Rediscovering the Joys of Chemical Engineering

.From Laboratory to Kitchen

Dedicated to International Year of Chemistry

Apple Caviar

Gelificated Salad

Chantilly Chocolate

OBJECTIVE
How to enhance the image of chemical
engineering through the medium of food? How to enhance the contribution of chemical engineering to improve the quality of our life?

MENU
Starter 1
The power of food to influence people

Starter 2
The bond between chemical engineering and food

Main Course
Molecular Gastronomy

Dessert
Synergy between Molecular Gastronomy and Chemical Engineering

What does food do to people?

 There is no love sincerer than the love of

food - George Bernard Shaw People eat not just for nourishment and nutrition, but also out of boredom and stress and also for entertainment. Food evokes strong emotions and passions in people Friends, families and whole communities bond over food.

 Food presents a complex sensory experience.

The complex relationship between taste and aroma is only being understood now As quality of live improves, more and more middle class people are eating out. 24/7 food channels and shows like Masterchef have invaded our living rooms, exotic food like guacamole are invading our kitchens,

Food has the power to influence people

The status of Chemical Engineering

 Strong bonds between chemical engineering and

food Foundation of modern chemical industry is based on the commercialisation of the ammonia synthesis process in 1913. Ammonia has transformed the world by ensuring that food production stays in step with the burgeoning population. Pesticides Preservation, processing and packaging

 More science based than other

engineering disciplines Still considered as an art Very versatile and engage with multifarious problems Negative image due to pollution and safety issues

 Unit operations have many parallels in the

kitchen. Analogy often used in the classroom while teaching unit operations Less chemistry, more mathematics in chemical engineering today. Chemical engineers more fascinated with software than with molecules.

Chemical Engineers have strong bonds with the Food Industry

MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY

The Founders
Herv This (1955Nicholas Kurti (1908-1998)

Definitions
The application of scientific principles to
the understanding and improvement of food preparation. The art and science of choosing, preparing and eating good food. The scientific study of deliciousness Improving the taste, aroma, colour and texture of food.

Objectives of MG
Investigating culinary and gastronomical
proverbs and old wives' tales Exploring existing recipes Introducing new tools, ingredients and methods into the kitchen Inventing new dishes To help the general public understand the contribution of science to society

Objectives of MG
To provide chefs with tools and techniques to prepare
the most delicious dishes. To establish the minimum set of conditions that are required for a dish to be described by a representative group of people as delicious. To find ways in which these conditions can be met (through the production of raw materials, in the cooking process, and in the way in which the food is presented) To be able to predict reasonably well whether a particular dish or meal would be delicious. To give some quantitative measure of just how delicious a particular dish will be to a particular individual.

Development of flavour
Pleasing flavours in food do not come
naturally from ingredients. They come from compounds synthesized by chemical reactions during cooking 2-furanylmethanethiol is responsible for the aroma of freshly roasted coffee and 2acetyl-1-pyrroline for the aroma in bread crust and popcorn.

Chemical Reactions
Hydrolysis (of carbohydrates, proteins and
lipids) Oxidation (generally undesirable) Maillard Caramelization (pyrolysis browning of sugar)

Maillard Reaction
Maillard reaction cause sugars and amino acids
to cross link, thereby creating the compounds responsible for the pleasing colour and flavour Complex and difficult to understand fully or predict Strongly dependent on the reaction conditions and availability of reactants throughout the food The most important parameters affecting the generation of aroma inducing volatiles are combinations of temperaturetime, moisture content, pH, and type of amine and carbonyl precursors present in the food.

Maillard Reaction
Many foods are heterogeneous materials, and
the reaction may be favoured or inhibited locally. The reaction is most severe at the surface, where the water content can be reduced locally and concentrations of precursors increased rapidly Water transport from the inner part of the food to the surface during cooking may also contribute to transport of Maillard precursors, such as monosaccharides and amino acids.

Maillard Reaction
Changes in the physical phases in the
food, where Maillard reactions take place, also contribute to the degree of color and flavor generation in the product. Phase transitions from liquid to rubbery and glassy states significantly affect the course of the reaction.

Techniques
Low temperature cooking (Sous-vide) Gelification Flash freezing Flavour pairing

Temperature Control
Egg can be cooked in water at 52 C, a
temperature where the white will set but the yolk will remain fluid; thus, perfect poached or soft-boiled eggs can be served to order with complete confidence that the product on the plate will be quite perfect.

Sous-vide
Method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic
bags in a water bath for a long time (up to 72 hours) at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 60 C. The intention is to cook the item evenly, not overcook the outside while still keeping the inside at the same 'doneness' and to keep the food juicier.

Gelification
Agar-agar is one of the flagship additives
of molecular gastronomy. It is used to make dishes with unusual shapes and textures such as pearls and spaghetti gels. An algae extracted, heat-resistant gelling agent, agar-agar is used in molecular gastronomy to make all sorts of gelified shapes : pearls, spaghetti, lentils, prisms, etc.

