How to construct a meal

We are at the lET´s Savoy Place premises, where Dr Herve This is very pleased to discover a statue of Michael Faraday outside the building. This physical chemist calls natural philosopher Faraday ´the most important physical chemist´. DrThis is on a mini-tour to promote his new book ´Science of the Oven´ (reviewed in issue three of E&T). He has so far lectured at Imperial College and Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Marylebone Lane, London. But back to scones. What DrThis means is that tradition is a fallacy; each batch of scones differs from every other. ´It is the old debate between Plato and Aristotle what is the taste of a cherry? All cherries are different, so there is no taste of the cherry.´ Tradition is one of the things This is trying to update. Especially since certain things in our kitchens have been around since Medieval times. ´Down with the Middle Ages!´ he said in his London University lecture. This has collected over 25,000 old French cooking customs, which he calls ´culinary precisions´, and which he is testing out. It was to bring some precision to the kitchen that he and Nicolas Kurti invented ´molecular gastronomy´ in 1988. Their aims were exploration, testing the status quo, introducing new tools and ingredients and spreading science through food. Out of this came ´molecular cuisine´, practised by high-profile chefs worldwide, but This is keen to assert the distinction that molecular cooking is cooking and molecular gastronomy is scientific activity. ´Molecular gastronomy is not cooking for rich people,´ he said in his Imperial College lecture.