"molecular gastronomy" news and stories

If there were a Guinness World Record for heftiest, most expensive cookbook, there would be no question that this new arrival would own the slot. At a whopping $625, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, the 2,400 page creation of scientists-inventors-cooks Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, is a six-volume guide to molecular gastronomy.

Renowned for his own hand in the movement, Ferran Adrià has already given his blessing, offering a statement on the book's website that "this cookbook will change the way we understand the kitchen."

The volumes are divided as such:
• 1 - "History & Fundamentals"
• 2 - "Techniques & Equipment"
• 3 - "Animals & Plants"
• 4 - "Ingredients & Preparations"
• 5 - "Plated-Dish Recipes"
• 6 - "Kitchen Manual"

Perhaps the largest breakthrough in cooking in the last decade, molecular gastronomy -- or "playing with powder," as David Lebovitz puts it -- is an art form that has some diners widening their eyes in wonderment and others shaking their heads in disbelief.

Popularized by Ferran Adria's soon-to-be-shuttered El Bulli in Spain and, later by Wylie Dufresne at New York City's WD-50, the avant-garde cuisine takes the ordinary to extraordinary levels. As Frank Bruni put it in 2005, the "sci-fi cooking" has been known to "toy with unusual textures, play with wildly unlikely flavor combinations and generally venture in directions that might turn out to be silly, but then again might not." Pondered Lebovitz, "Just like Matisse was widely-panned for painting a woman's face with a green stripe down the middle, I think we're going to have to let time tell us if this is just a passing fancy or if it's something that's here to stay."

And though the still-kicking buzz of molecular cooking has died down - quite likely as a result of the prohibitively high cost of restaurants embracing it as their specialty - it may now create another stir, as it is released in a user-friendly form to the general public.

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.

When it comes to food and travel guides, some are known for their frugality, others for their edginess and still others for their humor. Frommer's could perhaps best be described as "Old Reliable," with picks that rarely stray far from the well-trodden path and are somewhat on the pricey side. Instead of budget-friendly options and spontaneity, Frommer's devotees could bet on an authentic, safe and somewhat luxe travel experience.

That's why it's surprising that the hot-off-the-press new book "Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers" offers an incredibly wide array of options for every budget. Sure, it tips its hat to the traditional institutions that one would expect from the venerable publisher, but it also offers some down-market choices that should give adventurous gourmands a run for their money. Within its pages we spied Coney Island's Totonno's Pizzeria, with some of New York's most-buzzed-about pies in spite of its location on a scuzzy stretch of Neptune Avenue, and old-school Frank Pepe's pizzeria in New Haven, Conn.

Other Frommer's finds after the jump.

.000001%* of the population will be paid actual cash money to step foot into the on deck circle at Yankee Stadium. Still, that doesn't stop hordes of fans from TiVoing Inside Baseball, poring over box scores and suiting up in team regalia on game day. For some of us, food holds an equally compelling balance of gut-level devotion and wonkish stat-based compulsion. A reservation at elBulli is akin to scoring home team dugout seats for the seventh game of the World Series. Food fans -- here's your program.

It's said that 2,000,000 requests a year come in for just 8000 seats at Ferran Adrià's Spanish temple of molecular gastronomy. The closest many of us will come is grazing through this brand new 528 page play-by-play, A Day at elBulli An insight into the the ideas, methods and creativity of Ferran Adrià. It's not so much the common parlance's "food porn" as it is a post-millennial culinary junkie's process orgy, documenting each staff motion and motivation, every microgram of alginate and liquid nitrogen, and fetishistically breaking down quantity and custom and customer/server semiotics.

The proverbial sausage has never been so obsessively, graphically made for public consumption, and rarely has it been so deliciously presented. There are pleasing pictures and recipes, to be sure (Hazelnut praline air, anyone? Perhaps some Garrapi-nitro pine nuts?), but sans easy access to an Isomalt-R-Us, it's a fever-dream cookbook. It is, however, a deeply heartening food-ifesto.