Watermelon Caviar

VIDEO

Watermelon Caviar

Mix alginate with watermelon juice. Dissolve calcium chloride in water. Add droplets of watermelon juice solution into calcium chloride solution. Use strainer to remove droplets from calcium chloride bath after 1-2 minutes into a separate cold water bath.

Freeze Drying
To kill some parasites in some fish it is
necessary to cool them below 30 C. Similar low temperatures are needed to prepare ices with high alcohol content and foods for freeze drying.

Liquid Nitrogen
Mixing herbs with liquid nitrogen in a mortar
quickly freezes them into brittle solids, and grinding with the pestle turns these into a useful powder that can be used to provide an instant hit of fresh flavor in any dish. Adding liquid nitrogen to ice cream mixture and stirring while it freezes; it is possible to freeze a liter of ice cream in under 20 seconds. The speed is so great and the temperature so low that only very small ice crystals can form, making a wonderfully smooth ice cream.

Anti-Griddle
The Anti-Griddle (developed by the PolyScience
company) looks like a traditional cook top, but its minus 34 degrees Celsius surface instantly freezes sauces and pures, or freezes just the outer surfaces of a dish while maintaining a creamy center. With the Anti-Griddle you can develop solid or semi-frozen creations with stable crunchy surfaces and cool, creamy centers. Dual texture, multi-temperature experience in one bite.

Anti Griddle

Flavour Pairing
Only 20% of our tasting experience comes
from the tongue. Rest is from smell or aroma. Our tongue has 9000 taste buds capable of detecting the 5 basic tastes. But we have 5-10 million receptor cells capable of distinguishing more than 10000 different smells.

Flavour Pairing
If the major volatile molecules of two
foods are the same, they might taste (and smell) nice when eaten together. White chocolate and caviar (trimethylamine) Pineapple, blue cheese and white wine (methyl hexanoate)

Techniques
Ultrasonic agitation to create emulsions Use of liquid nitrogen to freeze without
allowing the formation of large ice crystals, Use of well-controlled temperature baths for poaching Vacuum desiccators to remove water from potatoes before roasting

Cooking challenges
Extremely complex chemistry Difficult to predict how flavour will develop Ingredients vary batch to batch Time Temperature profile to be
replicated Flavour of a food is constructed in the mind using cues taken from all the senses.

Science of Molecular Gastronomy

How and why we evolved our particular taste and
flavour sense organs and our general food likes and dislikes? How do production methods affect the eventual flavour and texture of food ingredients? How are these ingredients changed by different cooking methods? Can we devise new cooking methods that produce unusual and improved results of texture and flavour? How do our brains actually interpret the signals from all our senses to tell us the "flavour" of food? How is our enjoyment of food affected by other influences - the environment in which we eat the food, our mood, etc?

Synergy between Molecular Gastronomy and Chemical Engineering

How Molecular Gastronomy will help Chemical Engineering?

Education Engagement Research Nutrition

Education
Molecular Gastronomy can spice up chemical engineering
education. Laboratories can be transformed into kitchens to teach students the fundamentals of several unit operations in a fun way. Working with harmless ingredients and creating delicious stuff that can be finally eaten will make the whole learning process a joyous experience.

Teaching chemistry, which is perceived as boring and

difficult in a fearless way in schools, is the first step in creating and nurturing young talents, who can be then encouraged to take up chemical engineering.

Engagement
Molecular Gastronomy can help popularise chemistry and
chemical engineering among the general public. Chefs and cooks who practice Molecular Gastronomy will be excellent ambassadors for the chemical sciences. Through the medium of food and its all five senses, we can engage the common man with chemistry and chemical engineering. There is a potential to create a positive and healthy image of chemistry in the society. It would be an excellent vehicle to reach out to the lay person and inform him about the magic of chemistry and chemical engineering. Chemistry can once again become respectable in the eyes of the layman Molecular Gastronomy helps people to get to know about chemistry and chemical engineering.

Research
As the cooking shifts from the realm of art to
science, cooks and chefs in restaurants would want models so that they can ensure repeatability of a dish with the expected quality Time Temperature profiles will have to be developed for various dishes depending on the ingredients. Standard kitchen tools and implements have to be developed so that heat and mass transfer can be replicated successfully dish after dish.

Nutrition
Through appropriate pairing and methods of
preparation it would be possible to influence peoples enjoyment of food in a positive healthy way. If adequate satisfaction can be obtained through smaller potions of food, people will eat less and enjoy better health and well-being. The synergy between the different ingredients can also be exploited to enhance the overall nutritive value of a dish.

Nutrition
There is a direct correlation between obesity and
food eaten outside the home. Molecular Gastronomy could be the driver of a movement towards healthier eating. Such a dietary culture, where quantity is replaced by quality, would create a new industry with good employment potential.

If people eat well, they will think better and if

they think better, the world will be a better place to live.

Hope it was a satisfying meal And you can express your satisfaction by a collective burp! Thank You