Comparative biology of food and anthropology of taste

What are the implications for taste and food behaviour ?

Class by Patrick Pasquet

Molecular gastronomy

How to develop the current wave of « culinary neo-impressionnism », born from the reconciliation of the science and art of cooking? Can culinary art be help by scientific input?

As we shall see, "molecular gastronomy" is not limited to cooking (or this scientific discipline would be called "molecular cooking") but includes the physico-chemical phenomena connected with human nutrition. In other words, molecular gastronomy also looks at the table arts from the physico-chemical angle: cutlery, plates, table cloth, interaction between beverages and dishes, etc.

The course will also focus on:

- The psychological component of cooking and gastronomy: giving pleasure
- The artistic component of cooking and gastronomy: endeavouring to achieve an aesthetics of taste (legibility, trends, etc.)
- The technical component of cooking and gastronomy: physical and chemical phenomena, search for culinary art and craftsmanship.
- Exploring detailed culinary information to remodel the way culinary know-how is transmitted, to foster sound but forgotten practices, etc.

Aroma chemistry in molecular cuisine

In the first part, we will show, from actual data of the physiology of taste and olfaction, the differences between taste, odor (smell) and retronasal perception (aroma). Then, we will present some chemical aspects : aroma as mixtures of several volatile compounds, classical extracts (essential oils and oleoresins), formation of these odorant molecules and what is a threshold.

Then, we will ll deal with the behaviour of odoriferous molecules (losses and synthesis) during cooking, and in particular according to the different modes of cooking.

Neurophysiology of taste

In recent decades, biology has focused on the fundamental mechanisms of sensory perception and human pleasure, demonstrating that taste is also determined by the consumer's sensory, cognitive and hedonistic functions.
As it is important to understand consumer expectations and personal sensitivity, this course also looks at recent advances in molecular biology, the neurosciences and experimental psychology.

Main topics seen in this class:

-The peripheral mechanisms of sensory perception: what we have learned from genetics, molecular biology, neurophysiology (taste and smell receptors, trigeminals, mechanics, proprioceptives).

-The central mechanisms of multisensory representations: what functional cerebral imagery and psychophysics (cerebral processing of sensory information, the areas where thought takes place, distribution of information processing, sensory maps, learning process) teach us.the central mechanisms of multisensory representations: what functional cerebral imagery and psychophysics (cerebral processing of sensory information, the areas where thought takes place, distribution of information processing, sensory maps, learning process) teach us.

An example of a real terroir effect: the reblochon cheese

Terroir, a geographic area, is a multidimensional concept with physical, biological and human aspects.

Based on works combining various approaches (experiments, surveys, etc.) and several scientific disciplines, this class aims at answering the main two following questions, taking the example of cheeses:
- Do the milk production conditions influence cheese characteristics ?
- Can these conditions be considered as a component of terroir ?

We will see the effects these factors can have on the texture, colour and flavour of cheeses, but also the incidence of each cow breed and their feeding management on the latter.
We will see that part of these factors can be considered as constituent of terroir.