teaches at the Hautes Etudes du Goût :






Pascal Schlich is a director of research with the INRA and the scientific leader of the ChemoSens platform at the Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation in Dijon. He holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University Paris XI and the accreditation for tutoring Ph.Ds from the Burgundy University. His research deals with sensometrics (statistics for sensory sciences) and the study of consumer preferences. Pascal Schlich has signed or co-signed a hundred of scientific articles or book chapters and is the co-inventor of the TimeSens® software. He teaches sensometrics at AgroSup Dijon, ENSAI Rennes and Montpellier University and is an international consultant for several industries.

Sensory profiling is a technique of sensory analysis recording attributes intensities, but providing no indication on the sequence along which these attributes are perceived. Pascal Schlich and his team developed the Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) method about 12 years ago to fill in this gap. In TDS the subject is asked to indicate at any time the “dominant” attribute, the one trigging his/her attention, not necessarily the most intense one.
TDS has become a reference method in sensory analysis. Contrarily to sensory profiling, it can be used with no training, thus by consumer panels. It makes it possible to pair TDS to dynamic recording of liking, satiation and emotions along the consumption of the full portion of a food or beverage in order to identify the temporal drivers of these three features.

mardi 4 avril 2017

Very happy !

Dear Friends
Very happy to tell you the creation of a company selling note by note products  !

See :

Cheers

samedi 18 mars 2017

Joel Doré is teaching at the Hautes Etudes du Goût

Every week,  I have the pleasure to tell you about a colleague who is teaching at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Gastronomy.
This week :




Joel Doré





Research Director at INRA, Joël Doré is Scientific Director of MetaGenoPolis, a Unit of the Micalis Institute “Food and Gut Microbiology for Human Health”. Joël Doré joined INRA in 1983 and received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 1988. He developed a unique expertise in the field of intestinal microbiology. He aims to contribute to a better understanding of the host-microbiota symbiosis in order to support therapeutic choices in the medical area, as well as science-based recommendations in health nutrition.

In his HEG class entitled "Man-microbe symbiosis : I am what they eat...", Joël Doré presents the current vision of the human intestinal metagenome and highlights insights it has provided towards the current understanding of the importance of the microbiome in nutrition and health, particularly for chronic inflammatory and metabolic diseases. He presents an extension of the dysbiosis concept that confers a central role to man-microbe symbiosis, with potential implications in health-nutrition and translational research.

mercredi 15 mars 2017

Next week, a Note by Note Dinner served at the Sofitel of Buenos Aires



Events in Uruguay and Argentina



  1. Programme en Uruguay et Argentine

  2. de Monsieur Hervé THIS


    1. Du 19 au 25 mars 2017



Dimanche 19 mars

13h20 Arrivée à Montevide

20h Dîner chez Juan Pablo Clerici Magri avec M. Philippe BASTELICA, ambassadeur de France en Uruguay


Lundi 20 mars

9h30  Interview avec le quotidien EL PAIS Uruguay (avec interprète)
10h00 Master Class au restaurant 1921, Hôtel Sofitel Carrasco
Avec des chefs et membres de la Asociacion gastronomica del Uruguay
Adresse : Rambla Républica de México, 11500 Montevideo


17h Conférence à destination de la communauté scientifique
« Résultats récents en gastronomie moléculaire, et applications dans la cuisine de demain (cuisine note à note) »
En français avec traduction simultanée en espagnol
Adresse : Faculté d’ingénierie, Av. Julio Herrera y Reissig 565

20h Cocktail d’ouverture du mois de la Francophonie
Adresse : Bibliothèque Nationale


Mardi 21 mars

11h Conférence grand public
« La cuisine note à note est la dernière tendance culinaire, et pour longtemps! »
En français avec traduction simultanée en espagnol
Adresse : Alliance Française, Bd Artigas 1271

Soir Diner « Goût de/Good France » à la Résidence de France


Mercredi 22 mars

Départ de Montevideo pour Buenos Aires 

19h Cocktail avec la presse spécialisée, lieu : salon du Sofitel Arroyo


Jeudi 23 mars


12h Entretiens avec la presse ; lieu : Sofitel Arroyo, Bibliothèque

13h Déjeuner à l’invitation de M. l’Ambassadeur de France pour 12 invités VIP

16h Rencontre avec  les membres de l’Association argentine de cuisine moléculaire (contact Dr. Mariana Koppmann) ; lieu : Centre Culturel de la Science, Pôle scientifique et technologique, Godoy Cruz 2270

17h Rencontre à confirmer avec Université Nationale de San Martín (UNSAM ) ; lieu : idem antérieur

18h Conférence publique et démonstration, au Centre Culturel de la Science  :
Qu’allons-nous manger demain? La cuisine « note à note », une application de la gastronomie moléculaire »
Adresse : Amphithéâtre, Pôle scientifique et technologique, Godoy Cruz 2270

