This book is one of many that points to the relationship between science and the culinary arts: to the physical and chemical magician behind the curtain of delight. A book that attempts to do that has certain responsibilities and the greatest of these may be accuracy. I lost count of the mistakes, but some of the simplest are the temperature conversions from celcius to fahrenheit. The cook attempting any of the procedures in the book should double-check the temperatures recommended and the fahrenheit-based cook should just beware.
The other important duty of such a book is clarity. Molecular Gastronomy isn't so much translated from the French as it transcribed by machine. Very often it's impossible to figure out through the haze of translation what the author is actually recommending.
On a lesser level, one could ask for a bit of originality and this book does have a bit. The level of ambition is also lamentably low: does anyone really think that putting a spoon in a champagne bottle delays the decarbonation? Are blowing and stirring the only methods of cooling over-hot coffee? How concerned are you that the yolk of your hard-boiled egg be centered in the white?
For most readers, Harold McGee's splendid On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen is vastly superior.

As a biochemist, I enjoyed reading this book. The connection of science and cooking is very interesting. Sometimes, the information is presented too dryly. The science behind the book is usually presented clearly, but I did find a couple of minor scientific errors. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a scientific explanation of cooking or how science could be used to experiment with cooking.

After reading the Italian translation a coupe of years ago, I was so much hoping for an English translation, and here it is; and it's brilliant! It's quite one thing to follow recipes and follow instructions, and quite another to understand at a physico-chemical level WHY you need to do things in a certain way. As a scientisty person- really, just as a curious person- you want to know what's happening to the meat that makes it tender and flavorful, or the cake just that right consistency.

I guess the philosophy that best suits me is to understand the science so well that the art is set free to explore. If you understand WHY, you can also figure out HOW to change it. And more importantly for someone like me, you also know WHAT to do when you make mistakes ;)

What makes the book particularly worth the $$ is the extent of the science- right down to the molecular basis of taste.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the articles are WAY too short. This book seems like the summary of what would be the Vedas of food science.

An interesting pseudo-culinary book.

I must begin by stating that I love to cook and any book, video, program etc. that involves cooking tweaks my interest; and so I approached this book by Herve This (pronounced 'Teess') with great anticipation.

This translated book (and I felt that there may have been a little something lost in the translation) has 101 chapters on various culinary topics; each chapter being no more that 2 - 2 1/2 pages long. Also there is an excellent glossary, index and a list of 'further reading' listed in the back.

I'd been hoping for some advice on French cooking techniques that I could learn and apply to my kitchen skills. And although this book did have some interesting topics and some good suggestions, the advanced cooking tips I'd hoped for turned out to be more generalities than specific instructions.

Rather than discussing how to make a dish, the author goes into great detail as to why certain things happen with certain combinations of ingredients. Initially this sounded exactly what I'd hoped for, but I quickly realized that most of the chapters involved going over cooking experiments and chemical reactions between compounds. In short, this work reminded me more at times of a PhD thesis than an actual cookbook; I felt the finding discussed here would be of more interest to a chemistry major than a chef.

Conclusions:
This is a well written, translated book that ended up an interesting read but not really what I'd being looking for when I decided to purchase this work. I felt that, although the discussions produced in the chapters were relevant to cooking, they were just not really practical for applying to home based culinary usage.

If I'm somewhat disappointed in this book I've no one to blame other than myself; after all, the book jacket clearly states "Exploring the Science of Flavor". Plus, I should have read the other reviews more closely.

An interesting pseudo-culinary book.

I must begin by stating that I love to cook and any book, video, program etc. that involves cooking tweaks my interest; and so I approached this book by Herve This (pronounced 'Teess') with great anticipation.

This translated book (and I felt that there may have been a little something lost in the translation) has 101 chapters on various culinary topics; each chapter being no more that 2 - 2 1/2 pages long. Also there is an excellent glossary, index and a list of 'further reading' listed in the back.

