Don't be shy : participate to the 11th international contest for
note by note cooking (synthetic cooking) ; see below
There are categories: chefs, students, laypeople.
The topic is "Food Waste".
International
Contest
for
Note
by Note Cooking
N°11
Topic:
Food
Waste
Organizers:
Roisin
Burke (roisin.burke@TUDublin.ie),
Yolanda Rigault (yolanda.rigault@wanadoo.fr),
Hervé This (herve.this@inrae.fr)
, Heinz Wuth ().
Introduction :
Note by Note Cooking
Note
by Note Cooking is indeed “synthetic cooking”, a culinary
technique using pure compounds, in order to build food (i.e.,
dishes) and drinks.
The
cook has to decide for the shapes, consistencies, tastes, odours,
trigeminal sensations (pungencies, freshnesses…), temperatures,
colours…
Of
course, it deals with questions of nutrition, toxicity, and is part
of the large “Note by Note Project” for sustainable development,
important for feeding humankind in 2050, when the population of the
Earth will perhaps reach 10 billion people. This project is an
important contribution to the fight against spoilage, while sparing
water, energy, foodstuffs, and taking care of the environment.
The
goal of this 11th contest:
Food
Waste
For
this new contest, we invite competitors (in the three categories:
chefs, students, amateurs) to create dishes that deal with the
question of “waste”.
The
closer to pure note by note, the better. And the flavour of the
proposed dish is obviously important !
More
details
According
to the 2012 report of the study on the reduction of food waste by
the Ministry of Ecology (D. Viel, September 2012), current
demographic forecasts indicated that the major challenge of the
coming decades will be to ensure that agricultural supply is better
adapted to the growth in food demand, while guaranteeing more
sustainable production.
The
dynamics underway - the emergence of new production areas for
agricultural and non-agricultural goods, and changes in food systems,
particularly in emerging countries - have consequences for the global
balance between supply and demand.
Managing
to preserve the planet's resources while reducing poverty and
inequality is a major challenge for sustainable development, as well
as for global geopolitical balances and for relations between the
countries of the North and the diversity of countries in the South.
According
to the FAO, more than a third of the food produced in the world, i.e.
about 1.3 billion tons, is lost or wasted, i.e. abandoned as waste
between the field and the plate, even though it can still be
consumed. This waste represents an unnecessary withdrawal of natural
resources in terms of arable land and water, as agriculture uses 70%
of the global water and energy resources. It represents avoidable CO²
emissions and waste to be treated. Finally, it has a negative impact
on household budgets.
In
developing countries, waste is close to the field, due to the lack of
adequate means of crop conservation and/or packaging. In developed
countries, waste is more likely to occur at the processing,
distribution and consumption stages. The percentage of food lost has
doubled since 1974.
The
European Commission, which conducted an EU-wide study, estimates food
waste throughout the chain at about 190 kg per year per European. At
the two extremes, the Netherlands is at about 580 kg, Greece at 50
kg, and Germany at about 130 kg, all of these figures being
estimates.
Many
actors are concerned by food waste: central and local governments,
farmers, fishermen, food processing and distribution companies,
restaurants, non-governmental organizations and households.
For
more recent data, see Monika van den Bos Verma, Linda de Vreede ,
Thom Achterbosch, Martine Rutten. 2019. Consumers discard a lot more
food than widely believed: Estimates of global
food
waste using an energy gap approach and affluence elasticity of food
waste, PLoS ONE, 15(2): e0228369.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228369
In
the kitchen, the issue of fighting waste is not simple, as there are
many different reasons for this waste. For example, peeling potatoes
is certainly creating waste, but the discarded parts contain
glycoalkaloids such as solanine, solanidine, chaconine, which are
toxic over a quite low limit (Kaltner F .2022. Fate of food-relevant
toxic plant alkaloids during food processing or storing and
analytical strategies to unveil potential transformation products,
Journal of Agricultural and food chemistry,
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c01489). And most plant tissues,
also, contain "natural pesticides" in their outer parts
(Ames BN, Profet M, Swirsky Gold L. 1990. Dietary pesticides (99.99 %
all natural), Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 87,
7777-7781.
Accordingly, this
new contest having the topic “Food Waste” is very important, as
it will encourage competitors to find innovative ways of dealing with
a world important issue.
For
the criteria, the first goal of competitors is to produce dishes that
:
1.
deal with food waste
2.
are as close as possible to pure note by note cooking (i.e.,
using pure compounds)
3.
are good!
3.
are original.
About
the first criterion, one has to make a difference between “pure
note by note cooking”, and “practical note by note cooking.
-
the “pure note by note cooking” technique means using only
perfectly pure compounds,
-
“practical note by note cooking” technique allows the use of
mostly pure fractions: for example, oil is a mixture of
triglycerides, or corn starch is only 80 % pure amylopectin, but it
would not change much if one particular triglyceride were used, on
pure amylopectin. And, of course, why not mix the new ingredients and
old ones (meat, fish, egg, vegetable and fruits)… but the closest
to the pure note by note technique the better.
