Lesson 1: Module 7 Student Summary Copy

Goal: How do I maximise the nutritional profile of an ingredient without destroying and disrupting the macronutrients, phytonutrients and enzymes. How do I also make the nutrients most bio-available whilst also ensuring the ingredient is east to digest. With this seeminly near impossible task in mind how can i also make sure the food becomes delicious and artistic and aesthetically pleasing and most of all representative of culinary medicine. All this without a huge amount of nuts, without sugars, without cooking, without diary mimics such as toxic cashew nuts. Only using fresh organic colourful produce.

Pursuit: The Ultimate pursuit here is breaking down the cell wall in the ingredient using the various molecular gastronomy techniques featured in this module.

Evaluation: Is this dish perfected and executed enough to feature on a Michelin star menu. Is this dish light, refined, vibrant, colourful. Is it medicinal and in what ways is it medicinal. is it hormetic, does this dish fit into culinary medicine. Is the the most elegant elevation of these ingredients or could it be simplified further. Is the dish easy to digest with bioavailable nutrients and full of phytochemicals which are released by breaking the cell wall.

Molecular gastronomy

“What is Molecular Gastronomy?A field that “attempts to link chemistry to culinary science, to explain transformations that occur during cooking, and to improve culinary methods through a better understanding of the underlying chemical composition of food” (Roudot 2004)

Molecular Gastronomy – Science in The Kitchen

Molecular gastronomy is a sub discipline of food science that seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking. Its program includes three axis, as cooking was recognized to have three components, which are social, artistic and technical. Molecular cuisine is a modern style of cooking, and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines. The term “molecular gastronomy” was coined in 1988 by late Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti and the French INRA chemist Hervé This.  For the purpose of this course, we use molecular gastronomy to describe our pursuit as plant based culinary science enthusiasts, to treat our ingredients in certain ways with a certain attitude using certain techniques which are all low temperature ultimately to achieve incredible flavour, nutrient bio availability, with easy digestibility, aesthetically pleasing, creative and artistic all this without cooking and preserving the integrity and nutritional profile of the ingredient and mostly enhancing the nutritional profile. There are a number of techniques that really help in this pursuit, all techniques must share the vision of breaking down the cell wall of vegetables and fruits to release amazing flavours – much of this is often destroyed by cooking. These techniques not only break down the cell wall but enhance the ingredient, elevating a humble vegetable into a Michelin star dish. Some of these techniques we have already covered such as blending, juicing, fermenting, pickling, dehydrating and slow cooking. 

Raw Foods are not just uncooked foods, raw foods are not just cold foods. Raw Foods can be warm, slow cooked and must always be organic, unprocessed, loaded with easy to absorb nutrients and prepared in a unique way to ensure maximum absorption of high quality nutrients, phytonutrients, minerals, healthy fats, amino acids and enzymes. This is not an alternative health or diet strategy. This is about optimum elite health in mind and body. This is about incredible energy and vitality and about investing in your future mind and body health to prevent age, diet & lifestyle related illness and inflammation.

Other techniques we will now explore are:

• Gelification
• Spherification
• Emulsification
• Siphon whipping (Espuma)
• Suspension
• Powderizing
• Spiralising (pasta)
• Misting (rose water)
• Smoking
• (Vaccum sealing Sous vide)
• Marination (quick pickling) (Dry or Wet)
• Water bath low temp slow cooking
• Mandolin (Carpaccio)
• Vegetable porridge
• Vegetable tartare
• Sesame foam/espuma
• Courgette pasta (No sauce – just oil, garlic, herbs and seasoning)

“Raw vegan food is not boring salads and uncooked vegetables, raw food is a culinary pursuit, a dedication and endeavor to transforming the highest quality of vegetables using simple techniques to extract exquisite flavors, preserving the essential nutrients and enzymes and complementing them with an array of mineral rich nuts, seeds, seaweeds, sprouts and fruits. Raw vegan food is the pursuit of perfect food, art for the eyes, a taste of naturalness, unparalleled nourishment for the body and great for the planet too” – Plant Based Academy“What is Gastronomy? Gastronomy in the intelligent knowledge of whatever concerns man’s nourishment…” From the Ancient Greek words gastros meaning ‘stomach,’ andnomos meaning ‘law’ or ‘knowledge’Generally the study of the relationships between food and culture using interdisciplinary approaches -(1825, Physiology of Taste)