Moto’s been open the better part of a decade.

That pretty much sums up the entirety of the molecular gastronomy (a phrase which Ferran Adrià no longer even uses) scene.

A lot of flash, very little substance. And far too many people are trying to capitalize on it right now.

The pioneers of this style were successful because they weren’t selling a product, they were selling an experience that was almost entirely a mystery and was completely unbelievable. Now that mystery is gone and the experience is expected. There’s nothing left. This sort of 4 hour, 26 course tasting menu style dining is on its way out, thankfully.

Or maybe I’ve just been reading too much Bourdain lately. Who knows?

moral: LITERALLY millions of people on the planet can’t get enough to eat, and here these clowns are playing with their food! as a chef, i can tell you that the production of this kind of stuff is incredibly wasteful- at least half of what could be edible food goes straight in the trash just to get to the “fun” parts of the food.

aesthetic: what’s the point of making one food that looks like another? it photographs well, and it’s a conversation starter, but as far as what you’d want to EAT, it’s pretty silly. it’s basically highly processed gobbledygook that’s meant to bring to mind some other food or sensory experience. why can’t food just be food? take for example the “english pea balls” served at a linea: fresh english peas are blanched, pureed, then treated with a chemical that causes them to form into perfectly pea-shaped globules when blanched again. all of this to produce a highly processed baby-food like substance. all of this is essentially just a big gimmick. it’s the food equivalent of one of those “magic eye” painting.

economic: as i said before, highly wasteful. the chef says himself that he charges $20 for something that you can get for $5 at any taqueria. this sort of thing is just a fun way to part the gullible rich with their money. who do you think is laying down money for this? it’s douchebag-chow, basically.

social: as a long-time chef, i can attest to the fact that most of the people who are willing to lay down bucks for this stuff are people who feel the need to derive some portion of their self-worth from “fancy-ness” and “gourmet-ness.” the sorts of people who feel that it makes them somehow better/smarter/cooler than everyone else. they generally look down on the staff that’s serving them this shit, but suck up to the chef/owner as some sort of visionary genius. these people are bores, basically, who hide their lack of depth or understanding of life behind a scrim of faux-sophistication.

i agree with livy that the veneration of chefs indicates a culture in decline.

To be honest, this stuff reminds me of Space-Food Sticks from the 60s (“it’s food the astronauts eat).

Things like veggies burgers for the mass market, egg substitutes, Gluten Free mixes..all use similar techs.

IMHO, I think it’s a good influence; using the tools and tech to explore, hack, and create…along with failures and excesses and transformations.

Heck, JELLO and gelatin deserts, pudding and whipped cream, breakfast cereal, wheat germ..etc where once considered upper class luxury before it was packaged for the mass market with new technology of refrigeration. When those first appeared it was for the upper crust society only.
Today, it’s commonplace.

In English speaking countries with Christian heritages, a similar tradition exists, although it seems to have become far less common during my lifetime – the saying of “Grace”. While the modern form of this saying is perhaps not as elegant as Itadakimasu, the core concept behind it all is still the same – try to be truly thankful for the food you have, for the people who made it, and for the creatures that died that you might live.

While there is something to be said for entertainment and art, there is something much more pressing to be said for starvation and malnutrition. It doesn’t matter that this is “merely” a small issue in a sea of larger troubles, it is a poor argument that sat that those who see this sort of cuisine as wasteful are simply killjoys or are overly serious.

Yes, if I had to choose one thing to fix about the world, it wouldn’t be this. It would be something much more important, like shifting unthinkable amounts of resource expendature away from systematized killing and toward improving quality of life for all. But that doesn’t mean this sort of activity is any more innocent or harmless, in and of itself.

~D. Walker

So I don’t agree in the slightest with the haters. I would have thought the vegetarian hamburger experiments alone would have illustrated the social utility of the experimentation, if any excuse for experience were so needed, considering the externalities of beef production impact on both environmental resources and indigenous populations. But perhaps that would have required one to read the whole post prior to outraged bleating.

i understand the perspectives of people who find this frivolous, etc, but i think they are missing the point a bit. experimentation and playfulness are part of the human experience!

I always said, a kitchen is just not a kitchen unless it has magic pixie dust and liquid nitrogen.

Seriously, if you’re a chef, you’re a big f’in hypocrite.

Or are you a cook?

But on the home cooking side, it has opened up simple things and techs for the home cook for discussion and exploration. Such as adding a touch of baking soda to dried beans that have difficulty getting soft while cooking. Which is an old tech really, but still shows a more awareness of chemistry of cooking.

My favorite is adding 1/2 tsp of unflavored gelatin in 1/2 cup of stock to an all beef meatloaf..the gel helps hold the moisture and replaces the fat normally found higher fat ground beef and the pork in traditional meatloaf. (or meatballs).

For thanksgiving I used a gel of pineapple and iota carrageenan to make a heat stable gel for a baked ham. It didn’t melt on the hot ham, but melted in your mouth.

No bacon on a sling, or fussy presentation. It’s just another tool in the kitchen you can use.

Kitchens and foods have always been one of the forefronts of using innovative items to preserve, transform, and technology for cooking, from the invention of beer, cheeses, bread, preserving foods, refrigeration, Baking Powder, Ovens, ect..etc.

Eating dinner is like entertainment. Usually I just watch tv at home. Sometimes we go out for a movie. Every once in a while we see a play. And sometimes, every few years, I like to go see a magic show. Moto is a magic show.

I’ve also eaten miracle berry, at a friend’s place a few years ago. It doesn’t change smell, just taste. Specifically, it translates sour directly to intense sweetness. Have you ever drank orange juice just after you brushed your teeth? Still smells like orange juice but feels bitter as poison on your tongue. Like that only sweet instead of bitter, and it lasts for two hours. If you try it, you’ll find that lemon is the greatest food ever but be careful not to acid burn your mouth because you don’t get the normal negative feedback. It isn’t practical in a restaurant because, as mentioned, it messes up wines, but I have been told it can do wonders for bad tequila.

So, roughly half of the food that gets produced gets thrown in the garbage, and you start complaining when some jokers fashion a sandwich into a cigar (that most definetely gets eaten) ?

I then ate a thick slice of lemon, after sucking on the berry for a while. The lemon segments tasted exactly like lemon drops. It was wonderful, and then it was enough. At first I thought I’d eat a whole lemon, but really, who would want to eat a whole bag of lemon drops at a go? Very strange.

At any rate, the fad died out. I’d forgotten all about miraculin.

These things dont directly contribute to fixing world problems. But they are a measure of wealth that we can afford. Sure, you can advocate world rights and work towards it, but hating extravagance to such a small degree (and even calling this that is a ridiculous hyperbolisation) is going too far.

And besides, these people wanted to innovate, and so they did. That ALONE should excuse any hate you would have had.

Arguably this is an example of misleading reportage – an interesting “colour supplement” article that fails to convey the central point, leaving the reader with the impression that this is little more than the “emperor’s new clothes”.

Until I watched the presentation my initial reaction was – what a load of pretentious bollocks.