The
participants will be free to purchase the ingredients or to product
them by themselves. For example, lixiviation of flour can product
gluten and starch, and storing oils in the fridge or in the deep
freeze can make various fat fractions, with different properties.
For
odours, they can be extracted by various means (storing a raw
material in oil, distillation, etc.), but odorant compounds can now
be found on line, in companies such as Iqemusu (www.iqemusu.com).
For
the contest, participants have to apply in various categories
(1)
Professional chefs: they will be judged on their skills to produce a
recipe using pure compounds or a mixture of pure compounds and
designing the shape, colour, texture etc. This group have access to
specific note by note ingredients and specialized equipment in
professional kitchens and should have a good skills level.
(2) Students:
depending on the applications, there can be two groups, those that
are culinary arts students and those that are science students.
Like the
professional chefs, the former most likely have access to specific
note by note ingredients and special equipment. The other
students may or may not have access to these ingredients or
equipment. In the case of the culinary student the judging criteria
is similar to that for the professional chefs but the level of skills
of culinary arts students may be less. If the other students have a
science background, the judging criteria could include the use of
scientific knowledge to maximize the use of ingredients which were
available.
(3) Amateurs - the
best use of ingredients which were available.
Where
can you find the ingredients?
For
cooking Note by Note, you simply need your kitchen, kitchen cupboards
and supermarket. Below, you can find pure compounds e.g. water,
sugar, salt, xanthan gum, lecithin etc.
Some
can be extracted. For example, if you acidify milk and extract curds
(mostly casein), you prepare the whey. Or from wheat flour, if you
make a dough and wash starch off to, you can separate gluten (that
can also be bought at bakers).
There
are other cheap ways to get ingredients:
-
look for deals on the internet through companies such as Amazon
-
email suppliers and ask for free samples (small amounts)
-
ask supplier companies for free samples.
Examples
of suppliers
Iqemusu
(2017). The 24 Notes. [online]. Available at:
https://iqemusu.com/en/the-24-notes-note-by-note-cooking/
Louis
François (2019). Louis François- Food Ingredients Since 1908.
Available at: http://www.louisfrancois.com/index_en.html
MSK
(2019), MSK catalogue. [online] Available at:
http://msk-ingredients.com/msk-catalogue-2019/?page=1.
Sosa
(2019). Sosa Catalogue. Available at: https://www.sosa.cat/
Texturas
(2012). Texturas Albert y Ferran Adria. Available at:
http://albertyferranadria.com/eng/texturas.html
Each
proposed dish will have to be :
described
in a .doc file by a recipe (Roman 12) giving
the
ingredients, including quantities
the
process
shown
by photographs.
The
candidates will have to accept that their recipes and pictures can be
used (with their name) by the organizers and the partners of the
contest (see authorization of use in the bottom of this document).
Evaluation:
Respect
of the topic “food waste”
Feasibility,
reproducibility
Originality
of the work.
Using
pure compounds will be preferred to using fractions.
Of
course, the productions should not be toxic.
The
flavour complexity will be appreciated: dishes have a shape,
consistency, odor, taste, trigeminal sensation, temperature…
Who
can participate?
The
contest is free, open to all. But there will be different categories:
-
culinary professionals (chefs),
-
students,
-
amateurs.
How
to participate?
For
applying, it is enough to send an email to icmg@agroparistech.fr
with post address, phone number, signed authorization of diffusion
of the contest material.
Then,
for proposing the result, one has to send a file (fichier .doc) to
icmg@agroparistech.fr
describing the recipe in details, with a powerpoint document
(fichier .ppt) showing the various steps and the final result, with
high resolution pictures 300 dpi.
Dates :
- application at any
time before 20th of August 2022.
- document being
sent before the 25th of August 2022.
Evaluation:
The evaluation will
be performed in two stages:
1. display of all
recipes, and preselection by a jury, with possible votes by the
public
2. evaluation
between preselected recipes by a Jury composed of:
Yolanda Rigault
(organizer)
Pierre Gagnaire
Pierre-Dominique
Cécillon (Toques Blanches Internationales)
Jean-Pierre
Lepeltier (Toques Blanches Internationales)
Patrick Terrien
(Toques Blanches Internationales)
Sandrine
Kault-Perring (Louis François Inc)
Michael Pontif
(www.iqemusu.com)
Eric Briffard
(Cordon bleu)
Philippe Clergue
(Cordon bleu)
Heinz Wuth (Chile)
Prize
Event:
AgroParisTech,
Paris (Second week of September 2023, to be defined later)
Prizes
will be given by the partners. The best results will be displayed on
various internet sites (Forum Note à Note d'AgroParisTech...). They
will be shown on posters during itinerary exhibitions.
