Heston Blumenthal-Telegraph UK
The temporary closing of the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s three star Michelin Bray restaurant, over food poisoning is sure to enkindle the debate among chefs as to whether or not molecular gastronomy is posing health risks.
A mysterious illness has effected 30-40 guests. After preliminary testing has shown nothing wrong, Blumenthal took the measure to close as a precaution.
The debate has raged in Spain when chef Santi Santamaria said that “Adrià is poisoning his patrons with his added chemicals.” In reference to Ferran Adrià of elBulli fame. Adrià countered “This is non-sense from all perspectives.” None the less the cat was out of the bag with more “traditional” chefs wondering to each other whether Santi’s claim held any water.
For the conspiracy theorists out there, if it’s worth anything, Ferran Adrià, and Heston Blumenthal are regularly crowned the best chefs in the world by the British publication Restaurant Magazine, sponsored by Nestlé (San Pellegrino), the world’s largest food processing company.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:34 am
It seems like Blumenthal did the right thing by temporarily closing. What I have a difficult time with is the contradiction of Farm to Table and Molecular Gastronomy. Food is in, chemicals are out? Seems to be.
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Molecular gastronomy is the supermodel of the food world. Interesting to look at, fantasize about, ponder…sexy, but high maintainance. I mean, would you really want to have to deal with it every day? I personally prefer slow cooked soul food and a real midwestern gal.
FWIW, here are my favorite supermodel food pics on the web:
http://www.elbulli.com/videos/catalogo/preindex.php?lang=en
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I’ve heard rumors for years about carcinogens getting into food via sous-vide bags, usually in this country people point, wrongly or not, to Grant Achatz’ frightening & tragic bout with cancer. What do I think? Dunno. I imagine silicon bags are the solution to that particular problem, and I don’t really know why I think sous vide whatever is okay when I’m at a restaurant but would never in a million years let someone microwave a piece of plastic or plastic-wrap in my own house….
Anyway, that’s my two-cents. In other news: I’m loving the blog. Keep it up!
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Blogs/Dear-Dara/
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I’m not necessarily supporting molecualar food (don’t make me eat paper with a picture of tuna meat, infuse it with whatever you infuse it with, and call it new-age sushi!), but before we all scream “THEY’RE MAKING US EAT CHEMICALS” … can someone educated my ignorance as to what chemicals are they using that are, well, non-naturally occuring chemicals? I mean all food is chemically based, as are we. Are we taking about liquid nitrogen assisted cooling, or something altogether more Dr. Strangelovish?
Okay, I’m actually against one aspect of molecualar food … $$$$. Just how expensive are these chemicals anyway?
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Dara, writing a blog is somewhat terrifying when I consider writers of your stature are reading it. Three hours ago I was Wikipedia-ing the proper use of an apostrophe. More on sous-vide in an up coming post.
Jphan, the texturas that Adria is selling are pricey, I use a few of them, those that I understand, and occur naturally, I purchase them through korin.com. I have not moved into meat glue, and stay away from the items I would not be excited about eating.
I feel that like many things there is a time and place for the use of additives, certain tools, even a microwave can be very useful, chocolate for instance. Overall I tend toward simplicity and every dish is evaluated based on the emotional effect it has on us when we eat it, it has to take us somewhere, hopefully it’s beautiful.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Geoff, thank goodness I ate a hearty lunch before looking at those photos! Otherwise I’d be unappeasably hungry.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
blogging can be quite humbling … “educated my ignorance”, “are they using that are”. gotta stop typing faster than i can think!
so, you can buy “texturas”. is that what funds his 6 months of R&D?
btw, anyone own any M-cookbooks? what’s their ingredients index/glossary like? sorry, but i can’t afford the $250 el bulli compendium.
oh, and dara, hope you’re wrong cause we use that foodsaver thingy on a regular basis, and i like my tongue the way it is, thank you very much. but we store, and don’t cook in/with the bags.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Brenda Langton at Cafe Brenda is always trying to get me to write about this, but there doesn’t seem to be any really definitive information on either side.
And on the third hand, there have been studies connecting char on meat with cancer — puh-lease.
Right out of college I worked for an epidemiologist inputting food-X-has-a-slight-correlation-with-cancer-Y studies into a big database, and towards the end I wasn’t eating anything but sprouted lentils. Which I guess I just bring up as an example of: Science has its limits too.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:31 pm
if loving char-edged meat is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
BTW…not sure if the cat is out of the bag yet in terms of what it is, but the Shefzilla @ Heidi’s last night was an ethnic SE Asian dish, and I daresay it was as good a version of that particular dish as any I’ve had on Nicollet or University Avenues.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
24th…new menu, celebration of spring…”pho”
March 4th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Pho – my goodness. Have you conferred with Ms. Kim Tong on the proper pronunciation of said dish? I may be driving your way to pass your version through my lips.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:21 am
If I knew that that was all it would take to get you to drive my way I would have done put it on the menu opening day.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
interesting article… was just talking with friends at http://www.affluence.org about very similar subject