21h Dîner commenté : Menu « note by note », à l’Hôtel Sofitel Arroyo, Restaurant Le Sud



Vendredi 24 mars
(jour férié en Argentine)

15h Master class à The Brick Hotel (Association Lucullus, presse, …)
Adresse : Posadas 1232, Buenos Aires

17h Rencontre avec les Associations Lucullus et Acelga au Palais Duhau Park Hyatt Hotel
Adresse : Avda Alvear 1661, Buenos Aires


Samedi 25 mars

14h Départ

mardi 14 mars 2017

Professors at Advanced Studies on Flavour (Hautes Etudes du Goût) 4

Every month, I have the pleasure to tell you about the wonderful teachers of the Hautes Etudes du  Goût.


This week,





Denis Saillard






Denis Saillard is an historian, professor of modern history. In 2000, he joined the Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC) of the University of Versailles/Saint-Quentin (UVSQ, today in Paris Saclay University). 
He is a specialist of cultural history of food, a field in which the food representations and social practices are included. In 2011, Denis Saillard published his results in this area in   Gastronomie et histoire culturelle, published by the European Institute for Cultural History. 
He is co-director of two international workshops:  in 2005, Gastronomie et identité culturelle française. Discours et représentations (XIXe-XXIe siècles) ; in 2010, Le Goût des autres. De l’expérience de l’altérité gastronomique à l’appropriation (Europe, XVIIIe –XXIe siècles).
For four years, he is running a seminar inviting scientists from all disciplines with a link to food, and from all countries. Half the sessions are at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (BhVP), and others are in particular places of interest.
Denis Saillard is giving lectures in France and abroad: Canada, Royaume-Uni, Italie, Allemagne, Belgique, Estonie, Roumanie, etc.

A selection of 10 publications

* « Culture gastronomique et alimentation de demain », in Gilles Fumey (dir.) L’alimentation de demain, Paris, CNRS Editions, coll. « Les Essentiels d’Hermès », 2016, pp. 47-68.


* « Food and Gastronomy in the Universal Exhibitions 1851-2015 (Alimentation et gastronomie dans les expositions universelles 1851-2015) », in Germano Celant (dir.), Arts and Foods, catalogue (en anglais et en italien) de l’exposition de la Triennale de Milan (Exposition universelle 2015), Milan, Electa Mondadori, pp. 40-61.

* « A la recherche du “moi gastronomique”. L’œuvre de M. F. K. Fisher », Revue de la BnF, n° 49 « Gastronomie : du Sens aux Sens », 2015, pp. 6-10.

* « La Cuisine de l’Autre. Echanges et rivalités dans les relations gastronomiques franco-anglaises du XVIIIe siecle à nos jours », in Diana Cooper-Richet et Michel Rapoport (dir.), Nos meilleurs ennemis. L’entente culturelle franco-britannique revisitée, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Atlande, 2014, pp. 100-129.

* « Entre Europe orientale et Amérique du Nord : l’invention de la gastronomie juive dans le Paris de l’entre-deux-guerres », in Cylvie Claveau, Stanislaw Fiszer et Didier Francfort (dir.), Cultures juives. Europe centrale et orientale, Amérique du Nord, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi ; Paris, Le Manuscrit, 2012, pp. 521-542.

* « L’artification du culinaire par les expositions (1851-1939) », Sociétés et représentations, vol. 34, automne 2012, pp. 71-84.

* « Vin et gastronomie : identifications culturelles », Rencontres du Clos-Vougeot 2010, Des hommes et du vin : le vin patrimoine et marqueur d’identité culturelle, Dijon, Centre Georges Chevrier, 2011, pp. 157-168.

* « Nourritures et territoires en Europe. La gastronomie comme frontière culturelle », Eurolimes, Journal of the Institute for Euroregional Studies (“Jean Monnet” European Centre of Excellence, University of Oradea / University of Debrecen), n° 9, 2010, pp. 127-139.

* « Turin et le Piémont, l’invention d’un haut lieu gastronomique », colloque Gastronomie et rayonnement touristique : contribution à l’étude des hauts lieux et capitales gastronomiques XIXe-XXIe siècles (dir. Julia Csergo et Jean-Pierre Lemasson), Université de Lyon II et Université du Québec à Montréal, Lyon, 5-6 décembre 2006 ; Voyages en gastronomies. L’invention des capitales et des régions gourmandes, Paris, Autrement, 2008, pp. 220-232.

* « La cuisine », in Jean-Pierre Rioux (dir.), Dictionnaire de la France coloniale, Paris, Flammarion, 2007, pp. 759-764.


dimanche 5 mars 2017

Why the name "note by note cooking"?

