Project presentation: Molecular Gastronomy – the scientific study of deliciousness and its physical and chemical basis

Michael Bom Frøst, Leif Horsfelt Skibsted
University of Copenhagen, Department of Food Science

Inspiration for better foods from gastronomy to science and from science to gastronomy.

The project integrates gastronomy, food chemistry and sensory science. Together the disciplines create knowledge that spans the practical preparation, chemical/physical and perceptual/cognitive understanding of good food. It has large commercial perspectives for Danish restaurants and food industry. There is potential to raise the whole Danish food culture through injection of scientific approach to Danish gastronomy.

The project will contribute to development of high quality food through an understanding of relationships between products’ physical/chemical characteristics, processes during preparation, and perception of good food. Experiments in restaurant environments will contribute to increase the understanding of factors contributing to appreciation and satiety during the dynamic experience of eating a whole meal.

It is the ambition that the project also will serve as a source of inspiration to the Danish food industry. Innovation can be transferred from restaurants to other types of food manufacturing. Chefs’ use and preparation of raw materials will lead to new innovative products with high quality in small- and large-scale production.

Future consumers will demand that restaurant meals are superior in sensory properties, but also possess good nutritional properties. Healthy food can be made more palatable and satiating through a scientific approach to the relationship between the underlying chemical/physical properties and effects on the human sensory and somatic system.

The project in brief
Duration: Fall 2006 - Spring 2010
Funding: The Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences; Copenhagen University, Faculty of Life Sciences

Project participants
Copenhagen University, Department of Food Science

Food Chemistry:     
Professor Leif Skibsted (projekt head) 
Adjunct Professor Claus Meyer 
Chef Torsten Vildgaard   
Guest Professor Peter Barham
Associate Professor Jens Risbo
PhD-student Pia Snitkjær Nielsen
PhD-student Louise Mørch Mortensen

Sensory Science
Associate Professor Michael Bom Frøst
Professor Wender Bredie
Associate Professor Per Møller