French Chef Creates First Totally Synthetic Dish

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 20th 2009 at 3:02AM

Much of the news we hear about food tilts toward the organic and local but French chef Pierre Gagnaire has taken things in a different direction creating what is called the world's first synthetic dish. Gagnaire, a famed French chef with three Michelin stars worked on the recipe with chemist Hervé This, the founder of molecular gastronomy. The London Times reports that the recipe which contains ascorbic acid, glucose, maltitol and citric acid is called le note à note. It is essentially an appetizer made of jelly balls that taste of apples and lemon and are creamy on the inside and crackling on the outside.

Is the world ready for fake food? Mr. This thinks so. He says that the chefs of the future won't need to rely on plain fruits and vegetables but can instead use the elements of those foods to create new food possibilities and end food shortages. Pierre Gagnaire is more interested in concoctions that combine natural food with new molecular creations much as chefs like Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz do in their famous restaurants.

The Times article includes a recipe that sounds more like a chemistry experiment. Most of us consume plenty of chemicals in our foods on a daily basis but still the idea of eating a meal that has no relationship to anything found in nature is still more of a novelty at this point.

Tags: chef, molecular gastronomy, MolecularGastronomy, pierre gagnaire, PierreGagnaire

Filed under: Dining

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

shieldsbrown Apr 20th 2009 11:39AM

This is fascinating. Deidre, I hope to read more about the progress of this idea. If we can get wholesome, more efficient food out of it, I'd gladly eat it.

Singe May 25th 2009 4:19AM

"Most of us consume plenty of chemicals in our foods on a daily basis"

Most of us? How about all of us consume chemicals in our food on a daily basis always. In fact, it's impossible to consume food which lacks chemicals since all matter is made up of chemicals. Chemical-free food is a physical impossibility.

People need to keep this in mind when they use the word "chemical". Water is a chemical, after all.