"Note-to-note cooking" is truly a "synthesis cooking", as electroacoustic music is a "synthesic music".


Historically,
- two centuries ago, music was played with instruments, producing characteristic, limited, specific sounds: the winds are the winds, the brass are brass, and so on. And at the same time, the humankind cooked with ingredients that gave characteristic, limited, specific flavours: carrots taste like carrots, lamb taste like lamb, and so on.

And then, about a century ago, physicists learned to decompose the sounds into pure sound waves, of particular frequency; It was learned that there were "fundamentals" and "harmonics", but above all it was understood that the timbre was due to particular groups of sounds. At the same time, the chemical sciences began to explore the composition of food ingredients: water, pectins, cellulose, sugars, amino acids, etc. were found in plant tissue. And it was understood that the meat was made of water, protein, & c.

- half a century ago, the advent of electronics, then computer science, allowed the development of electroacoustic music: one could finally produce any sound, synthesis, any rhythm, any music, without limiting itself to the performances of a human playing a classical instrument. What about cooking? It had not changed.

- today, a child who has a synthesizer (20 euros in a toy store) can compose any music ... and it is only now that introduces the "synthesis cooking", called  note by note cooking.


Why this name of " note by note cooking"? For historical reasons. 


 Indeed, after the creation of molecular gastronomy, there was confusion, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, with "molecular cuisine". I had to fight (and it was not over) against the confusion, which was due in particular to the fact that:
- the word "gastronomy" is often confused, wrongly, with the word "cuisine d'apparat"
- some cooks pretended to do molecular gastronomy ... because the thing was fashionable, attracted journalists, made buzz ...
In short, it was in 1999 that I began to say all over the world that there was a difference between "molecular gastronomy", which is physico-chemistry, and "molecular cuisine", i.e. cooking using modern utensils.

However, around 2002, looking for a name for synthetic cooking, I wanted a terminology that moved away from science ... because cooking has nothing to do with science. Having then in the idea that cooking is an artistic activity, I sought a name that would say this relationship with art, rather than with science. And since there was this comparison with music, which is an art, I proposed "Note by note cooking".
Note that this word is a little faulty, because one should say " wave to wave cooking", but it was also about having a name a bit engaging.
Of course, the terminology of "synthetic" will perhaps be used, in place of " note by note cooking" ... but it does not matter: I do not sell anything!

mercredi 22 février 2017

Professors of the Advanced Studies in Gastronomy 2

On ste souvient (peut-être) que j'ai décidé de mettre en valeur les enseignants de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes du Goût, de la Gastronomie et des Arts de la Table
Last week, I presented  Sylvie Lortal. Now I have the pleasure to tell you that our educational program includes courses by  Jean-Philippe de Tonnac.


Jean-Philippe de Tonnac is an essayist, editor and journalist. He was in charge of special editions for the Nouvel Observateur magazine for almost 10 years, and has published about twenty books. Today he works as an editor and continues his own research. His investigation into bread and its symbolism began by obtaining a diploma in baking (2007) after a training course at l’Ecole de Boulangerie et Pâtisserie de Paris, a tour of the ‘bread-eating’ Mediterranean countries (Egypt, Greece, Italy, etc.), and discussions with representatives of the wheat to-flour and bread industry.

In 2007, he took the lead in a Universal dictionary of bread project aiming to collect all the entries that bread has generated since its appearance on the edge of the eastern Mediterranean area in the late Neolithic period (from agronomy to theology including genetics, botany, anthropology, history, milling, bakery, economics, arts, and more).
He has since co-written Le Larousse du pain (2013) et L'Ami intime - Un musée imaginaire du Pain (2014)


Jean-Philippe de Tonnac est essayiste, éditeur et journaliste. Il a animé pendant près de dix ans les "Hors série" du Nouvel Observateur et publié une vingtaine d’ouvrages.
Il est aujourd’hui éditeur et poursuit ses propres recherches.
Son enquête sur le pain et sa symbolique a commencé par l’obtention d’un CAP de boulanger (2007) après une formation à l’Ecole de Boulangerie et Pâtisserie de Paris, des séjours en Méditerranée dans quelques-uns des pays de « mangeurs de pains » (Egypte, Grèce, Italie, etc.), et la rencontre et des échanges avec quelques-uns des représentants de la filière blé-farine-pain.
Il a pris en 2007 la direction d’un Dictionnaire universel du pain avec l’ambition de rassembler toutes les gloses que le pain a générées depuis son apparition sur le pourtour oriental de la Méditerranée à la fin du Néolithique (de l’agronomie à la théologie en passant par la génétique, la botanique, l’anthropologie, l’histoire, la meunerie, la boulangerie, l’économie, les arts, etc.).
Depuis, il a notamment co-rédigé Le Larousse du pain (2013) et L'Ami intime - Un musée imaginaire du Pain (2014)