Close to my heart

In the last note-to-note cooking competition, one of the contestants who was shortlisted and presented his work said he wanted to make a dish that was "close to his heart".

Why not.... but is it a good strategy?

Because in the end, the jury doesn't care what is dear to its heart, and it is the preparations dear to the jury's heart that are important.

All this obviously reminds me of the paradox of the actor of this wonderful Denis Diderot, who explains well that if one dies on stage to represent a character who dies, then one is a bad actor; what one must do to be a good actor, is to give the impression that one dies on stage.

Yes, you have to remain frozen inside to perfectly control the appearance you give, the message you transmit.

In the same way, making a dish that we like is quite secondary. What counts in a contest is that you please the jury!

Of course, if we work on a subject we are passionate about, we will put more energy, more enthusiasm and more time into it than if we do something that bores us.

But we should not confuse the objectives: when we do a competition it is to win it over other competitors, right? However, knowing that everyone is marked by the same jury, the question is above all to know what the criteria of the competition are, what the personal criteria of the jurors are.

These are the real questions!

Note to note: the question of reproduction of the old

I think it is useful to discuss, for note-to-note cooking, the question of reproduction.

Note-to-note cooking, to begin with, is that form of synthetic cooking that uses pure compounds rather than fruits, vegetables, meat or fish. These compounds that are used can be pure or simple mixtures as in oil, or starch. But let's keep the idea of pure compounds.

With our compounds, what to do?

Many people are tempted to reproduce old ingredients or dishes: coq au vin, sauerkraut, applesauce, etc. Their argument is that the guests will not feel the same way.

Their argument is that the guests will find it easier to find their way around, with preparations they know. That "the public does not want anything new". And other similar arguments. But... is all this true?

On the other hand, there is the essential pitfall that a copy is generally compared unfavorably to the original.

For example, let's imagine that we produce a system that reproduces an apple: we will almost systematically be told that this "apple" is not crunchy enough, or not juicy enough, etc. But this is pure bad faith.

But this is pure bad faith, because to which particular apple is our particular production compared? Not all apples are crisp like green apples, juicy and sweet like golden apples, etc.

Moreover, real apples, even of a particular variety, do not all have the same acidity, the same sweetness, the same fiber... More generally, all apples are different, not only in terms of variety but also in terms of maturity within the same variety and on the same tree.

In other words, if it is intellectually interesting to make such a reproduction of an apple, one should be aware of the limits of the exercise.

Yes, it is interesting to make a reproduction, because the particular consistency of a Granny Smith apple, for example, has virtues that are easy to identify, this noise that the teeth make when they bite into the apple, this particular juiciness that is released when one bites, etc. And then, do we really need to do what already exists?

There are many answers to this question, starting with the fact that, perhaps, our synthetic productions will one day become more durable than natural ones.

On the other hand, our reproduction work leads us to explore particular characteristics of traditional products, which imposes specific work, and therefore specific, unexpected results.

Beauty is certainly in the way.

Before the internet site of the International Centre of Molecular and Physical Gastronomy

 

10th International Contest of Note by Note Cooking


Organized by the Inrae-AgroParisTech International Centre for Molecular and Physical Gastronomy (https://icmpg.hub.inrae.fr)
 Roisin Burke (TU Dublin), Yolanda Rigault (Paris), Heinz Wuth (Chile)Hervé This vo Kientza  (Inrae-AgroParisTech)

With the support of the compagnies Pour la Science, Belin, Louis François, Iqemusu.com.





The theme of the 10th International Note-to-Note Cooking Competition (of "synthesis cooking") was "Salty dice with fibre (no Rubik's cube).
The competitors worked for a year and a jury made a pre-selection of 10 entries.
This international jury was composed of :

    Jean-Pierre Lepeltier, International Club Toques Blanches
    Philippe Clergue, Le Cordon bleu, Paris
    Yolanda Rigault, Paris
    Heinz Wuth, Chili
    Sandrine Kault-Perrin,  Louis François Inc.





The 9 September 2022, the jury met both on the new AgroParisTech-Inrae campus and by videoconference, and after the presentations of the shortlisted candidates, the jury met and announced the prizes for this 10th International Note to Note Cooking Competition:



First Prize  ex aequo :
Dao Nguyen and Pasquale Altomonte  (Kitchen Lab), Switzerland  : Duck Dice à l’Orange








First Prize ex aequo :
Douglas Yokomi Fornari, Brazil : Over the edges


Second Prize
Maria Grazia Pena-Niebuhr, Peru :  3D Savory Present



Third Prize :
Eléonore Boisseau, France : An ocean breeze






Prizes were offered by the companies  Louis François, Iqemusu, Belin/Pour la Science, BPI.

Dois-je donner des références ?

 Dois-je donner des références ?

J'observe que, chez certains auteurs dont je doute de la compétence parfaite, je déplore l'absence de références... mais, me souvenant de la paille dans l'oeil du voisin et la poutre dans le mien, je me dis que je ne donne pas moi-même les références de tout ce que j'avance. Bien sûr, souvent (notamment pour mes conférences), je signale à mes amis que j'ai ces références absentes, que je les tiens à leur disposition, et je leur donne mon adresse email afin qu'ils puissent m'interroger, recevoir ces références et engager un dialogue, mais... au fond, pourquoi ne pas donner immédiament les références que j'ai, que j'utilise pour asseoir mes dires ?

Et la réponse est celle de la vulgarisation tout entière : parce que cela gène la lecture. Pendant 20 ans, à la revue Pour la Science, nous avons tout faire pour faciliter le confort de lecture : pas de notes en marge, pas de notes de bas de page qui interrompent la lecture (on est toujours tenté d'aller voir le renvoi)...
Mais est-ce exact ? Ne pouvons nous pas être discret, comme l'est d'ailleurs Wikipedia ? Et ne pouvons pas, comme cela est fait, avoir des références qui nous conduisent directement aux références, en préparant la remontée ?

Bien sûr, derrière toute cette question, il y a d'abord -toujours d'abord- celle des objectifs. Et puis on pourrait objecter que le jeu des références est facilement détourné : certains donnent des références, mais ce sont de mauvaises références (de sorte qu'il y a là négligence ou malhonnêteté selon les cas).
Et puis, à quoi bon donner des références si personne ne les consulte ?

Inversement, ne pouvons-nous pas espérer conduire nos amis à dépasser nos propos, à aller à la découverte de champs que nous leur ouvrons ?

Finalement, je conclus que je vais donner mes références :
1. c'est une bonne pratique
2. cela conduit à s'interroger soi-même, à chaque phrase
3. cela conduit à s'interroger sur la qualité des références que l'on donne
4. si l'on fait bien, on ne gêne pas la lecture
5. et des amis pourront découvrir de nouveaux champs.

Et c'est ainsi que je change mon billet d'hier : https://scilogs.fr/vivelaconnaissance/cuisinier-technicien-ou-technologue-ou-artiste/