Thanks
to our partners
Iqemusu,
Louis François, Belin, Pour la Science
Autorisation
of diffusion
I
……………….. living ……………………….. authorises
the organizers and their partners of the 11th
International Contest for Note by Note Cooking to distribute freely
the recipes and the pictures that I am submitting to the contest.
Done in
………………………….. the …………………………………..
Signature :
Annexe :
From
Molecular Gastronomy to its applications :
«
Molecular Cuisine » (it is over)
and
« Note by Note Cuisine» (don't miss this next world
culinary
trend!)
Hervé
This
1.
The scientific work
In 1988 Nicholas
Kurti and I created the scientific discipline that we called «
Molecular
gastronomy»
(remember that the word « gastronomy » means « knowledge », and
not cuisine, even haute cuisine ; in the same way, Molecular
Gastronomy does not stand for cooking!).
The aim of Molecular
Gastronomy was, is and will be forever : looking for the mechanisms
of
phenomena occcuring
during dish preparation and consumption.
2.
An application in the kitchen
In the beginning of
the 80's, we introduced also «Molecular Cuisine », whose definition
is :
« Producing food
(this is cuisine) using « new » tools, ingredients, methods ».
In this definition,
the word « new » stands for what was not in kitchens of the western
countries in 1980.
For example : siphon
(to make foams), sodium alginate (to get pearls with a liquid core,
spaghettis of vegetables, etc.) and other gelling agents (agar-agar,
carraghenans, etc.), liquid nitrogen (to make sherbets and many other
innovative preparations), rotary evaporator, and more generally, the
whole set of lab's equipment when they can be useful. For methodes,
you will easily find on line recipes for “chocolate chantilly,
beaumés, gibbs, nollet, vauquelins, etc. ( Cours de gastronomie
moléculaire n°1 : Science, technologie, technique (culinaires) :
quelles relations ?, Ed Quae/Belin)
Of course all these
items are not completely new (many gelling agents are used in Asia
for millenia, and many tools are used daily in chemistry labs), but
the goal was to modernize the technical component of cuisine.
Yes, the expression
« Molecular Cuisine » is poorly chosen, but it had to be introduced
at some time... and it is not within the Encyclopedia Britannica
Dictionnary. And Molecular Cuisine will disappear... because of...
see below !
3.
The next culinary trend : Note by Note Cuisine !
The next proposal is
much more exciting, and its name is NOTE BY NOTE CUISINE.
It was first
proposed in 1994 (in the magazine Scientific American) at a time when
I was playing at using compounds in food, such as paraethylphenol in
wines and whiskeys, 1-octen-3-ol in dishes, limonene, tartaric acid,
ascorbic acid, etc.
The initial proposal
was to improve food... but the next idea was obvious, it is to make
dishes
entirely from
compounds.
Let's say it
differently. Note by Note Cuisine is not using meat, fish, vegetable
or fruits, but rather compounds, either pure compounds or mixtures,
such as electronic music is not using trumpets or violins, but rather
pure waves which are mixed in sounds and in music.
Here, for Note by
Note Cuisine, the cook has to :
– design the
shapes of the various parts of the dish
– design the
colours
– design the
tastes
– design the
odours
– design the
temperatures
– design the
trigeminal stimulation
– design the
consistencies
– design the
nutritional aspects
– etc.
The feasability of
this new cuisine was already shown by many meals :
– first Note by
Note meal (called Note by Note N°1) shown to the international press
in Hong
Kong by Pierre
Gagnaire in April 2009
– two dishes shown
at the French-Japanese Scientific Meeting (JSTS) in Strasbourg, in
May
2010
– whole Note by
Note Meal served by the chefs of the Cordon bleu School in Paris in
October 2010
– Note à Note
meal served the 26th of January 2011, as a launching event of the
International
Year of Chemistry,
at UNESCO, Paris, by the team of Potel&Chabot
– Note by Note
cocktail serve in April 2011 to 500 French chefs freshly starred at
Michelin,
in Espace Cardin,
Paris
– Note by Note
Meal served in October 2011 by the team of the chefs of the Cordon
bleu
Schools Paris
– Note by Note
dishes made by chefs of the Toques Blanches International
Association, in
Paris, 3 Decembre
2011
And many others !
Many questions arise
from this new cuisine:
– land development
– economy
– sensorial
– technique
– art
– politics
– nutrition
– toxicology
– etc.
But:
1. humankind is
facing an energy crisis : it is not sure that traditional cuisine is
sustainable (it
is not!)
2. the New will
always beat the Old
3. cracking products
from agriculture and farming is already done for milk and wheat ; why
not carrots, apples,
etc. ?
4. The objections
made to Note by Note cuisine were done half a century ago against
electronic music,
and guess what you hear at the radio today ?
In other words, are
not we at the equivalent of 1947, when musicians such as Varèse and
some
others were
investigating electronic music ?