Meat and three veg has withstood the test of time in one form or another, but it will be interesting to see whether the latest gastronomic breakthrough will enjoy the same durability.
Hong Kong's luxurious Mandarin Oriental (which began its multi-starred life as simply The Mandarin in the ‘60s) was the launch-pad for this “culinary constructivism” adventure which introduced Note a Note to the culinary vocabulary. More specifically, the Mandarin's Michelin-starred, 25th floor Pierre restaurant was the venue.
'Note à Note' is claimed to be the world's first dish made entirely of pure compounds and created by French chemist Hervé This and noted chef Pierre Gagnaire. It consists of jelly-like “pearls” with a taste reminiscent of apple, similar in texture to sago or tapioca pearls. (I guess if you are not into sago or tapioca, this is where the story ends.)
For the rest of us the pearls are served with an iced granité that tastes “a little like lemon, with a wafer-thin caramel crisp in between”. We are assured no apples, lemons or caramel were used in preparing and cooking the dish.
A combination of pure compounds such as ascorbic acid, glucose, citric acid and a few grams of a substance known as maltitol, Note à Note was created by analysing basic ingredients to discover their key component chemicals and then using only those compounds to create a new dish.
If you're heading to Hong Kong any time soon, make The Mandarin your destination and Pierre your dinner date. Note à Note is now a fixture on the Pierre menu.
“This is the first time in the history of cooking that we have been able to make a dish compound by compound” Herve says. “All food is made from compounds but in the past we had no way of separating them and selecting only the ones that interest us.
The reason this was done was to give chefs an entirely new freedom and a new way of cooking. This is post-molecular gastronomy and it will revolutionise the way we look at food and cooking.” A masterly understatement!
Hervé confides it took him and Gagnaire six months to create the menu.
“Pierre Gagnaire is the artist in our relationship,” he says modestly. “Each month I give him the results of my research and he puts the poetry into the science. His first objective is always the taste of the dish and how much enjoyment diners will get from it. The science behind the food is secondary to him.”
Mandarin Oriental's sales and marketing person in Sydney, Pamela Scott, tells us that although Note a Note is the only item on the 11-course menu done this way, there are other dishes such as Abbé Nollet leaves and Polyphenol (sounds like a cough syrup), also contain elements of culinary constructivism which Gagnaire has been exploring for over 10 years.
Hervé chips in: “There is nothing unnatural about this new way of cooking. For example, water is a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen, while salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine. We have been cooking with these products since the beginning of time.
“It is also important to understand that I don't suggest this as a replacement for the way we traditionally eat; we are simply exploring a possibility of an entirely new way cooking.”
Phew!
Back to Pamela: “There is nothing artificial in Note by Note cooking as all food, traditional or not, can be considered artificial, which simply means made by human beings.”
And in case you were wondering, Note à Note translates into English as Note by Note.
Herve and Gagnaire often use music as a metaphor to explain their new style of cooking. They liken traditional cooking to a piece of music where many notes (chords) are played simultaneously, stating that this is similar to using a whole ingredient with its many chemical compounds in a dish.
Note à Note cooking is similar to music where the notes are played individually one after the other (for example during a solo) which equates to the individual chemical compounds in an ingredient being selected and used in a dish. Both styles of music are equally beautiful in their own ways.
We will be looking to set up a “road test” next time we are in Hong Kong. | 
