Um Cientista na Cozinha

Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History

by Hervé This

An international celebrity and founder of molecular gastronomy, or the scientific investigation of culinary practice, Hervé This is known for his ground-breaking research into the chemistry and physics behind everyday cooking. His work is consulted widely by amateur cooks and professional chefs and has changed the way food is approached and prepared all over the world.

In Kitchen Mysteries, Hervé This offers a second helping of his world-renowned insight into the science of cooking, answering such fundamental questions as what causes vegetables to change color when cooked and how to keep a soufflé from falling. He illuminates abstract concepts with practical advice and concrete examples-for instance, how sautéing in butter chemically alters the molecules of mushrooms-so that cooks of every stripe can and thoroughly comprehend the scientific principles of food.

Kitchen Mysteries begins with a brief overview of molecular gastronomy and the importance of understanding the physiology of taste. A successful meal depends as much on a cook's skilled orchestration of taste, odors, colors, consistencies, and other sensations as on the delicate balance of ingredients. Hervé then dives into the main course, discussing the science behind many meals' basic components: eggs, milk, bread, sugar, fruit, yogurt, alcohol, and cheese, among other items. He also unravels the mystery of tenderizing enzymes and gelatins and the preparation of soups and stews, salads and sauces, sorbet, cakes, and pastries. Hervé explores the effects of boiling, steaming, braising, roasting, deep-frying, sautéing, grilling, salting, and microwaving, and devotes a chapter to kitchen utensils, recommending the best way to refurbish silverware and use copper.

By sharing the empirical principles chefs have valued for generations, Hervé This adds another dimension to the suggestions of cookbook authors. He shows how to adapt recipes to available ingredients and how to modify proposed methods to the utensils at hand. His revelations make difficult recipes easier to attempt and allow for even more creativity and experimentation. Promising to answer your most compelling kitchen questions, Hervé This continues to make the complex science of food digestible to the cook.

Genres: Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Science, Cookbooks, Gastronomy, Culinary

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Hervé This is is a French physical chemist who works at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. His main area of interest is molecular gastronomy, or how our knowledge of chemistry and science in general, can be used as a tool to enhance culinary experiences, rather than the purely empirical knowledge which more often than not dictates the rules in the kitchen. With the late Nicholas Kurti, he coined the scientific term "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" in 1988, which he shortened to "Molecular Gastronomy" after Kurti's death in 1998[1]. While it is often stated that he has a Ph.D in Molecular Gastronomy, his degree is in "Physico-chimie des matériaux" (Physical Chemistry of Materials), for which he wrote a thesis entitled "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique"[2]. He has written several books on the subject which can be understood even by those who have little or no knowledge of chemistry, but so far only two have been translated into English. He also collaborates with the magazine Pour la Science, the aim of which is to present scientific concepts to the general public. He is also a corresponding member of the Académie d'agriculture de France, and, more recently, the scientific director of the foundation "Food Science & Culture", which he created at the French Academy of Science.

Every month he adds one new "invention" in the Arts and Science section of the website of the three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire.

Although his main focus is on physical chemistry, he also attributes great importance to the emotional aspect of cooking, as the title of one of his books shows: Cooking is love, art, technique.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I'm a science nerd, a food lover, a novice chef/wannabe baker/cook, and I also teach a college class called the biology of food. So this book was all but guaranteed to get high marks from me. It would have gotten a full five star rating, but I deducted one for a couple reasons. First, the writing style was kind of all over the place. It was humorous and then serious without any leadin or any indication of what was to come. It ended up reading very choppy beach use of that.

Second, the level of detail was also all over the place. I'm a biologist who majored in chemistry for three year, and I still struggled with the level at which the chemistry was written. I skimmed a lot of those sections, admittedly.

The biology was also really sparse in parts and overly detailed in others. Fermentation, for example, was completely glanced over. Not a mention of bacteria in the whole section. Same for the yeast in baking. But the enzyme action in freezing vegetables and blanching was more detailed than the rest.

