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38-493: The main town of Erice is located on top of Mount Erice , at around 750 metres (2,460 ft) above sea level, overlooking the city of Trapani , the low western coast towards Marsala , the dramatic Punta del Saraceno and Capo San Vito to the north-east, and the Aegadian Islands on Sicily's north-western coast. Casa Santa forms part of Erice at the base of Mount Erice, immediately adjacent to Trapani. A cable car joins

76-578: A Distillation Apparatus for Vegetable Samples and a Pipette for Determining the Relative Viscosity of Pectin Solutions . The professors had previously published The Hows and Whys of Cooking in 1928. In 1932, Belle Lowe, then the professor of Food and Nutrition at Iowa State College , published a book titled Experimental Cookery: From The Chemical And Physical Standpoint which became a standard textbook for home economics courses across

114-520: A vacuum chamber , the cooking of sausages by connecting them across a car battery, the digestion of protein by fresh pineapple juice, and a reverse baked alaska —hot inside, cold outside—cooked in a microwave oven . Kurti was also an advocate of low temperature cooking , repeating 18th century experiments by British scientist Benjamin Thompson by leaving a 2 kg (4.4 lb) lamb joint in an oven at 80 °C (176 °F). After 8.5 hours, both

152-585: A PhD in Physical Chemistry of Materials, for which he wrote his thesis on "La gastronomie moléculaire et physique" (molecular and physical gastronomy). He served as an adviser to the French minister of education, lectured internationally, and was invited to join the lab of Nobel-winning molecular chemist Jean-Marie Lehn . This has published several books in French, four of which have been translated into English, including Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring

190-495: A name maintained until the 20th century. In 1934 the town changed its name from Monte San Giuliano to Erice . During the Second World War a Luftwaffe Operations Centre (associated with Zerstörergeschwader 26 and Jagdgeschwader 27 which operated out of the nearby Trapani–Milo Airport ) was located on the slopes of Monte Erice from early 1943 until they were forced by Allied air raids to relocate. Following

228-706: A public and free course on molecular gastronomy. Hervé This also authors a website and a pair of blogs on the subject in French, and publishes monthly collaborations with French chef Pierre Gagnaire on Gagnaire's website. The objectives of molecular gastronomy, as defined by Hervé This, are seeking for the mechanisms of culinary transformations and processes (from a chemical and physical point of view) in three areas: The original fundamental objectives of molecular gastronomy were defined by This in his doctoral dissertation as: Hervé This later recognized points 3, 4, and 5 as being not entirely scientific endeavors (more application of technology and educational), and has revised

266-523: The Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 troops of the 2nd Battalion of the 505th Infantry Regiment Seventh Army under the command of Major Mark Alexander began on 22 July 1943 to climb up the side of Monte Erice in order to secure the town and its commanding position overlooking the surrounding countryside. As they did so they came under artillery fire from Italian forces stationed on the ramparts with one soldier being killed and another wounded. Realizing that

304-649: The French Laundry and Per Se signed up to this and together released a joint statement in 2006 clarifying their approach to cooking, stating that the term "molecular gastronomy" was coined in 1992 for a single workshop that did not influence them, and that the term does not describe any style of cooking. In February 2011, Nathan Myhrvold published Modernist Cuisine , which led many chefs to further classify molecular gastronomy versus modernist cuisine. Myhrvold believes that his cooking style should not be called molecular gastronomy. The term molecular gastronomy

342-625: The Kitchen , where he demonstrated techniques such as using a syringe to inject hot mince pies with brandy in order to avoid disturbing the crust. That same year, he held a presentation for the Royal Society of London (also entitled "The Physicist in the Kitchen") in which he stated: I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés. Kurti demonstrated making meringue in

380-482: The Monte Erice hillclimbing championship has taken place on its slopes every year. Molecular Gastronomy Molecular gastronomy is the scientific approach of cuisine from primarily the perspective of chemistry . The composition ( molecular structure ), properties ( mass , viscosity , etc) and transformations ( chemical reactions , reactant products ) of an ingredient are addressed and utilized in

418-569: The Nature of Animals , Aelian writes that animals chosen for sacrifice would voluntarily walk up to the altar to be killed. A cable car (funivia) ran from 2005 to 2017, when it was closed due to a forest fire, from the outskirts of Trapani to the town of Erice. The cable car was rebuilt and reopened in June 2018. Erice hosts scientific meetings at the Ettore Majorana center, organised by

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456-574: The Science of Flavor , Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking , Cooking: The Quintessential Art , and Building a Meal: From Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism . He currently publishes a series of essays in French, and hosts free monthly seminars on molecular gastronomy at the INRA in France. He gives free and public seminars on molecular gastronomy every month, and annually gives

