Affichage des articles dont le libellé est technology. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est technology. Afficher tous les articles

jeudi 3 février 2022

The difference between a technician and a technologist

 

Today, a friend of mine is asking if cooks are technologists. And my answer is very clear: no, a cook is not a technologist, but (generally) a technician. Let's avoid confusions ! 
 
Here, I explain the difference as clearly as possible :

1. When you do something, you are doing technique, from the Greek word "techne", which means "to do". A cook is producing dishes, a shoe maker is producing shoes, an electrician repairs electricy devices. And even a physician is a technician.

For cooking, the issue is that there are two kind of cooks
- some are just producing food for the body : when you are doing food that you eat for lunch, when you don't have much time, for exemple ; by the way, you can compare this with a painter who paints walls
- some cooks are artist, and the issue is now very different, because it is the same as for Picasso, or Rembrandt : the issue is not to speak to the body, but to the spirit.
Of  courses, even the painter for buildings and walls tries to do something "well done", but this is not the same purpose as Rembrandt. And even the cook in the street tries to do something "good", but it is not what some artists as Pierre Gagnaire are doing.

 
 
2. Now, for technology : the word comes from "techne" and "logos" : a technologist studies cooking in order to improve it, not in order to make it.
For sure, some cooks can try to improve their practice... but this is very new, and it was introduced by molecular gastronomy and molecular cooking !

 
3. And finally, sciences of nature have nothing to do with all this, because it means more or less solving equations.


vendredi 17 mai 2019

Some explanations about science, technology, molecular gastronomy, food pairing (bad theory), honesty in general

I was recently invited in a programme mixing science and... I don't understand exactly what, but it included "food pairing". 

I am publishing again and again that the theory of food pairing is not scientific, and I also observe that this "theory" is promoted by people selling advices to chefs, often trying to convince that there is science behind.
You will see why I am strongly opposed to this way of doing on other posts of this blog, but it's enough to know that "good" means "beautiful to eat", and this is not a question of technique, but of art... and art escapes the rules : the Diabolus in musica is appreciated today ; no science about that. 
 
So that I don't  want to participate to something where this wrong theory is promoted.


By the way, in the proposed programme, I could see that there is question of "aromas", and frequently, there is a confusion between aromas and odors.

But more generally, I see too often people speaking of science, when indeed they are doing technology or technique, and this is not fair. 
Engineers are engineers, technologists are technologists, technicians are technicians, and scientists are scientists. All these people are different, with different goals and different methods.

Another point: since the creation of molecular gastronomy, by me and Nicholas Kurti, there has been many people
- confusing molecular gastronomy and molecular cooking/ molecular cuisine (and this is bad for the public)
- confusing science and technology (and this is bad for students)
- confusing everything about "science and cooking" (and this is bad for everybody
- giving ( or trying to give) new names to the science called molecular and physical gastronomy (and this not very honest)

 
Here are some explanations : 

1. molecular and physical gastronomy is sometimes named " molecular gastronomy" for short ; it is a scientific activity, done in laboratories, by chemists or physicists, or biologists. This is science, not technology, and not technique

2. molecular cooking is the technique of cooking with modern tools that were transferred from laboratories to kitchens (thermocirculators, liquid nitrogen, siphons, pumps, centrifuge, rotary evaportaors...)

3. molecular cuisine is a culinary trend (chefs using molecular cooking for making new kind of dishes)

4. science (sciences of nature) is an activity of "looking for the mechanisms of phenomena using a specific method using experiments and calculation"; it has nothing to do with technique and technology

5. technique means "to do something". For example, cooking includes a technical component

6. technology means using the results of science for improving technique

7. and finally, there is art, and one of my book explains well that cooking includes a social component, an art component, a technical component.

 
By the way, I hope that my friends know about "note by note cooking"? This IS the future, the next new technique, and already some "note by note cuisine" is appearing all over the world.