Italy Bans Molecular Gastronomy Ingredients

by Nichol Nelson, Posted Mar 2nd 2010 @ 2:00PM

Now that Spain's famed El Bulli is closing, Ferran Adrià might have a little free time on his hands. If he's planning a vacation, however, he'd do well to steer clear of Italy. The country that founded the Slow Food Movement has banned the ingredients necessary to make the foams, fusions and textures found in molecular gastronomy. Commonly called "powders," the chemicals are largely thought to be harmless, and Adrià himself manufactures a line of them, called "Texturas."

But Italian Ministry of Health secretary Francesca Martini explained the legislation as a move to protect consumers from additives, though it all sounds a little bit odd. For starters, the ban is only in effect for a year (it expires at the end of December). Italian food blog Caput Mundi Cibus, which reported the news, thinks the whole thing reeks of a publicity stunt, pointing out that the government is also trying to ban liquid nitrogen by legislating against the "storage and use of any gaseous substance." (Liquid nitrogen isn't a gas, it's a liquid.) From a tourism perspective, it makes sense to publicize your commitment to carefully prepared, additive-free food in a country where it's prized above all else.

Of course, this sort of food legislation isn't unique to Italy -- Mayor Mike Bloomberg has made headlines in New York City for banning trans fats and requiring restaurants to post calorie counts. But wiping out an entire type of cuisine? That's a new one. So, in the meantime, Italian chefs will continue to turn out the classics: wood-fired margherita pizza in Naples, rich, meaty osso buco in Tuscany, garlicky bagna cauda in the Piedmont. But for now, kitchen trickery is taboo -- so if you've got a trip on the books, prepare to embrace tradition.

Filed Under: News
Tags: el bulli, francesca martini, italy bans molecular gastronomy, molecular gastronomy

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-02-2010 @2:32PM christopher said... "the chemicals are largely thought to be harmless" should send up red flags. That's like the FDA's "generally regarded as safe." I don't care one way or the other here and like people pushing the culinary limits but that statement along is enough to warrant a 2nd look.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-02-2010 @3:50PM dedioste said... Well, things are not exactly as the writer said, and in a sense they are even more incredible.
The ruling bans food addictives, UNLESS they are not already on the european list of permitted additives (which runs in the thousands).
And, yes, even nitrogen is on that list (or carbon dioxide, or pectin, or nearly any food ingredient that a cook could use).
The only real obligation left to the restaurant is to hand out, by request, the full list of ingredients for a dish. A thing that, in an era of food allergies and intolerances, sounds quite correct to me.
The ruling in the end really was nothing more than a publicity stunt for Mrs. Martini and Striscia La Notizia, a tv program not new to this kind of behaviour.

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-02-2010 @5:38PM dszanto said... Well, liquid nitrogen is a gas when it's kept at 77 K (−196 °C or −321 °F). In most kitchens, it does become a gas pretty quickly. But what about CO2 used in whipping cream or carbonating tap water? (Well, Italians aren't very good at non-bottled water, either.) And if you can't store gases in a kitchen, then I guess all refrigeration is out, cause of all that nasty freon running through the compressor pump. Better not be making any crème brulée or cooking on a gas range, either.
Concern here is not about health effects (at least non human physiology), it's about protectionism and resistance to change for fabricated reasons of culture and tradition, I'd say.
Publicity stunt or public debate, heads need to be pulled out of asses when talking about "tradition," especially w.r.t. food, where it gets reinvented whenever a profitable marketing opportunity comes along.
This is the same country with in which various municipalitis have banned "ethnic" food from within city limits. Basta, already.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-02-2010 @8:03PM crgwbr said... Liquid Nitrogen is always a liquid. Above 77K, its just 'nitrogen'

Vote upVote downReport

3-03-2010 @8:24AM dszanto said... Whoops, sorry. Yes, liquid, not gas, at or below 77K. Fingers got all frustrated typing.

Vote upVote downReport

3-03-2010 @12:27AM Chef Ryan said... Very unfortunate for a country known for its cuisine. First of all, it seems like they should really learn more about the "chemicals" chefs use. Many of them are natural, vegetable and ocean based. And ingredients that are commonly found in everyday foods. Most hydrocolloids come from natural sources such as microbial fermentation (xanthan and gellan) or plant extractions (gum arabic, locust bean, guar, agar and pectin.) And the "foam" ingredient soy lecithin mainly comes from soy bean oil. Sounds like a case of being afraid of what they don't know and trying to preserve an image. Not all chefs like to use these ingredients, but it does allow for certain techniques and enables chefs things they couldn't accomplish in the past. I look at it as new techniques and a natural way to progress food and how we cook. And to stifle and hold back progress just seems sad.....
Reply