494-517: The United States. The book is an exhaustively researched look into the science of everyday cooking referencing hundreds of sources and including many experiments. At a length of over 600 pages with section titles such as "The Relation Of Cookery To Colloidal Chemistry", "Coagulation Of Proteins", "The Factors Affecting The Viscosity Of Cream And Ice Cream", " Syneresis ", "Hydrolysis Of Collagen" and "Changes In Cooked Meat And The Cooking Of Meat",

532-467: The advent of molecular gastronomy, there was no branch dedicated to studying the chemical processes of cooking in the home and in restaurants. Food science has primarily been concerned with industrial food production and, while the disciplines may overlap, they are considered separate areas of investigation. The creation of the discipline of molecular gastronomy was intended to bring together what had previously been fragmented and isolated investigations into

570-406: The chemical and physical processes of cooking into an organized discipline within food science, to address what the other disciplines within food science either do not cover, or cover in a manner intended for scientists rather than cooks. The term "molecular and physical gastronomy" was coined in 1988 by Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and French physical chemist Hervé This . In 1992, it became

608-582: The city: Pepoli Castle, which dates from Saracen times, and the Castello di Venere ("Venus Castle"), dating from the Norman period, built on top of the ancient Temple of Venus , where Venus Ericina was worshipped. According to legend, the temple was founded by Aeneas . It was well known throughout the Mediterranean area in the ancient age, and an important cult was celebrated in it. In his book On

646-410: The controversial astrophysicist Antonino Zichichi . There is also an annual workshop on Molecular Gastronomy . Mount Erice Monte Erice , or ancient Greek Mount Eryx , is a mountain of Sicily, in the province of Trapani . The mountain is to the east of Trapani and encompasses an area of 18.3 km . The Lenzi River has its source on the mountain. The city of Erice is located on

684-624: The creation of a formal discipline around the subjects discussed in the meetings. After Kurti's death in 1998, the name of the Erice workshops were changed by This to "The International Workshop on Molecular Gastronomy 'N. Kurti'". This remained the sole director of the subsequent workshops from 1999, and continued his research in the field of molecular gastronomy at the Inra-AgroParisTech International Centre for Molecular Gastronomy, remaining in charge of organizing

722-569: The director of the Ettore Majorana center, physicist Antonino Zichichi , who liked the idea. They invited the food science writer Harold McGee to join them as invited co-director of the first workshops in 1992. University of Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti advocated applying scientific knowledge to culinary problems. He was one of the first television cooks in the UK, hosting a black-and-white television show in 1969 entitled The Physicist in

760-446: The early 19th century that when making a food stock "the broth must come to a boil very slowly, otherwise the albumin coagulates, hardens; the water, not having time to penetrate the meat, prevents the gelatinous part of the osmazome from detaching itself." French writer Raymond Roussel , in his 1914 story "L'Allée aux lucioles" ("The Alley of Fireflies"), introduces a fictionalized version of French chemist Antoine de Lavoisier who, in

798-432: The food and cooking of a number of famous chefs, though many of them do not accept the term as a description of their style of cooking. Chefs who are often associated with molecular gastronomy because of their embrace of science include Heston Blumenthal , Grant Achatz , Ferran Adrià , José Andrés , Marcel Vigneron , Homaro Cantu , Michael Carlson , Wylie Dufresne , and Adam Melonas . Despite their central role in

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836-565: The inside and outside temperature of the lamb joint were around 75 °C (167 °F), and the meat was tender and juicy. With his wife Giana, Kurti edited an anthology on food and science by fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society. Hervé This started collecting "culinary precisions" (old kitchen wives' tales and cooking tricks) the 24th of March 1980, and started testing these precisions to see which held up; his collection eventually numbered some 25,000. In 1995, he received

874-404: The international meetings. The idea of using techniques developed in chemistry to study food is not a new one, for instance the discipline of food science has existed for many years. Kurti and This acknowledged this fact and though they decided that a new, organized and specific discipline should be created within food science that investigated the processes in regular cooking (as food science

912-422: The list. Prime topics for study include In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term started to be used to describe a new style of cooking in which some chefs began to explore new possibilities in the kitchen by embracing science, research, technological advances in equipment and various natural gums and hydrocolloids produced by the commercial food processing industry. It has since been used to describe

950-480: The popularisation of science-based cuisine, both Adria and Blumenthal have expressed their frustration with the common mis-classification of their food and cooking as "molecular gastronomy", On 10 December 2006 Blumenthal and Harold McGee published a 'Statement on the "New Cookery" in the Observer in order to summarise what they saw as the central tenets of modern cuisine. Ferran Adria of El Bulli and Thomas Keller of

988-603: The preparation and appreciation of the ingested products . It is a branch of food science that approaches the preparation and enjoyment of nutrition from the perspective of a scientist at the scale of atoms , molecules , and mixtures . Nicholas Kurti , Hungarian physicist, and Hervé This , at the INRA in France, coined "Molecular and Physical Gastronomy" in 1988. New dishes named after famous scientists include: There are many branches of food science that study different aspects of food, such as safety, microbiology, preservation, chemistry, engineering, and physics. Until

