french | toast

Linda Kawano holds a toy neuron as part of Chef Homaro Cantu’s lively presentation on food chemistry. Photo: Dani Friedland/MEDILL

Foodies who know their neurons from their fat cells trekked through a blizzard warning Monday to hear Chef Homaro Cantu and some of his colleagues speak about cooking innovations.

The neuron in question, a grey stuffed toy version, resembled an elephant’s head and was part of a pop quiz conducted by biochemist Linda Kawano, who works with Cantu at moto, his Chicago restaurant, and Cantu Designs for food-related products.

Cantu and Kawano crossed the intersection of chemistry and cuisine during the evening. The event at the Chicago Cultural Center marked the beginning of the Ars/Scientia series of conversations and salons, part of a yearlong series of programs called Science Chicago.

“The true beauty of this food is the innovation side of it,” Cantu said of his style of cooking.

Food is more than just science for this team. Cantu takes playing with his food to a whole new level. He showed a movie of some of his appearances on television shows such as “Iron Chef America” and “Dinner: Impossible” and described some of his dishes. For instance, Cantu prints a picture of an orange on edible paper using ink made from oranges. When the printed picture is burned with a laser, the orange flavors are released.

“We actually do serve real food. It’s not all weird. Well, it’s weird, but it’s real,” Cantu said jokingly. “It’s gotta be about fun.”

Another dish takes puréed, cooked pancakes and freezes them on a frozen dish much like a griddle. The result: something that looks like a pancake and tastes like a pancake but melts in your mouth.

Desserts Cantu and his team have created include a strawberry shortcake made to look like a hot dog and a trio of cotton candies: a printed picture of cotton candy on edible paper, a piece of deep-fried cotton candy and a white chocolate-covered ball of liquid cotton candy sorbet—with sprinkles, of course.

“We have kids dragging their parents all across the country to come eat at moto,” Cantu said when an audience member noted that his gourmet food seemed like it would appeal to children.

For grownups, Kawano began by giving a presentation about umami, considered to be the fifth taste humans can detect, along with the more commonly known recognition of sweetness, saltiness, bitterness and sourness. Umami is a savory, delicious flavor frequently found in slow-roasted meats, mushrooms and other foods.

A Japanese scientist isolated the major chemical component of umami in 1908, according to Kawano. He added salt and stabilized the glutamic acid into monosodium glutamate, or MSG, which he patented in 1909. MSG is a common flavor enhancer that remains controversial due to some reports that it can cause headaches or other potential health problems.

Recently, researchers at the University of Miami found mechanisms on the human tongue that detect umami. Taste buds contain receptor cells that are specifically designed to bind with glutamates, Kawano said, and flavorful foods associated with umami have high concentrations of glutamates.

Cantu opened moto, 945 W. Fulton Market, five years ago. He also designs and invents cooking techniques and equipment. He said 75 percent of taste is smell, so he serves some foods with special silverware that he designed with a spiral handle to hold aromatic herbs.

Another unique tool Cantu has invented is the polymer oven. A small dish with a dome, the polymer oven can be heated in a microwave to 400º while remaining safe to touch on the outside. The food is added only after the oven heats up. A raw piece of fish, placed inside the oven, can cook on the table while a diner eats another dish. The oven can be reused and, ultimately, recycled.

Another recent project turned algae into both a food product and a biofuel. Cantu said his team proved it is possible to brew algae-based fuel in a kitchen.

After the presentations, Cantu, Kawano and program moderator Chuck Valauskas fielded questions from the audience on a wide range of topics. Cantu frequently works with liquid nitrogen. For instance, puréed curry fried rice piped from a frosting bag into liquid nitrogen becomes a frozen noodle that accents a Thai pork dish. Cantu said, although his kitchen is equipped with sensors to alert him to what he termed an “atmospheric choking hazard,” the nitrogen he uses is generally safe.

Cantu said accommodating food allergies is part of what makes cooking a challenge. “We take that very seriously,” Cantu said.

Cantu’s program inspired provocative questions. Someone asked whether Cantu specifically tries to disgust people. The answer: not really. But there are some dishes that begin life as “sick, twisted jokes,” Cantu said, citing as an example one seafood dish that resembles the Exxon-Valdez oil spill after a hefty tableside dose of black sauce.

Although “not a fan of molecular cuisine before,” attendee Ameerah Bethea, who works in finance, said she is now interested in the idea. “My appetite was really whetted,” she said.

More than 300 people attended the discussion and several more events are scheduled for the Ars/Scientia series.

A slide from Linda Kawano’s presentation about the chemistry of umami, the fifth flavor. Photo: Dani Friedland/MEDILL

This story originally appeared on the Medill News Service website.