I'd been hoping for some advice on French cooking techniques that I could learn and apply to my kitchen skills. And although this book did have some interesting topics and some good suggestions, the advanced cooking tips I'd hoped for turned out to be more generalities than specific instructions.

Rather than discussing how to make a dish, the author goes into great detail as to why certain things happen with certain combinations of ingredients. Initially this sounded exactly what I'd hoped for, but I quickly realized that most of the chapters involved going over cooking experiments and chemical reactions between compounds. In short, this work reminded me more at times of a PhD thesis than an actual cookbook; I felt the finding discussed here would be of more interest to a chemistry major than a chef.

Conclusions:
This is a well written, translated book that ended up an interesting read but not really what I'd being looking for when I decided to purchase this work. I felt that, although the discussions produced in the chapters were relevant to cooking, they were just not really practical for applying to home based culinary usage.

If I'm somewhat disappointed in this book I've no one to blame other than myself; after all, the book jacket clearly states "Exploring the Science of Flavor". Plus, I should have read the other reviews more closely.

Not for the faint of heart, but if you want to more fully understand why food changes in flavor and texture when cooked, refrigerated, spoiled, etc., then you'll find insight here. A must read for gourmet cooks!

Kent Goldsmith
elephantvista

I was looking for something to use as a reference for how to prepare different types of food. This definitely is not it. It is an entertaining read but it does not really have the level of detail I was looking for when I got this book. The best I have gotten so far is On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (or something like that) by Harold McGee.

Herve This is a genius and should be respected simply for the fact that he approaches cuisine with something other than blind awe of traditions that regarded as fact but are little more than a step up from superstitions and old wives' tales. Already a bit on the dry academic side and then translated from French to English, it can occassionally be a difficult read, but the unique nature of the subject makes sure it says a fascinating read. The book is broken up into sections each a few pages long asking if and why a preconceived notion regarding food is true (Does the juices of meat really contract to the center when you cook it?, Does it matter if you slowly heat your stock or use hot water from the beginning?), the nature of flavor (how salt affects sweet and bitter flavors), just what goes on with the food before we eat it (What causes cheeses to taste the way they do tracing it all the way back to the diet of the cow), and theoretical ideas to make the culinary field better (Developing new cooking techniques involving technology such as artificial vacuums and electrical fields). While the book uses specific examples, it's easy to take This's basic technique and apply it to anything food related, which you could imagine is his goal, having founded the field sharing its name with the book.

Herve This is a genius and should be respected simply for the fact that he approaches cuisine with something other than blind awe of traditions that regarded as fact but are little more than a step up from superstitions and old wives' tales. Already a bit on the dry academic side and then translated from French to English, it can occassionally be a difficult read, but the unique nature of the subject makes sure it says a fascinating read. The book is broken up into sections each a few pages long asking if and why a preconceived notion regarding food is true (Does the juices of meat really contract to the center when you cook it?, Does it matter if you slowly heat your stock or use hot water from the beginning?), the nature of flavor (how salt affects sweet and bitter flavors), just what goes on with the food before we eat it (What causes cheeses to taste the way they do tracing it all the way back to the diet of the cow), and theoretical ideas to make the culinary field better (Developing new cooking techniques involving technology such as artificial vacuums and electrical fields). While the book uses specific examples, it's easy to take This's basic technique and apply it to anything food related, which you could imagine is his goal, having founded the field sharing its name with the book.

good, but, not very complete, inaccurate and simplistic. if you have read harold mcgee, it is a bit simplistic, un-scientific, and extremely biased. good for the beginner or home cook. short stories (and lack of scientific guidelines) are good for those without the patience for "on food and cooking"...

I was hoping to find something along the lines of Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". If this is what you are looking for, look elsewhere.

