An internationally renowned chemist, popular television personality, and bestselling author, Hervé This heads the first laboratory devoted to molecular gastronomythe scientific exploration of cooking and eating. By testing recipes that have guided cooks for centuries, and the various dictums and maxims on which they depend, Hervé This unites the head with the hand in order to defend and transform culinary practice.
With this new book, Hervé This’s scientific project enters an exciting new phase. Considering the preparation of six bistro favoriteshard-boiled egg with mayonnaise, simple consommé, leg of lamb with green beans, steak with French fries, lemon meringue pie, and chocolate moussehe isolates the exact chemical properties that tickle our senses and stimulate our appetites. More important, he connects the mind and the stomach, identifying methods of culinary construction that appeal to our memories, intelligence, and creativity. By showing that the creation of a meal is as satisfying as its consumption, Herve This recalibrates the balance between food and our imaginations. The result is a revolutionary perspective that will tempt even the most casual cooks to greater flights of experimentation.
Tabla de materias
Preface
Introduction
The Complexity of the World
1. Hard-Boiled Egg with Mayonnaise
2. Simple Consomme
3. Leg of Lamb with Green Beans
4. Steak and French Fries
5. Lemon Meringue Pie
6. A New Kind of Chocolate Mousse
Looking Ahead
Note-by-Note Cooking
Reforming Education
Culinary Constructivism
Constructing a Menu
The Unending Conversation
Artisans and Artists
Index
Sobre el autor
Hervé This is a physical chemist on the staff of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris. He is the author of Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking and Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, among other books.M. B. De Bevoise has translated almost thirty works from French and Italian in every branch of scholarship, including Hervé This’s Molecular Gastronomy and The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought, edited by Lawrence D. Kritzman.