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Diners who frequent higher end restaurants may have no problem accepting a chef's use of unusual or artificial flavoring agents when they are used to bring out unusual sensations in the food, like the menthol crystals used by Wylie Dufresne in some dishes at wd-50. The same cannot be said when artificial flavorings are used instead of readily available ingredients.
Leading French chefs Joel Robuchon and Alain Passard have denounced the growing trend among French cooks for using non-natural ingredients in their cooking, like saffron perfume, truffle essence or powdered wine sauce. The objective, unlike the use of similar things in the conceptual molecular gastronomy model, is to be able to achieve cheap, quick results. French cooks who use them use the "ingredients" secretly, for fear of being accused of cheating by others in their profession. A supplier stands by the products, saying "An increased range [of flavors] should logically be tolerated and accepted by everyone in the end," while Passard said "I don't know what to call the people who use these chemicals, but they are not cooks."
Contrary to an assertion by one of the vendors for these products, the use of wild mushroom or truffle flavor is not the same as vanilla because vanilla is used exclusively as a flavor, not as an ingredient. And though flavorings such as almond extract are common, they are primarily used in places where the real ingredient cannot be, unlike a powdered wine sauce that could clearly be substituted with real wine sauce.
Most diners would agree with Passard. They want real ingredients in their food, not to end up with a faux traditional meal that could have been turned out by the staff of a McDonalds because no real cooking was involved. This is especially true if the restaurants and chefs in question try to pass off their creations as containing the real products their flavorings are modeled after.
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6-10-2006 @10:31AM Jonathan Harford said... If you can make cheap food tastier and tasty food cheaper, I'm all for it. If I want real home cooking, I'll cook in my real home.
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6-10-2006 @12:07PM Super Weiss said... I'm confused by the conclusion of this post. I doubt these recipes that are using things like "truffle essence" are assembly-style dish comparable to what is served at McDonalds. I haven't quite decided if I agree or disagree with the whole concept, but it seems that these chefs are just using an additional tool to make their lives easier. It doesn't mean the entire dish is crap, just that they were able to include truffle flavor without using actual truffles. The idea of powdered wine sauce seems a little less excusable, but I imagine it could be quite handy for a cook in certain instances. Again, this doesn't mean the entire dish did not require any knowledge or skill in its preparation.
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6-10-2006 @12:17PM Nicole Weston said... Foods served at fast food restaurants are often pre-cooked and simply require assembly by the employees. My point was that with a cheap, truffle flavored spray, McDonald's could add truffle burgers to the menu.
The issue discussed in the original article is not whether it's convenient or not for the chefs, it's the fact that diners are being misled when they go into an expensive french restaurant and expect to have real ingredients.
Most diners expect the food to not only taste good, but actually involve the ingredients that they are paying to eat.
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6-10-2006 @7:17PM Tasty Tangee said... What are the advantages and disadvantages of these enhancers health wise? I believe that natural ingredients are the way to go. I will pay the price for good old fashion cooking! Eating fast food gives us enough artificial coloring and additives as it is.
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