Overall, it would be good for an overly curious chef to read, but it also lacks any practical application. Books like this should have a few recipes to offer to show how these principles act. Or perhaps that is the teacher in me coming out.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are interested in cooking of chemistry you'd probably enjoy this book that aims to tell you why instead of just do.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't quite put my finger on why this one didn't work for me. Somehow, the information never quite seemed to stick in my head. It's not like I'm intimidated by chemistry--I've got a degree in engineering, I've hacked my way through science textbooks much denser than this. And I've already picked up a decent working knowledge of the chemical underpinnings of cooking.

I'm not sure whether the problem lies in the translation or in some kind of culture gap. But I constantly felt as if there were assumptions being made that didn't make sense to me. Which pieces of information were prioritized, which questions were asked, which chemical processes required detailed vs brief explanations--I constantly felt surprised by his choices, and not in a good way.

I think it also would have been very helpful to have more illustrations/diagrams. Chemistry is a science that is extremely dependent on geometry. Perhaps a chemist has the layouts of glucose vs fructose automatically in his head, but for laypeople, writing out the molecular structures would go a long way towards making some of these explanations easier to follow.

I liked the theory of the book. But apparently so little felt either relevant or fully comprehensible that, weeks later, almost nothing has stuck.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the dude that invented molecular gastronomy -- the scientific investigation of culinary practice!!! some chefs around the world take his principles and a lot of creativity and make crazy food like foams and gels and shit. it's got more to do with bragging rights than nutrition, but it is so cool.

this book is an exploration of the chemistry and physics behind the crazy science experiments we make for meals. this is his second book, and here he focuses specifically on things that happen in your everyday kitchen with your everyday tools and pretty general ingredients. a lot of it is focused on cooking i don't do - cream, butter, eggs, meat, not really mediums i get into - but the chemical and physical reactions taking place are a frame of reference for thinking about what you are doing in the kitchen. from DIY alcoholic distillation (with a dry reference to the illegality of the practice) to the chemical reactions that happen when you sauté mushrooms in butter, This uses clear examples to illustrate the chemistry behind each bite you take. he provides a quick history of molecular gastronomy & the physiology of taste to ensure you are a well-rounded gourmand. i even learned about tasting wines and making béchamel sauce, two things i am pretty sure i didn't care about before reading this.

additionally, This is a proponent (in some specific circumstances) of using microwave cooking deliberately to aid the chef -- this embracing of microwave technology is not something i have heard much of from gourmands, and it was interesting to me that he was a proponent of that tool, albeit in very specific circumstances. i was also interested in his discussions of pressure cookers and copper pots and wooden spoons. the man is a wealth of information!

a lot of the chemistry and physics were too complicated for me to retain the details, especially the details of specific reactions and molecules, but i think that the most important take-home was the framework of thinking about cooking as a chemistry experiment, and considering some of the major themes - temperature, enzymes, reactions, chemical bonds, viscosity, phases, convection, conduction and radiant heating, and so on. now, it is all in the back of my brain when i'm in the kitchen!

[Luiza · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of information scattered around it, from multiple areas of the kitchen. Still, I was disappointed with the book as a whole, because of the way the information is described: sometimes it is too deep on the chemical part and this makes the text hard to understand; sometimes it explains only part of the question being answered on the chapter and leaves you with questions in your head.

Maybe if the author had decided to explain fewer phenomenons and focused more on those; maybe if there were more drawings and graphics to help explaining the subject (it’s much easier to understand chemical transformations through those); maybe if the language was clearer and more direct; maybe those things could make the book more pleasant.

But in general this is a book that is too hard to understand and like. I love both subjects (kitchen and chemistry), but was disappointed with the reading.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beaucoup, beaucoup trop technique. Pourtant, je suis assez familière avec la science, j'ai suivi plusieurs cours avancés. D'ailleurs, la majorité du bouquin traite soit de viande, soit d'œufs, soit de laitage. Du coup, par ennui et par désintérêt, j'ai fini par sauter pas mal de sections. J'aurais aimé apprendre de nouvelles choses. Pourtant, ce qu'il explique est totalement sans intérêt. Voici un exemple, tiré au hasard: «Les acides, chauffés en présence des chaînes d'amylose et d'amylopectine, dissocient ces dernières en chaînes plus courtes, qui lient moins d'eau; les granules d'amidon gélifient et se désintègrent à des températures inférieures.» 