1026-598: The safest position was directly under the walls of town the lead troops took shelter there. Rather than waiting on artillery support to arrive the decision was then made for F Company to attack. However before the troops had come close enough to engage them the Italian forces signaled their surrender. In the northeastern portion of the city there are the remains of ancient Elymian and Phoenician walls ( Cyclopean masonry ) indicating different stages of settlement and occupation in antiquity. There are two castles that remain in

1064-602: The scientific community and an interest in the science of cooking. In 1988, while attending a meeting at the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture in Erice, Thomas had a conversation with Professor Ugo Valdrè of the University of Bologna , who agreed with her that the science of cooking was an undervalued subject, and encouraged Kurti to organize a workshop at the Ettore Majorana Center. However nothing happened until Kurti met Hervé This: both approached

1102-418: The story, creates an apparently edible semi-permeable coating ("invol ...") that he uses to encase a tiny frozen sculpture made from one type of wine, which is immersed in another type of wine. The story cites the fictional event as significant "in both the annals of science and the history of improved gastronomy." In 1943 the University of Chicago Press published a book titled Food Chemistry and Cookery by

1140-797: The summit of Erice. In ancient times the mountain was occupied by the Elymians and subsequently by the Carthaginians , the Greeks, and the Romans, who worshipped Aphrodite Erycina, or Venus Erycina , there. In 1117 it was renamed as Monte San Giuliano by the Normans , . The original name was restored in 1934. Until the 1950s the comune of Monte San Giuliano included the territory of the current commune of Erice , as well as Valderice, Custonaci , San Vito Lo Capo and Buseto Palizzolo . Since 1954,

1178-576: The summit, the frazione of Santa Casa, Erice and the suburbs of Trapani are located on the western slopes, and the comune of Valderice is on the eastern side of the mountain. The mountain is covered by vegetation: there is a forest of Aleppo pine around Martogna, oak in the state forest of Sant'Anna, as well as holm oak and downy oak in the Costa Spada area. There are numerous hiking trails. The Sicilian Forestry Corps has established an agro-forestry museum at S. Matteo, 4 km from

Erice - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-724: The then University of Chicago Associate Professor of Home Economics Evelyn G. Halliday and University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Home Economics Isabel T. Noble. In the foreword of the 346-page book, the authors state that, "The main purpose of this book is to give an understanding of the chemical principles upon which good practices in food preparation and preservation are based." The book includes chapters such as "The Chemistry of Milk", "The Chemistry of Baking Powders and Their Use in Baking", "The Chemistry of Vegetable Cookery" and "Determination of Hydrogen Ion Concentration" and contains numerous illustrations of lab experiments including

1254-468: The title for a set of workshops held in Erice , Italy (originally titled "Science and Gastronomy") that brought together scientists and professional cooks for discussions about the science behind traditional cooking preparations. Eventually, the shortened term "molecular gastronomy" became the name of the approach, based on exploring the science behind traditional cooking methods. Kurti and This considered

1292-460: The upper and lower parts of Erice. The bordering municipalities are Buseto Palizzolo , Paceco , Trapani , Valderice and Custonaci . The hamlets ( frazioni ) are Ballata, Casa Santa, Crocefissello, Napola , Pizzolungo, Rigaletta, San Cusumano and Torretta. The ancient Greek name of Erice was Eryx ( Έρυξ in Greek ), and its foundation was associated with the eponymous Greek hero Eryx . It

1330-536: The volume rivals or exceeds the scope of many other books on the subject, at a much earlier date. Though rarely credited, the origins of the Erice workshops (originally entitled "Science and Gastronomy") can be traced back to cooking teacher Elizabeth Cawdry Thomas, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London and ran a cooking school in Berkeley, California . The one-time wife of a physicist , Thomas had many friends in

1368-781: Was not a Greek colony, as the Phoenicians founded it, but was largely Hellenized . It was destroyed in the First Punic War by the Carthaginians , and from then on declined in importance. Eryx was conquered by the Aghlabids in 831 and was renamed as Cebel Hamid (in Western sources Gebel Hamed, meaning Mountain of Hamid). It was ruled by the Arabs until the Norman conquest . In 1167 the Normans renamed it Monte San Giuliano ,

1406-461: Was originally intended to refer only to the scientific investigation of cooking, though it has been adopted by a number of people and applied to cooking itself or to describe a style of cuisine. Other names for the style of cuisine practiced by these chefs include: No singular name has ever been applied in consensus, and the term "molecular gastronomy" continues to be used often as a blanket term to refer to any and all of these things—particularly in

1444-414: Was primarily concerned with the nutritional properties of food and developing methods to process food on an industrial scale), there are several notable examples throughout history of investigations into the science of everyday cooking recorded as far as back to 18th century. The concept of molecular gastronomy was perhaps presaged by Marie-Antoine Carême , one of the most famous French chefs, who said in

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