SUSTAINABILITY – AN ONGOING ISSUE
Last week I met Chef Martin Scholz, head chef of Catch restaurant at the Andaz – Hyatt hotel here in London. Since taking the helm at Catch 2 years ago […]
CAPITALIZING ON HUMAN CAPITAL
Why the restaurant industry is missing out on a key ingredient! The restaurant business is no spring chicken, it has a history which dates back to the 1700s and a […]
FLAVOUR NETWORK AND PRINCIPLES OF FOOD PAIRING
Some years ago, while experimenting with salty foods and chocolate, chef Heston Blumenthal discovered that white chocolate and caviar taste rather good together. To find out why, he had the […]
HYDROCOLLOID BASICS
A colloid is a substance microscopically dispersed evenly throughout another substance. A colloidal system consists of two separate phases: a dispersed phase (or internal phase) and a continuous phase (or dispersion medium). A colloidal system may be solid, liquid, or […]
YOU CAN’T DICTATE CULTURE — BUT YOU CAN INFLUENCE IT
Taking its name from Japanese, umami is a pleasant savoury taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many […]
MEDIEVAL MIDDLE EASTERN DIETETICS
I’ve always had an interest in Medieval Middle Eastern cooking, having spent the last couple of months in Egypt I have been doing some further research on the historical relationship […]
UNDERSTANDING AROMA COMPOUNDS
When food is consumed, the interaction of taste, odor and textural feeling provides an overall sensation which is best defined by the English word “flavor”. Flavor results from compounds that […]
YOU CAN’T DICTATE CULTURE — BUT YOU CAN INFLUENCE IT
I recently came across this Harvard Business Review blog article which looks at how leaders can influence the corporate culture. The article’s main points and guidelines are in line with […]
TASTE 101: BIOLOGY BASICS
To understand the Molecular Gastronomy “movement” its best to start from First Principles. To begin, its useful to re-introduce ourselves with the physiological basis of taste. This means – let […]