Hervé This
Encyclopedia
Hervé This is a French
physical chemist
who works for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
at AgroParisTech, in Paris (France). His main area of scientific research is molecular gastronomy
, that is the science of culinary phenomena (more precisely, looking for the mechanisms of phenomena occurring during culinary transformations).
With the late Nicholas Kurti
, he coined the scientific term "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" in 1988, which he shortened to "Molecular Gastronomy" after Kurti's death in 1998. Graduated from École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris
, he obtained a Ph.D from the University Paris VI, under the title "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique". He has written many scientific publications, as well as several books on the subject which can be understood even by those who have little or no knowledge of chemistry, but so far only four have been translated into English. He also collaborates with the magazine Pour la Science, the aim of which is to present scientific concepts to the general public. He is also a corresponding member of the Académie d'agriculture de France, and, more recently, the scientific director of the foundation "Food Science & Culture", which he created at the French Academy of Science. In 2011, he was elected as a Consulting Professor of AgroParisTech, and he was also asked to create courses on science and technology at Sciences Po Paris.
Some of his discoveries include the perfect temperature for cooking an egg (around 65°C, the white coagulates, but not the yolk), and the use of an electrical field to improve the smoking of salmon. He also found that beating an egg white after adding a small amount of cold water considerably increases the amount of foam produced. Every month he adds one new "invention" in the Art et Science section of the website of the chef Pierre Gagnaire
.
Although his main focus is on physical chemistry, he also attributes great importance to the emotional aspect of cooking, as the title of one of his books shows: Cooking is love, art, technique.
The latest work by Hervé This, in conjunction with Pierre Gagnaire, has been the formation and promotion of 'note by note' cuisine - the next stage in the appliance of science to the kitchen after molecular gastronomy. Note by note cooking involves taking the molecules that compose ingredients used in cooking, and using these as the raw ingredients for a dish. “If you use pure compounds, you open up billions and billions of new possibilities,” Mr This said. “It's like a painter using primary colours or a musician composing note by note.”
As part of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, The French Embassy in Ireland in association with the Institut Français, the Alliance Française Dublin, the Lycée Français d’Irlande and the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE put on a number of lectures around Dublin, Ireland where Hervé This performed demonstrations and promoted the new concept of 'note by note' cuisine.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
physical chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
who works for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
The Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique is a French public research institute dedicated to scientific studies surrounding the problems of agriculture...
at AgroParisTech, in Paris (France). His main area of scientific research is molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in...
, that is the science of culinary phenomena (more precisely, looking for the mechanisms of phenomena occurring during culinary transformations).
With the late Nicholas Kurti
Nicholas Kurti
Professor Nicholas Kurti FRS was a Hungarian-born physicist who lived in Oxford, UK, for most of his life. In his era, he was one of the leading experimental physicists....
, he coined the scientific term "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" in 1988, which he shortened to "Molecular Gastronomy" after Kurti's death in 1998. Graduated from École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris
École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris
The école supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris or ESPCI ParisTech is a chemistry and physics engineering college run by the city of Paris, France and a member of ParisTech...
, he obtained a Ph.D from the University Paris VI, under the title "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique". He has written many scientific publications, as well as several books on the subject which can be understood even by those who have little or no knowledge of chemistry, but so far only four have been translated into English. He also collaborates with the magazine Pour la Science, the aim of which is to present scientific concepts to the general public. He is also a corresponding member of the Académie d'agriculture de France, and, more recently, the scientific director of the foundation "Food Science & Culture", which he created at the French Academy of Science. In 2011, he was elected as a Consulting Professor of AgroParisTech, and he was also asked to create courses on science and technology at Sciences Po Paris.
Some of his discoveries include the perfect temperature for cooking an egg (around 65°C, the white coagulates, but not the yolk), and the use of an electrical field to improve the smoking of salmon. He also found that beating an egg white after adding a small amount of cold water considerably increases the amount of foam produced. Every month he adds one new "invention" in the Art et Science section of the website of the chef Pierre Gagnaire
Pierre Gagnaire
Pierre Gagnaire is a well known French chef, and is the Head Chef and owner of the eponymous Pierre Gagnaire restaurant at 6 rue Balzac in Paris . Gagnaire is an iconoclastic chef at the forefront of the fusion cuisine movement. Beginning his career in St...
.
Although his main focus is on physical chemistry, he also attributes great importance to the emotional aspect of cooking, as the title of one of his books shows: Cooking is love, art, technique.
The latest work by Hervé This, in conjunction with Pierre Gagnaire, has been the formation and promotion of 'note by note' cuisine - the next stage in the appliance of science to the kitchen after molecular gastronomy. Note by note cooking involves taking the molecules that compose ingredients used in cooking, and using these as the raw ingredients for a dish. “If you use pure compounds, you open up billions and billions of new possibilities,” Mr This said. “It's like a painter using primary colours or a musician composing note by note.”
As part of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, The French Embassy in Ireland in association with the Institut Français, the Alliance Française Dublin, the Lycée Français d’Irlande and the French Trade Commission UBIFRANCE put on a number of lectures around Dublin, Ireland where Hervé This performed demonstrations and promoted the new concept of 'note by note' cuisine.