[Eli Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a big picture cookbook. It's good for people who like to work down from the basic principles rather than collect a lot of detailed recipes. I don't like measuring devices, timers, temperature gauges or following tedious instructions. This book allowed me to just grab some random ingredients and throw them together in a way that had everyone coming back for seconds and thirds.

[Jessica Hembree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved all of the amazing facts that were included in this book. I was researching food science and came across this book. It’s very entertaining to read. It’s organized in short, easy to read sections. If you’re into science, food, or weird facts, check out this book.

[Celebrilomiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Ste · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my third This (always hard to review his books without sounding like a Who's on First routine!) and I think it's the weakest so far. It's less radical than either Molecular Gastronomy or Note By Note cooking - basically it's a textbook of the basic chemical and physical reactions of cooking. It's also a translation of a book that first appeared in French back in 1993, and it doesn't appear to have been updated (for example, it cites the Mpemba effect of hot water supposedly freezing faster than cold water, which is now considered debunked). There is plenty of interesting and useful information in here, but I'd recommend reading This's Molecular Gastronomy instead, which covers much of the same ground but with more experimental verve and less fear of offending France's hidebound culinary scene.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herve This is widely associated with the "school" of Molecular Gastronomy, which is why I didn't want to read his book. Other excellent texts on the science of cooking exist, e.g. Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen, New York: Scribner, 1984 and Robert L. Wolke, What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen science explained, New York: W.W. Norton, 2002. I had no interest in making chemistry-set dishes unrecognizable as food by any of my grandmothers. On the recommendation of a chum (with a PhD in biochemistry), I read This' book and thoroughly enjoyed it. The text is marred by Jody Gladding's occasionally inept translation from the French. I may now actually overcome my prejudices and read This' "Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavour" (2005).

[Jesse]

The second book I've read by Herve This ... and this is the one I'd recommend. He has a capacity to take simple topics (jam, egg, sauce) and make you feel like like you can competently take them on in a whole new sophisticated way. The structure of eggs explains so many dishes. Better yet ... how to recover an egg dish that appears to be failing ... that's valuable. The book is both basic and advanced. If a young foodie asked me what to read to learn how to cook for themselves I'd recommend first Alice Waters "The Art of Simple Food", followed by Herve This' "Kitchen Mysteries" for deeper understanding. These are a foundation to cook on.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chefs, cooks or foodies: beware! It is not a science treaty. It is not a how to do molecular gastronomy cookbook. It is a brief explanation in small themed chapters with smaller Q&A type sections about things this "mad hatter food scientist" has asked himself and then gone and scientifically prove, disprove or find out rightly.

Brilliant? Yes! Inspiring? Nope. Damn well informative and logically explained with a degree of elementary storytelling? You bet! Hey, it has answers to questions and explanations to events I, as a Chef with some Chemistry background did think about but simply couldn't answer.

[Niya · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone who has wondered why animal bones make things gel, or what puts the sponge in sponge cake and for anyone who wants to make a better souffle, or to ensure that their sauces are perfectly unctuous This' Kitchen Mysteries is the perfect beginning. The writing makes the sciences incredibly accessible, the passion for creating the most perfect version of something through rigorous testing of variables makes the entire piece rather endearing. It's a lovely piece for the more scientifically minded who wish to understand why cooking works as it does, and for the gastronomically minded who wish to understand how to perfect their creations.

[Lambknitj · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up just skimming over parts of the book -- parts of it went too in depth with the chemistry of cooking, and it mostly revolved around souffles and other egg products that I just don't bother making, as well as around wine and alcohol products. There was a sections on cooking meats that was interesting, if I cooked more meat. I was mostly disappointed in the bread section. I didn't really learn anything that I haven't learned in other places.

All in all, I guess this book just wasn't for me, even though I like to cook.

[Qiana]

I can't *really* rate this book since I didn't finish it. Maybe I don't remember as much chemistry and biochemistry as I thought, but the terminology just seemed a little too vague in places I wanted more description and too much description in places I didn't care about. And I really, really like science. And ultimately, what I did finish wasn't going to help me cook better. Disappointed that this wasn't better.

