An introduction to Edible Molecules

I could have started with a specific post, but I felt necessary to give a little introduction to this…project? Blog? How can I define it? What is Edible Molecules and most importantly…why Edible Molecules?

Edible Molecules supposes to be a space dedicated to food and cooking. The difference from a regular food blog is that everything is treated from a scientific point of view. Why did I feel the need to start EM? Well, for many reasons. I will try to cut a long story short and maybe you won’t fall asleep by the end of this post :)

Since my high school time, I started to develop a vivid interest for both science and cooking and I had the feeling that those two things were closely related to each other. This belief became stronger during my master degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and during the time of my doctorate. But it was the work of Ferran Adria’ that opened my eyes with a bright illumination. For those who do not know, Adria’ is a three Michelin stars chef. For a few years, he has been the owner and the chef of the restaurant El Bulli. Adria’ has fully understood the link between science and cooking. By exploiting the chemical and physical properties of foods, he managed to master them and create spectacular dishes. Adria’ was not the first, and probably not the last one, to understand this connection, but the message is clear: in the kitchen, we do not operate randomly by attempting this or that. On the other hand, we need to be methodical, we need to understand the properties of matter (food in this case) and processes. If you understand them, you can master them. Genius! Genius?!? Scientists apply this concept on regular basis in their labs, but finally someone has thought to apply science to food and cooking! Obviously, Adria’ did not work alone (I write at the past because his popular restaurant shut the doors down a few years ago, with my deep regret...sigh :(). He rather worked in team, surrounded by scientist and other cooks. For six months a year, the team experimented new dishes and combinations, for the remaining time, the restaurant was open to clients.

Actually, Adria’ was not the pioneer of this “movement”. Among the personalities dedicated to the molecular gastronomy we find: Herve’ This (chemist-physicist) who was probably the “founder”, Heston Blumenthal (chef), Bressanini (chemist), De Carlo (pastry chef), just to mention a few.

So, do I write about molecular gastronomy too? Well, I do not like to define it in that way. Cooking is my passion and, to do it properly, we must understand the processes (here comes the science, which is defined as the general study of processes and property of the matter). Given that I am curios and I do not like to do things purposelessly, I started to appreciate this “logical” approach to cooking (I feel like Mr Spock now!). 

Besides my personal reasons, EM will be a space to share knowledge and curiosity. I will write about food and cooking with a scientific but also entertaining approach. I will provide introductory posts with scientific background on this or that (yeah!!! ;)), but also yummy recipes scientifically tested!

I hope you will enjoy this space and find it useful and entertaining. Stay tuned!