On Food and Cooking

by organizing an International Workshop on
Molecular and Physical Gastronomy at Erice,
Sicily, where for the first time professional
cooks, basic scientists from universities, and
food scientists from industry worked together
to advance gastronomy, the making and
appreciation of foods of the highest quality.
The Erice meeting continues, renamed the
“International Workshop on Molecular
Gastronomy ‘N. Kurti’ ” in memory of its
founder. And over the last decade its focus,
the understanding of culinary excellence, has
taken on new economic significance. The
modern industrial drive to maximize
efficiency and minimize costs generally
lowered the quality and distinctiveness of
food products: they taste much the same, and
not very good. Improvements in quality can
now mean a competitive advantage; and cooks
have always been the world’s experts in the
applied science of deliciousness. Today, the
French National Institute of Agricultural