[Полиграф · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book assumes that the reader already has significant experience in the kitchen. There are some interesting tidbits, but the author seems more interested in the details of the chemistry than in providing much in the way of useful kitchen instruction. The book would have benefited from having accompanying recipes that demonstrated some of what the author was talking about.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this book was above my head in terms of kitchen skills & understanding and too technical in terms of the chemistry, but there were interesting tidbits and odd bits of humor sprinkled throughout.

[Artlab]

1/9/2008

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect this book could be a gateway drug to Science. Hard Science.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herve This is one of my biggest inspirations in the kitchen. This book is a good introduction to what he is all about.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting an informative, but some of the "technical" aspects (explanations for various chemical interactions, etc.) were a bit complex for me.

[Risa · Rating 3 out of 5]

fascinating. like grade-school science but about shit you can safely put in your mouth.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful at parts but often a bit confusing and repetitive. On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is in the same vein and more readable, though it's also a bajillion pages long.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "science" was too much of an obstacle for me to feast on the book - so I sampled here and there when something appealed to me.

[Stephanie Blake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good at all!

[Choopie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely for serious chefs which I am not!!!

[Mckinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief entries about some of the science behind cooking. And I learned how to tell a cooked egg from a raw one.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of really interesting information, but lacked organization. Took me awhile to get through it, but I am mostly glad I did.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Curious Cook Harold McGee will relish the latest from This (_Molecular Gastronomy_), a French chemist and foodie hero who has helped to usher in the current restaurant world vogue for turning the kitchen into a laboratory. This uses simple questions and observations about food (Does hot pepper burn a hole in the stomach?; Why must infants not be fed sausages?) as springboards for delightful explorations into culinary scientific principles. In brief, confident chapters, he moves through assorted ingredients (milk, vegetables, cheese), cooking methods (steaming, roasting, deep-frying) and whole categories of food and drink (bread, cake, sauces, salad) in his quest to explain kitchen phenomena. The book is more practical than theoretical, as This often breezes over much of the science, focusing not on the experiments and equations that answered his questions but rather on what they mean for the cook: how to ripen tomatoes properly, why to cook a roux for a long time, and so on. He distances himself even further from typical scientific writing with his charmingly enthusiastic tone, which keeps his prose from sounding dry even when he goes into more details about enzyme properties or protein varieties, so that even those who might be turned off by the thought of food chemistry will quickly be drawn in by his obvious love of food and eagerness to apply his research to helping people cook better. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Fans of 'Curious Cook' Harold McGee will relish the latest from This ( Molecular Gastronomy), a French chemist and foodie hero who has helped to usher in the current restaurant world vogue for turning the kitchen into a laboratory.... Even those who might be turned off by the thought of food chemistry will quickly be drawn in by his obvious love of food and eagerness to apply his research to helping people cook better." -- Publishers Weekly

"This has made invisible processes visible, revealed the mysteries, and the bread has risen, baked, and been enjoyed." -- Claudia Kousoulas, Appetite for Books

"Cooks who want to learn more about the chemistry and physics that make their efforts possible will discover useful things here." -- Booklist

"This's molecular gastronomy is garnished with the author's own rich philosophy of food and flavor." -- Peter Barham, Nature

"An exuberant paean for the role of science in cooking... This's book performs a great service." -- Len Fisher, Times Higher Education Supplement

"This book should be in every kitchen." -- Christine Sismondo, Toronto Star

"[An] eye-opening book." -- Kate Colquhoun, Portsmouth Herald

"Witty and humorous... [readers] whose eyes glaze over at the very mention of electrons may find themselves becoming entranced by This' graceful descriptions of essential chemical reactions." -- Lynn Harnett, Seacoast Sunday

"Well crafted, sprinkled with insight, and containing a menagerie of information, Kitchen Mysteries is a wonderful trip down a stellar buffet line." -- J. Edward Sumerau, Metro Spirit

" Kitchen Mysteries is another tour de force for the French scientific chef... Highly Recommended." -- Choice

"This's book offers expert explanations that give the reader a better understanding of both cooking and cuisine. As such, it is enticing." -- Pierre Laszlo, Chemical Heritage