Molecular gastronomy, a scientific look at cooking

Gastronomy unravelled by physics: Gastrophysics

Useful attempts to shed light on the nature of gastronomy from a scientific point of view and to unravel the crucial connection between food, eating and well-being are currently underrepresented in the scientific literature. However, several scientific disciplines ranging from the natural to the social sciences offer valuable new perspectives on gastronomy. As one of the key disciplines in natural science, physics offers original and rigorous perspectives on all processes and structures constrained by the laws of nature. The emerging discipline called gastrophysics employs the full range of concepts, techniques and methods from physics to generate useful scientific input to the complex and holistic reflections on gastronomy. Relying on a review of the existing literature, this article illustrates how a science-based gastrophysics emerges, to a large extent from the convoluted history of food science as well as from various recent ‐ and often overlapping ‐ attempts to combine modern scientific methodology to questions from gastronomy. However, the present review also insists on a physics-inspired methodology to handle scale and complexity in food preparation and consumption across length scales from sub-molecular to entire foods. We exemplify how gastrophysics directly helps to develop gastronomy and how it adds to current approaches in traditional food science. We also suggest that gastrophysics may prove relevant in the context of the ongoing food transformation, which focuses strongly on sustainability, but where the importance of gastronomic aspects in this transformation is greatly needed.

Effects of the cooking modes on commonly used pesticides residue in vegetables and their chronic dietary exposure risk in South China

Effects of cooking modes on the real intake and chronic exposure risk of pesticide residues in vegetables are usually neglected and largely unknown. Four modes of daily meal preparation; chafing dish, soup, salad and stir-frying were studied in this work to clarify their impact on the residual pesticides in foods. A detection method for 14 types of pesticide residues in different cuisines was developed. In this work, chronic exposure risks of four pesticides were analysed by probabilistic assessment based on data from public health and a pesticide residues investigation conducted. The results showed that chafing dish and soup methods greatly lowered the types, contents and exposure risks from residue pesticides. Salad preserved almost all the pesticide residues, and the risks were also relatively high in the stir-frying method. In chafing dish and soup, pesticide residues were dispersed in the media and posed quite low threats to humans. Considering the age, infants and children were at a higher risk of exposure than other populations. Reassuringly, all of the risks were at acceptable levels. This study clarified how the cooking modes affect chronic exposure risks to pesticide residues in the vegetables. The outcomes also show the effects of cooking method on healthy daily diets.

Solutions are solutions, and gels are almost solutions

Molecular gastronomy is the scientific discipline that looks for mechanisms of phenomena occurring during dish preparation and consumption. Solutions are studied because most foods, being based on animal and plant tissues, are gels, with a liquid fraction and a continuous solid phase. This is why food can be studied in situ using liquid NMR spectroscopy in the frequency domain (isq NMR). Using such tools, processes of the kind F@M → F' @ M' (where F stands for the food matrix, M for its environment, and @ for inclusion) were investigated for various processes as classified using the complex disperse system/non-periodical organization of space formalism (“disperse systems formalism”, DSF). As an application of these studies, “note by note cuisine” was promoted as a new paradigm for culinary activities.

Flavor network and the principles of food pairing

The cultural diversity of culinary practice, as illustrated by the variety of regional cuisines, raises the question of whether there are any general patterns that determine the ingredient combinations used in food today or principles that transcend individual tastes and recipes. We introduce a flavor network that captures the flavor compounds shared by culinary ingredients. Western cuisines show a tendency to use ingredient pairs that share many flavor compounds, supporting the so-called food pairing hypothesis. By contrast, East Asian cuisines tend to avoid compound sharing ingredients. Given the increasing availability of information on food preparation, our data-driven investigation opens new avenues towards a systematic understanding of culinary practice.