"chemical" news and stories

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."

Source

Wolfgang Puck Self-Heating Latte cans are currently being pulled from shelves after reports of the cans leaking chemicals into the coffee or exploding, according to a recent story from beverage industry publication BevNET. The BevNET story recounts a blame game between licensees, the can's manufacturers, distributors and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. The latter apparently requested that the cans be pulled after repeated customer complaints and supposed scrutiny from the FDA. The cans were originally released last spring. Some complaints included reports of a white substance, perhaps the calcium oxide used in the can's heating system, floating in the coffee. A Las Vegas woman also claims she was badly burned by a malfunctioning can that exploded. The cans supposedly heat their contents to 140 degrees. According to BevNET, the company that designed the cans marketed them with the slogan "It does what?"

[Photo: BevNET]