Cooking has greatly evolved over the centuries, and more specifically since the Renaissance, which marked the start of more elaborate, creative cooking, with previously unknown products coming from the New World, such as chocolate, beans, pepper and later tomatoes, corn and potatoes. After the French Revolution, which played a decisive role in abolishing trade guilds, Carêrme contributed to the refinement of French cuisine. He simplified and codified a cuisine that was very complex at the time, through several major works (Le Maître d’hôtel français, Le Cuisinier parisien, L’Art de la cuisine française au XIXe siècle).
The modernization and organization of French gastronomy are generally attributed to Georges Auguste Escoffier, who simplified the modern menu and the structure of meals.

New trends are making headway today, thanks to the development of technologies, although traditional cooking is still very well established. These include molecular cuisine, also called ‘techno-emotional’ by some specialists, which consists of introducing practices drawn from chemistry and physics into cooking.  It is associated with so-called ‘innovative’ ingredients already used in the food processing industry such as gelling agents (agar - agar, carrageenan, gelatine), thickening agents (guar gum, carob, xanthan, sodium alginate), emulsifiers (soya lecithin), or fizzy sugar. The most famous representatives of this cuisine are Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal, Pierre Gagnaire and Thierry Marx.
Another trend is cryogenic cuisine, which uses cryogenic or food gases that can take foods to a precise temperature or cool them very rapidly in the most efficient way. Liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide snow are the most suitable means to that end. Liquid nitrogen is used at a very low temperature (-196°C) as with carbon dioxide snow (-78°C), which demands certain precautions. These new trends have fervent supporters as well as fierce opponents.

Some innovative concepts reworked by certain great chefs have appeared with new lifestyles, such as snacking and street food, which they have made into chic, sophisticated or even luxury dishes (savoury Madeleine with truffles, slice of bread and caviar and pizza with caviar, sandwich with foie gras and cocoa, lobster sandwich, etc.). Innovation is equally active in terms of the kitchen. The development of technology has helped created efficient cooking appliances: tables (induction, halogen, radiant, gas, mixed, domino), portable immersion heaters (hot plates), all-purpose ovens (used for baking, roasting, barbecue, grilling) using various techniques (forced draught, rotating heat, static heat, dry steam, etc.). For several years now these ovens have integrated electronics to control temperatures, display data, programme start-up and, more recently, computer functions (USB key, wi-fi system) to provide communication between the computer in the chef’s office and the oven in the kitchen. These ovens make new cooking methods possible: low temperature, Pasteurization, vacuum boiling, delta T (cooking piloted by the constant difference between the core temperature and the oven interior, avoiding thermal shocks).

Contrary to what people commonly think, cooking is not child’s play. Its development has been exponential and very rich, with new cooking techniques, physical-chemical experimentations and many surprising combinations of products. In this lovely book in the Italian format, Cryo cooking, the talented, recognized Belgian chef, Kristof Coppens, explains cryogenic cooking to us, with about thirty remarkable and surprising recipes. What is it? What does it add to existing gastronomy? Kristof Coppens answers these questions by explaining that, when used properly, this cooking creates new, original textures that add a special dimension to any dish, by refining it and giving it a specific touch or feeling.
Kristof Coppens Cryo cooking (texts by Toni de Coninck, photographs by Tom Swijns) - 160 pages. Edition Kristof Coppens Apriori bvba. (Available from Librairie Gourmande - Paris).

Crédit photo : FD

Marc Monteleone
(Business Manager of Masse - Rungis)

“Packaging is one of the technological innovations relative to gastronomy, with the use of an atmosphere that protects the product and packaging that avoid any excessive handling that might damage it. Another technological revolution is nitrogen deep-freezing (-70°C), which is rapid and keeps the products in their original state, while preserving the aromas and flavours. This technique is used to obtain extra fresh products. Fresh produce is better preserved with the development of preservation methods.”

Olivier Hennel
(CEO of La Bovida)

“Our two activities are manufacturing (mixed spices, additives), which accounts for 12% of the business, and selling equipment to all catering professions (70% traditional craftsmen) and food industry professionals. We have 8,000 listed products to date (including packaging, mixed and all-purpose ovens, siphons, juicers, cooking grills, gas grills, extra-resistant film for vacuum boiling, knives with Teflon blades, etc.). We keep an ear out for what’s happening in the field through our team of technicians who do our R&D. Molecular cooking is currently developing strongly and we propose the range of ingredients comprising it, in response to the demand top restaurants and caterers. We are also seeing a return to old, traditional cooking although in lighter form. Driven by health concerns, the kitchen is changing a lot and constantly.”

Jean-Michel Thirion
(Business Manager of Masse – Rungis catering sector)

“Our work consists in designing, developing and marketing new products and equipment for both top gastronomy professionals and consumers. It has earned us several awards, such as the special mention of the Sirest 2006 jury, the grand prix for innovation from Sirha for a film on cooking, the 1st and 3rd prize of the Fédération Française des Entreprises et Entrepreneurs and others. Like the other arts, gastronomy undergoes changes that are never a negation in relation to tradition and traditional methods. New machines and materials, new techniques and new ingredients help expand creativity boundaries further, like molecular cooking, for instance, which is why people prefer to call it techno-emotional cooking. Innovations allow gastronomy to become a multidisciplinary concept that can evolve. Generally speaking, modern cooking has been heavily influenced by Spanish chefs. In fact, Spanish cuisine had no frames of reference after the Franco era and it had to invent a lot to develop an identity, unlike France, which was backed by three centuries of culinary hegemony. Vacuum boiling, low pressure and low temperature cooking, impregnation, distillation, cryogenics, dehydration, freeze-drying, miniaturization and fusion cooking belong to today’s cooking. Tomorrow’s cooking might be more the artist’s cuisine, a ‘designer’ cuisine like haute couture.”