This hardcover is divided in small paragraphs which are dealing with the different topics in kitchen science. The first section is dedicated to the tricks in cooking and is the one I like better. Then the author goes through the new discoveries about how do we perceive taste and flavour.
Good start to get in the argument of molecular gastronomy;)

This book is supposed to be the bible on molecular gastronomy. While the book is interesting, the book is bit lighter on some of the topics than I would have hoped. While I must admit that in comparison to the other books on the subject, this is probably the best out there (except for maybe the El Bulli book), I just keep feeling that this could have been more.

This book is supposed to be the bible on molecular gastronomy. While the book is interesting, the book is bit lighter on some of the topics than I would have hoped. While I must admit that in comparison to the other books on the subject, this is probably the best out there (except for maybe the El Bulli book), I just keep feeling that this could have been more.

This is one of the best books of Molecular Gastronomy, written by the own creator of this science. If you have interest to know the secrets of the kitchen, the physiology of flavor, the chemical processes behind cooking, and the cuisine for tomorrow, this is you chance.

Craftsmanship looks impressive, until you try to read it. The italic "g" and several accented characters are simply not in the typeface used and are replaced by spaces leaving you guessing at what they might be, and the translator didn't fully understand the usage of "I" vs. "me".

I think some have been dazzled by scientific words they didn't understand and afraid to call it fluff. There's not near enough science to satisfy a scientist but way more than enough undefined organic chemical names to glaze the eyes of even a highly educated cook.

I can get you a really great deal on a disulfide bridge - you want phenylthiocarbamide with that?

The chapters are mercifully short, but it's quite difficult to extract any practical information from a great many of them. They often end with questions - some clearly state unknowns, which is fine, but others leave you wondering if they are questions or answers. Taking a whole chapter to explain the choice of title would have been fair warning had I not already purchased the book.

For the record, I have read two much larger science/cooking volumes by Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking, The Curious Cook), end to end with great interest and I recommend them highly.

This is one of the best books of Molecular Gastronomy, written by the own creator of this science. If you have interest to know the secrets of the kitchen, the physiology of flavor, the chemical processes behind cooking, and the cuisine for tomorrow, this is you chance.

Packed w/ lots of information for serious cooks. Sometimes difficult to understand what he's talking about.

If you're thinking about buying this book, you are interested in the chemistry of food and have probably read Robert Wolke's "What Einstein Told his Cook" or Joe Schwarcz's "That's the way the Cookie Crumbles" or perhaps even the paragon of English-language food chemistry: Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". If you haven't, I recommend you start with one of those first ("Einstein" would be my #1 choice).
Why? Because those books are better written and about topics that are of more general interest to a North American audience. Molecular Gastronomy is unabashedly FRENCH - which is an excellent thing, but surprising if you're not expecting it. The foods it focuses on are French foods, the research it cites is French research, and I suspect even the translator has French as his first language. So, for example, this book discusses the "Perfect Sabayon" - a lovely culinary question, however one that many Americans (even "foodie" Americans) might find less interesting than the question of cookies going stale (as covered in Schwarcz). The translation is odd.... it is clear, in reading it, that it wasn't originally written in English. Some particularly French phrasing persists in the translation and I am also not convinced that the translator had as extensive a chemical vocabulary as was called for (for example, the phrase "vitreous transition temperature" is used, where "glass transition temperature" is the term used in most materials science texts).
As other reviewers have commented, the vignettes themselves may leave something to be desired. Each chapter is quite brief (Schwartcz's work is similar), so may not have the text to go into the depth a reader might desire. However, the real strength of this work is that it addresses interesting food/chemical questions that aren't being covered by the North American writers.... there's a lot of wine, cheese, and emulsified sauce in this book that you don't see anywhere else.

This book is great for those of you (like me) who are horrible in the kitchen and would really like to find out why things need to cook/bake/happen a certain way, why some substitutions work and some are hopeless. That is not to say you wouldn't benefit from it if you're an executive chef - the book is very well prepared and presented. The discussions in each chapter are based on facts (thru experiments). If you do well with chemistry, numbers, facts, this is a book for you.

