French Chef Creates First Totally Synthetic Dish
Filed under: Dining

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.
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