In June 2010, after six years of running a restaurant in New York City, I decided that we needed to learn about the science of what we eat. At the time, I had no idea how a cell broke down or what an enzyme or an amino acid was. It was all stuff I’d slept through in high school! But these are the basic processes by which cooking happens. The more we understand about the science of food, I realized, the better we would be able to cook.
By David Chang | Chef/Founder of the Momofuku Restaurant Group
The Momofuku Culinary Lab started as a space where we could focus on creating and innovating. I didn’t want us to worry about working on projects in a restaurant; there are just too many distractions in service and running a kitchen to be able to focus on creating your dishes. It didn’t need to be high tech, but we needed an environment in a vacuum. In retrospect, what I thought was a luxury was an absolute necessity.
We began working with a microbiology team at Harvard that had been examining microbes in cheese. We started by asking simple questions about foods we were experimenting with. Is this edible? Is this dangerous? We had to learn chemistry, then biology. We built up a working scientific vocabulary. Now we’ve begun exploring the processes behind ingredients we use every day in our kitchens: soy sauce, MSG, other sources of umami flavors. We’ve launched experiments in fermentation, using various strains of bacteria to create strange and wonderful new tastes.
That said, I’ve also noticed a growing disconnect between the role of food science and today’s food culture. Cooking is a scientific process, after all, but calling food “processed” has become a slur. It’s almost as if we are expected to hide the science that goes into our food. This wasn’t always true: If you look at advertisements from the 1940s and ’50s, they celebrated that the latest chewing gum used artificial sweeteners and flavoring agents, because that was the hot thing. Today, though, everything is supposed to be “natural,” simple, old-fashioned. We’ve been brainwashed to believe that science is scary. Just think about MSG, which has been banned in certain cities and provokes an irrational fear in many consumers. But it’s just a sodium ion attached to glutamate, which is something your body produces naturally and needs to function. True, MSG doesn’t exist in nature; it’s a scientific invention. But multiple studies have failed to show that it makes anyone sick. It only makes food taste delicious.
Yes, natural is good and healthy, and whole foods are important. However, experimentation is important too. Once you realize that cooking is a science, you realize that it’s the only science in which innovation is frowned upon—where there are powerful efforts to stifle and stall innovation. It doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, let’s celebrate the kitchens, labs, and people who are creating foods and tastes that we’ve never experienced before.
bon appétit + MOMOFUKU = FLAVOR EXPLOSION
Amp up the umami at home with a pair of recipes from our friends at Bon Appétit. Alison Roman, in the BA test kitchen, worked with Dan Felder, head of R&D at David Chang’s Momofuku Culinary Lab in New York, to develop these recipes for optimum umami pow.
Pecorino Dashi
Yield: 1 quart
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Total time: 8 hours, 10 minutes (includes soaking time)
Pecorino Romano—a salty, aged sheep’s-milk cheese—is best for this broth recipe. But if it’s unavailable, you can substitute Parmesan.
4 large pieces kombu kelp
1 oz. pecorino, finely grated
Combine kombu and 1 quart water in a large bowl or pot. Let sit at least 8 hours, up to 24. Remove kombu and discard.
Bring kombu dashi to a boil in a medium saucepot. Remove from heat and add pecorino; let sit 5 minutes.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer and then again through a coffee filter.
Do ahead: Pecorino dashi will keep up to a week refrigerated.
Serve baby kale or charred broccoli with hot dashi, croutons, and olive oil. Finish with black pepper.
Dan Winters; Food styling by Vivian Lui; Prop styling by Scott Stone
Shiitake Flatbread
Yield: 8 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 4½ hours (includes rising and chilling time)
Mushroom powder adds depth to this simple yeasted dough, which cooks on the stovetop. You can also repurpose the powder to season liquid used for cooking rice or sprinkle it on chicken before roasting.
2 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms (about 2¼ cups), crumbled
3½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1½ tsp. active dry yeast
1¼ cups water
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
Olive oil for greasing and brushing
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Pulse mushrooms in a blender until a coarse powder forms. Pass through a sieve, discarding solids. (You should have ¼ cup powder.)
Combine the mushroom powder, 3½ cups flour, yeast, water, and kosher salt in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix dough until blended but shaggy.
Knead on a lightly floured work surface until a smooth dough forms, adding flour as needed (dough will be sticky), about 5 minutes. Lightly grease another large bowl with oil, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 2 hours, up to overnight.
Punch down dough and divide into 8 pieces. Using floured hands, roll each piece into a ball on a lightly floured surface. Cover with plastic wrap; let rest 10 minutes.
Heat a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Working with one piece at a time, stretch dough with your hands or roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of around an eighth of an inch. Cook until lightly blistered, puffed, and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Brush each side with oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and serve or wrap in foil to keep warm until ready to serve.
Serve as bruschetta or toast with roasted vegetables or thinly sliced prosciutto or other charcuterie—or as pizza bianca with olive oil and herbs.
