Posted Mar 16, 2011
Washington (dpa) – A good sense of taste and a bit of creativity won’t be enough in the future to give food optimal taste and the best possible texture, according to a US researcher.
Kent Kirshenbaum, professor of chemistry at New York University, recommends cooks of the future study something he calls molecular gastronomy, which is based on findings made in the laboratory.
Kirshenbaum, who specializes in molecular gastronomy, spoke with the German Press Agency dpa at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC.
Kirshenbaum said cooks were starting to listen to scientists. An example is new advice for the temperature at which an egg should be cooked. The recommendation that it be cooked at about 65 degrees celsius has been revised to exactly 65 degrees.
The reason is scientists now better understand how protein in our food reacts to different temperatures and how that affects the taste and texture of the food.
Someday, Kirshenbaum said, we might be able to stop heating our food and instead cook it with ultrasound and other sound wave technology. That might still sound very futuristic, but he points out that the introduction of microwave ovens in the ’70s was only a bit less radical.
One leading trend in the food industry is consumer demand for locally grown food, said Kirshenbaum. This is linked to the principle of sustainability that many corporations are embracing.
Kirshenbaum believes the food industry and consumers must make drastic changes because problems such as overfishing cannot continue. He predicted that innovation in the laboratory will help humans train themselves to enjoy things now considered exotic, such as the taste of jellyfish.
He envisions a similar alterations in the way humans consume meat. Using the proteins from pork and beef, steaks could be made in factories, he said. This would do away with the current controversial practices involving the way animals are mass produced and slaughtered.