Deconstructing Molecular Gastronomy

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." If only Shakespeare knew, some 400 years later, how aptly those words would capture the quandary in which we find ourselves with regard to molecular gastronomy. It has many names: culinary alchemy, avant-garde cooking, scientific cooking, scientific cuisine, progressive cooking, experimental cuisine, and molecular cooking … but is it all the same? Many believe it represents a new culinary genre that those out t…