For More detail on modern techniques and videos see my new ebook
‘Modernist Vegetarian’


And you can buy all your Modern Ingredients and equipment from -

www.Modernist-Chef.com

This brief introduction to modern techniques/ingredients etc (what’s often unfortunately labeled ‘molecular gastronomy’) is just in its infancy, I’ll come back to it and develop this blog entry to make it both more precise and cover more ground but for the moment I hope it gives a tiny introduction to those of you new to this stuff.

This is a very much over simplified and generalized post, (this won’t present information of great interest to my chef followers or those already quite familiar with the famous modern restaurants, chefs and techniques). But if you are new to alot of this stuff I hope it gives a little context and a start point for getting your head around it. For more detail others have written on this subject more eloquently than i ever could.

I should quickly note here though that I personally dislike the term ‘molecular gastronomy’ or ‘molecular cooking’ as do most chefs labeled with this term, I think avant-garde, modern or modernist are more appropriate, so from now on in this blog I will refer to the grouping of these techniques, ingredients and chefs as modernist or avant-garde.



For some this culinary movement is typified by the assortment of techniques and ingredients used by chefs at the cutting edge of modernist haute cuisine. From preparation methods like use of liquid nitrogen, foams and sous vide (cooking vacuum packed food in a water bath), to ‘spheres’ and ‘caviar pearls’ which burst into liquid in the mouth and even ‘flavouring’ the atmosphere around dishes with scent. These all allow the modern cook to potentally create an exceptional dining experience.

At the forefront of this exciting, ground breaking and sometimes controversial culinary movement have been creative, influential chefs like Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, Tomas Keller and Rene Redzepi to name but a few. They have blazed a trail creatively, developed new techniques and popularized use of specialist ingredients, that have now become accessible for use in home kitchens.

Fundamentally though for me this aspect of cuisine is about creativity and aspiring towards excellence. It’s not about throwing out traditional techniques but exploring everything that is at our disposal and embracing innovation in many forms across various disciplines.



So how does all this fit with vegetarian cooking? In the past high end cuisine may have been characterised by foie gras and veal stocks, and these still have a prominent place in most haute cuisine restaurants. However this new movement has to some extent levelled the playing field for vegetarian cooks, with almost all of the ‘new’ ingredients being vegetarian and vegan, and by demonstrating that dishes can be built up in variety of ways (not simply with a traditional meat of fish central element) and be exciting and of the highest standard still. Ingredients are approached in new ways without expence or fashion determining their value. And I personally think, especially in veggie food, this imaginative, creative approach has opened up an exciting new range of possibilities for chefs and diners alike and where creatively and intelligently applied is playing an important role in taking modern vegetarian cuisine to new heights.



New techniques have given us new ways to give food fantastic textures and contrast, something that is arguably even more important when cooking without meat. Whilst modern ingredients offer another huge advance for vegetarian cooking in the form of various hydrocolloids such as Agar Agar and Gellan, which allow gelling and setting without gelatin. Meaning its possible to make things like vegetarian marshmallows, panna cotta, jellies and mousses, which were previously out of bounds. And that’s just the beginning, these same ingredients let us make flaming sorbets that don’t melt when they’re flambed, make hot mouses and gellees, do fast effective clarification and explore textures within a dish in increadible ways.

• Measure your ingredients exactly. Many recipes or ingredients require precision so weigh all liquids as well as solids in grams and use accurate scales, ideally that will measure to 0.01 of a gram.
• Be prepared to have a couple of goes at something to nail the technique. If its totally new to you it might not work first time but stick with it. And if something doesn’t work try to identify where it could have gone wrong before you try again.
• The most complex solution isn’t always the best. For example to alter texture in a dish simply slicing something in a novel way might be most effective.
• Most importantly make sure your food is delicious! The techniques and effects are great ways to augment your food but it still has to taste great! So always use the best quality ingredients you can and taste everything as often as possible while your cooking.

Fruit Glass (example of texture manipulation)