Molecular cooking explores the physicochemical aspects of food— temperature, texture and physical structure. But isn’t that what cooking is all about? The art of changing flavours of ingredients to create something new has been a part of Indian culinary tradition for ages, feels Chef Dewan. Take the royal Lucknowi dessert of lahsuni kheer, a creamy concoction made with garlic. “One of my senior chefs showed me how to do away with the pungent smell of garlic. It was pretty scientific. He treated garlic with a specified number of water and flower washes. The essence of the flowers helped mask garlic’s smell. What is this if not molecular gastronomy?” he asks.

Though the technique was immensely popular in the West in the ’90s, it is antithetical to “return-to-roots” movements like Slow Food and organic cooking that are gaining ground in a world wary of climate change. Angela Hartnett, Britain’s celebrity chef, is one of the critics. “Molecular gastronomy might have generated enough curiosity among diners in the last five years but I always insist on sourcing food ingredients from a farmhouse than a laboratory. Presentation should be kept to the minimum,’’ she said during a visit to India last year.
Like Hartnett, many others insist that molecular gastronomy is a temporary trend, for the rich and those in constant search of novelty. “The trend is picking up but will be restricted to high-end diners and hotels as this genre of cooking is expensive and time-taking,” says popular Noida-based food consultant Manu Mohindra.
Till it fizzles out, let the chefs cook up some spicy science.

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