Bubbles, foams and jelly: signs of science in Dutch cuisine in the period between 1980 and 2020

Abstract

In 1988 Nicholas and Giana Kurti published But the Crackling is Superb: An Anthology on Food and Drink by Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Although the book did spark some interest in the scientific field, those concerned with the culinary field actually took over the book's general idea that science and cuisine were intertwined in an explicit, direct manner. As a result, a new cooking style, closely related to the ideas brought forth by Kurti, emerged at the end of the twentieth century: molecular cooking. Its proponents promised novelty, knowledge and inventions in regards to new cooking techniques and processes. Nevertheless, the movement was so vastly different from the culinary movements that came before (e.g. nouvelle cuisine) that its fame was accompanied by praise, confusion and criticism. This thesis explores how and to what extent the molecular cooking movement influenced the content of prominent Dutch chefs' cookbooks. Consequently, it delves into the shifts that took place between 1980 and 2020 in Dutch cuisine.