Culinary: An art and science in the modern kitchen

By Rekha Sharma

Professor Rekha Sharma explains how culinary arts is a blend of both science and art in the article below.

Cooking is invariably synonymous to taste, we remember food because of the everlasting effect it leaves on our taste buds. This behaviour of food makes it remembered as an art; we tend to ignore the science that goes behind cooking. As layman we focus more on the visual appeal and taste; which is more of an art than science. The versatile nature of cooking and the effect that it has on our senses make it one of the most influential arts. A beautiful art work appeals to only one sense (seeing), and a live show of music appeals to two senses (hearing and seeing), but cooking impacts all five senses, the way the food is prepared and arranged on a table and the way a food is tasted, it impacts our hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling, hypothetically it has a greater impact on the dinners, thus it is a greater form of art work. Food is globally a basic necessity. But it is only human beings who endeavour to convert food from simple to extraordinary. The cuisine and latest advancement in food universally is based on the availability of the ingredients, climatic conditions and the geography of the region. The food also depends upon the cultural and the socio-economic conditions of the region and country. Food is the integral part of our life and will continue to be a big part of one’s daily lives.

Culinary Arts: A blend of Art & Science

Culinary art is both an art and a science. It requires more than just knowledge of the food being prepared and the methods of preparation. It involves what flora & fauna gives us in the form of ingredients. A chef is like a connoisseur, when the food is plated by him in fine dining which looks like a piece of an art that sometimes is beyond human explanation. The beauty lies in the versatility of the ingredient, when different chefs hold different colours of ingredients in their hands, each one creates different art pieces. It could be as colourful like a rainbow or as simple as monochrome. Chefs are exploring new cuisines; they go out of their way to create new ambience that depicts the culture and customs of their homeland which is a wide range of psychedelic of fine dining art pieces of food which is beyond human imagination.

Culinary arts can also be a science. We could see a transformation in the field of culinary, now it is an amalgamation of both art and science. Many famous restaurants now have cooking test centre on their properties, though there are many colleges around the globe that are offering degrees in culinary science, (a degree program that blends food science and technology with culinary art). In recent years, the interest in food science has grown tremendously because of the increasing consciousness of the role of food in the health and well-being.  And it is also an economic status of an individual to try new and innovative food items.

Culinary science is the study about the chemical composition of food and food ingredients, their physical, biological and biochemical properties and the interaction of food constituents with each other and their environment. Molecular Gastronomy is centred on scientific principles and its use and improvement on micro level food preparation. The term was invented by the Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti in a 1969 with his French collaborator Herve this at the Royal Institution called “The Physicist in the kitchen.” Molecular gastronomy is blend of social and artistic mechanism; it is based on the principles of heat transference (conduction and convection) and physical characteristics of food/liquid interface, stability of taste, dispersion, and texture/flavour relationship.

Recent research proved that sound, too, is an important tool in creating a perfect meal experience. Chef Heston Blumenthal has a dish on his menu by the name of ‘Sound of the Sea’ in his restaurant Fat Duck in Berkshire. This dish is basically a collection of seafood served on a bed of sand-like tapioca similar to the shoreline. This dish is different from others; in this diners are encouraged to listen the sound of waves playing on an iPod while relishing this culinary experience. Chef Heston got this idea after the research at Oxford University and it is evident that sound could effect and enhance the sense of taste. The traditional food science was more focused on nutrition, food safety and research & development of the recipe.

Food performs an incredible role in ones lives; it has a push button for person’s happiness. Cooking reflects our state of mind on the plate, in the form of anger, happiness, melancholy, joy, tranquillity and pride can all be experienced through food knowingly or unknowingly. Cooking is both an art and a science, we can better understand as a science, but there is no way to remove the creativity from it. The art of cooking is not only pleasing our eyes but also the palate. The visual representation of cooking lends itself to art. The technical part of cooking is based on science (chemistry, mathematics and physics). I think culinary preparation is both art and science in the modern kitchen. Both join hands to create those mouth-watering dishes that make us blissful.

About the Author:

Rekha Sharma

Rekha Sharma is Assistant Professor at Vedatya Institute. She has over 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry and academics, with almost seven years in hotel kitchen operations and eight years in academics. She has worked with some of the prestigious hotels & colleges in India, namely Hyatt Regency, ITC Marriot Welcome, Holiday Inn, JayPee Palace, SRM University, IILM Gurgaon, IIHM Delhi and UEI Global.

Rekha has completed her Bachelor in Arts (BA) from Delhi University and BSc in Hotel Management from IHM Gwalior. She has also done post-graduation in English from HP University, Shimla and obtained a certificate of teaching in higher education from Vedatya Institute.