Excelent book. Written in short (2 pages at most) concrete ideas of the subject but very ilustrative. The writer shows expertise and real practical knowledge of the topics described. A second volumen should be written by the same author. Anyone interested in cooking, after reading this book will be capable of deciphering the why, what and how to cooking...

I purchased this book to shed some light on some food preparation and storage beliefs and perhaps better understand why some things work together and why others don't. Since the author was a chemist, I was expecting a clearly stated hypothesis and conclusion in each chapter. Instead, each chapter read like a movie review. (Where at the end, you still don't know if the movie was good or bad). It was deep on explanations, but short on clear conclusions to the hypothesis proposed. I am well educated with a technical background, and still found the reading a little challenging.

The author takes the reader deep into the molecular level of cooking and the principle behind the process. If you ever wanted to know why butter response to heat like it does from room temp to cooking with it -this book is for you. Learned new information on the cooking and the effects on foods.

Mr. This has written a well-developed group of essays, really scientific reports, on aspects of cuisine. This is neither a consideration of cooking artistry or technique, but rather varied explorations of the scientific principles behind the transformation of materials in food science. I found many of the essays interesting although some have less relevance to my kitchen than others. Some essays are clearly written for other food industry professionals--the discussion of vinaigrette includes the xanthan gum, et al, which home cooks generally don't use to stabilize their vinaigrettes. Where Mr. This gets really interesting is in his multi-essay development of emulsions (mayonnaise, vinaigrette, flan, quiche, cream, etc.), gels, and the chemistry behind them. I am already excited to try his suggestions for a chocolate 'dispersion'. In fact, I would recommend to Mr. This, should he write another book for a more general audience, to focus on the emulsion and the gel as central concepts of his cuisine, which have opened up new potential worlds of innovation. Throughout the book he strikes a good balance between respect for tradition (as a source of preliminary hypotheses to be tested) and innovation--his discussion of potential new two-phase cooking techniques from a complete matrix was quite French in its precision and dream of new potentials. Not to be missed, once you have made it through the book, is his witty and worthy glossary.

The writing is quite scientific and usually, but not always, well translated from French. In places this irritated me, such as an appositive "Mr. X, he who does such and such, walked..." (not the exact quote), the 'he who does such and such' being a word-for-word translation of the French "celui qui fait...". However this was an irritation and not an impediment.

I do strongly recommend this book although it is NOT the best for a general foodie-science geek who wants only to understand the principles behind most common household cooking techniques. That is done much better by Alton Brown, et al and this book presupposes such knowledge, and more. It is a more advanced text and a look into the new world of 'molecular gastronomy' as a science and the brave new world it is ushering in.

This is an excellent approach to a subject which crosses many disciplines. The information appears to be scientifically accurate and the explanations of tramsformations during the cooking process are clear and quite good. I am recommending this to my grand-daughter who is about to embark on a culinary training course.

Cooking, which has certainly been around for a long time, has been treated more as an art than a science. The recipies and techniques that we follow are handed cown from parent to child, or since writing was invented from chef to student.

But do many of these procedures make sense. Why do we have such traditional ideas of cooking that seem almost cast in stone with little or no evidence that this is indeed the best way to do things.

In this book M. This states a principle, but carrying it further he researches where this principle originated, and then conducts carefully measured experiments to see if this is true. For instance in making beef stock, the rule says put the meat into cold water and increase the temperature gradually. What happens if you put the meat into boiling water? Or what is the difference in Cheeses that are made from milk from cows that had south facing fields when compared to cows on fields that faced a northern slope. What about if the cow was fed silage (wet grass stored in silow where it ferments)? And what's the best way to test whiskey?

That's the idea, here is the analysis of cooking taken to a scientific level. It's a fascinating book for one interested in more than just the mechanics of cooking. I was reminded of Russ Parson's book 'How to Read a French Fry.'