Omnivore - Molecular gastronomist back in town

I’ve confirmed with my own palate Besha Rodell’s report that Richard Blais has indeed returned to Atlanta and is cooking at Element, in the old Cherry location on West Peachtree Street. I’ll be reporting in next week’s paper about my experience. I reviewed Element about a month ago, before Blais arrived. It’s the first time in more than 20 years of writing Grazing that I’ve returned to the same restaurant within a month. (At right is James Camp’s photo of Blais for a column I wrote in 2005.)

Blais, in case you have been living under a mushroom somewhere, is famous for his practice of molecular gastronomy, an investigation of the science of cooking that, in practical application, often changes the forms of ingredients and distills flavors in almost unbearable intensity. The most famous molecular gastronomist, although he eschews the term, is Ferran Adrià of El Bulli in Spain.

While it’s easy to dismiss molecular gastronomy as novelty for its own sake, I think it is one expression of the way we are questioning the aesthetics of cooking and dining. The definitive text on the subject is French chemist Hervé This’ book Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor. This’ new book, Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Food, is due out this fall. It’s difficult not to regard molecular gastronomy as a postmodern phenomenon, since it is in many ways a re-ordering of culinary history in a sometimes futuristic way.

Blais was in Miami the last few months, mainly engaged in product development, which he did not enjoy as much as cooking. He previously cooked at a number of Atlanta restaurants, from one bearing his own name to, most recently, One Midtown Kitchen. Considering his, um, short shelf life, I suggest you jet-propel yourself to Element now.