Experimental cuisine

I'm just back from watching Ratatouille, the latest Pixar chef-d'oeuvre with S & M, and we enjoyed it no end! I know I've been gushing about The Incredibles when it was hitting the screens, and I still am. But what's so amazing is how perfectly Pixar adapts its productions' style and general demeanour to the respective story line. Looking at the end titles, this does not come without an immense effort, of course. Yet, it's worth every minute of it - go see yourself! I particularly liked the creepily anemic food critic Anton Ego, who really comes to life thanks to Peter O'Toole's voice. Or the rather clever way in which synaesthesia is used to approximate flavour, and how it is replicated in demonstrating flavour to the little chef's dimwit rat brother. Probably too clever by half for those hacks who condescendingly deem this movie a rather touching children's film ...

So, while a Parisian high-end restaurant operated by a bunch of rats will certainly outdo every competition in terms of its experimental nature, I've been coming across experimental cuisine (a.k.a. molecular cuisine) time and again lately, not least in an excellent article in Intelligent Life. I haven't tried that way of preparing food, yet, but I certainly will. Often times, people argue against it because the highly sophisticated ways in which the culinary experiences are prepared arguably destroy the "natural form of the food". The best counter-argument to date comes from the article I linked to above: "What is cooking if not the craft of «destroying the natural form» of foods, and turning them into something better, tastier and safer?" Next time I hear someone argue against "molecular" food, I'll ask how they like their raw meat etc ...