New Cookery: Emergent Chaos in the Kitchen
Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and Harold McGee have issued a statement on the New Cookery:
In the past, cooks and their dishes were constrained by many factors: the limited availability of ingredients and ways of transforming them, limited understanding of cooking processes, and the necessarily narrow definitions and expectations embodied in local tradition. Today there are many fewer constraints, and tremendous potential for the progress of our craft. We can choose from the entire planet’s ingredients, cooking methods, and traditions, and draw on all of human knowledge, to explore what it is possible to do with food and the experience of eating. This is not a new idea, but a new opportunity.
Mmmm! I love what happens when constraints are removed. Sometimes it may get a little silly, but often, it’s sublime.
Both McGee and the French Laundry has been alluded to and mentioned in “The French Chef Model of Intellectual Property,” a subject mentioned in the statement:
We also believe in the importance of collaboration and generosity among cooks: a readiness to share ideas and information, together with full acknowledgment of those who invent new techniques and dishes.
Photo by Tamzen on eGullet.