Molecular gastronomy in Europe

Can you give a short explanation of what molecular gastronomy is?

https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/molecular-gastronomy4.htm

Its is a very long read. I could not make it through, but maybe you can.

After struggling through 3 pages, I gave up and decided I had no need to search for a restaurant that focused on 'molecular gastronomy'.

Basically, it seems that if you don't know what molecular gastronomy is, you haven't been to a restaurant that focuses on it.

Can you give a short explanation of what molecular gastronomy is?

Small portions, high prices;)

Now, Michael, that's not really fair. It takes a lot of labor and effort to make flavored bubbles and foam. Then they have to arrange them artistically on a plate and add a flower stamen or two. There's the little gummy things that have an unexpected flavor. And the scented steam doesn't come cheap, you know.

I would rather eat real food.

Nothing wrong with cooking sous vide or emsulsions etc, I have a vacuum sealer at home and sometimes use it to seal food before poaching it. I made a butternut squash puree recently using the sous vide method and emulsifying it with Xanthan gum (my wife can't eat dairy) and my wife said it was the best puree she'd eaten. Poaching it gently in a vacuum meant that the flavour wasn't diluted. Of course I simply dumped it on the plate rather than a cheffy swirl or smear but cooking with such techniques and ingredients isn't necessarily pretentious or a waste of time, it often results in some very good flavours.

A few years ago, my tasting lunch at Mugaritz outside San Sebastian (drive or taxi) was a fantastic experience. Although prices have gone up a bit, I think well-regarded restaurants in this region are still less expensive than in England or Scandinavia, for instance.

Denmark and Sweden are hotbeds for contemporary molecular cuisine, although mostly as specialties within contemporary restaurants. The restaurants dedicated to the craft, however, are extremely expensive even by local standards.

@Lola

I would rather eat real food.

I would disagree, slightly, in that ultimately food is a mesh of chemical components. Cooking is often a process of de-construction or manipulation of raw ingredients.

Molecular gastronomy takes this to another level. Then you have its branch that approaches food engineering, i.e., manipulating basic chemical components that are naturally found on foods (not synthetic stuff that mimics the flavor) and assembling all sorts of edible food that resembles nothing like traditional recipes.

That can be playful on the eater, you don't know how something will taste and clever chefs can make stuff that will react with your saliva, warm of your mouth or crushing/cutting from your teeth, triggering different processes to the palate. The most common are spheres of crushed fruits or bittersweet plant-based ingredients that get a transparent membrane which bursts when chewed even slightly.

There are also all sorts of advanced foams that react with the saliva pH to release flavors (but have no smell whatsoever).

Yummm!

I'm planning a molecular Thanksgiving. A turkey scented house but no actual turkey. An orange cube that smells like sweet potatoes, but surprise! actually tastes like green beans. A smear of foam that tastes like mashed potatoes and another that tastes like gravy. I'll never have to host a holiday again!

I'm not the right person to ask. I'm usually guilty of reverse molecular gastronomy - meaning I can't tell you what it tasted like, I just ate it. I have to make a conscious effort to eat slowly and appreciate my food. I often do that when vacationing in Europe but I still don't normally pay more than 20-25 euro for dinner and a drink. That's probably not going to get me far in the foodie world but I've had decent meals for that - and some bad meals for much more than that.

Seems like there is a lot of double talk up thread. I think I will wait for this area of gastronomy to grow to maturity.

Hi Andre,

I think you are a pillar of patience.

If I had had all the sarcastic responses you received to this question, I think I would have complained about "snarky answers".

Guys, if you can't contribute anything useful, then stay away.

My favourite restaurant for this type of dining was The Gilbert Scott in London. We booked the Chef's Table, a semi-circular table in the restaurant kitchen where you can watch the kitchen staff going about their business. We opted for the seven course tasting menu with wine pairing and it was fantastic. The chef who cooked each dish presented it to us and gave a brief explanation about the ingredients, techniques etc followed by an introduction to each wine by our dedicated sommelier.

The dishes weren't large but with seven courses we were all quite full by the end.

There's nothing pretentious about it. It's a demonstration of skill and the use of the best quality ingredients. I ate some of the best food I've eaten in any restaurant during that night, I highly recommend it.

I've been meaning to try Marc Fosh's restaurant in Palma, Mallorca (http://www.marcfosh.com) however other things have always altered my plans but we'll be there over Christmas and New Year so hopefully I'll manage to finally make it. The three course lunch looks good for €29.50 but I'm not sure the kids would agree!

We have a practitioner here in Seattle ( or Bellevue actually) but it is a research facility, not a restaurant.
They do occasionally offer dinners to showcase the results of all that centrifuging, etc.

https://modernistcuisine.com/about-modernist-cuisine/the-cooking-lab/

https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/02/dinner-at-the-modernist-cuisine-cooking-lab-seattle-nathan-myhrvold.html

Small portions, high prices;)

No, that's (or was) Nouvelle Cuisine. Well, maybe molecular gastronomy also.

I think I will wait for this area of gastronomy to grow to maturity.

If by "grow to maturity" you mean "disappear," that's pretty much what's happened to it in the US.