Techno-emotional cuisine
Are you familiar with the concept of technoemotional cuisine? It's a concept that involves feelings in the preparation of food, taking into account the various sensations that each dish causes in customers.
Techno-emotional is not only linked to taste and flavor, but also to the way the dish is served and the way it is presented, always aiming to improve the customer experience.
Launched by Ferrán Adriá, the Spanish chef best known as the father of molecular gastronomy. He is responsible for a number of admirable creations that can revolutionize the way we approach the creation of dishes, the use and combination of peculiar ingredients and even the way we eat.
His various experiments at his famous restaurant El bulli were intended to push the creative boundaries of his dishes, using concepts from physics and chemistry to not only delight, but also surprise and stimulate customers to think. This same absolute focus on creativity and originality has also given impetus to new restaurants to experiment and push the boundaries.
This new historical moment, which was partly initiated by the now defunct El bulli, is now also being stimulated by what is known as gastronomic engineering, which aims to combine sustainability, scientific knowledge and the valorization of the place and its products.
These concepts can be attributed, for example, to chefs Jordi Roca, Rodolfo Guzmán and René Redzepi, who propose the use not only of technological innovation and care for the environment, but also of adaptations and revival of historical preparations, even recovering certain native techniques and ingredients. Some examples would be the use of garumThe book is based on a Roman technique for fermenting fish from the 5th century BC, which is revisited and reused by Chile's Rodolfo Guzmán, and even goes as far as modern distillation techniques, which only picks up aromas from an old book by Spain's Jordi Roca.
Creativity in the kitchen
For all of these chefs mentioned above, the main issue that surrounds them is sheer creativity; they are constantly encouraged to create dishes, concepts, techniques and discoveries.
This process is extremely extensive and has been studied before, even outside the kitchen environment, mainly in terms of how the idea is put into practice and what the steps are to achieve its goals. However, using a method of comparative analysis of works, people and restaurants, the question arises: what drives someone to think about creating something, what would be the attributes that generate creativity, not just in terms of techniques, but also in terms of processes and ingredients, such as those made by the chefs mentioned above.
When we talk about creativity in the kitchen, we want to show that it is possible to add an extra touch to the preparation or presentation of food, making it possible for those who are experiencing the moment to have different experiences.
Listing these creativity factors specific to each chef would be very complicated, but some points are clear, especially when chefs answer such questions in interviews. Even so, one of the main aspects of creativity is experience. This can be broken down into several topics, past experiences bring connections, emotional memories and, above all, feelings that are stored and difficult to convey.
Jordi Roca, one of the leading pastry chefs in the world today, incorporates his past experiences into his desserts that round off the tasting menu at El Celler de Can Roca, a restaurant with 3 Michelin stars. As well as finishing to perfection, he communicates with his past with dishes that smell of old books and wet grass, for example, which provoke memories of his childhood and those of his customers. In order to awaken them, the pastry chef uses equipment and techniques that were previously only used in chemical laboratories in his kitchen - distillation, to remove a certain desired component from a liquid; deep-freezing; dehydration - this union of chemistry and cooking has led to innovations and experiments never seen before in either field.
All of these chefs mentioned have broken with the perspectives that have existed in the kitchen at one time or another, and it is in these moments that new trends are discovered. Creativity, or "getting out of the box", allows new products, techniques, equipment and concepts to be integrated and discovered, opening the doors of kitchens more and more so that other people can enjoy and try new things.
