Don’t Get Le Cordon Bleu Blues
I had the privilege of interviewing Le Cordon Bleu chef, food scientist, and professor Mr. Guido Mori, and he opened up a door to an area of printing’s possibilities I hadn’t considered yet: its usefulness in culinary precision.
Here’s a fun video of Guido showing off his skills:
Guido was initially resistant to printing, but his passion for pure, unadulterated food really got me thinking about why printing could actually help even chefs who have their doubts because of the purity and precision it allows. Here’s an excerpt from my book Printing Your Dinner to give you a taste of why:
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According to Guido, no machine could ever capture the spirit and passion of gourmet food the way a human can.
I think in many ways he’s right. Culinary tradition is rich and multifaceted and filled with human emotion. There’s no way technology could swoop in and usurp this.
That’s why printing has to be a supplement, not a replacement, to creativity in food. Bioprinting’s main advantage is altering the content of the foods we use now in production, flavor, and/or nutritional profile. These altered foods will then be used in the same recipes and practices we use now — but bioprinting will increase a chef’s control immensely.
Why? Because of what Mori said next: “The important difference between today’s and the past’s food production is that technology has played a key role. Scientific research is related to food for two factors, the first being the production and the best preservation of its characteristics. The second factor, which will become important over the next 10 years, is the complex interaction between the biomedical functions of a food and the human body during feeding.” In other words, technology can augment food production and food production can augment health.
Technology has allowed the industry to scale up like never before. We wouldn’t have the huge number of Starbucks coffee shops across the world without massive food production technology (grinders, roasters, sophisticated coffee machines), but we also wouldn’t be able to create the high level of precision in gourmet food without refined technology. It’s all about adapting food tech to each sector’s needs, whether those are speed, control, or quality.
For large scale creation, the classic 3D printing extrusion method is preferable: It permits mass production by fewer hands, with the potential for high speed — think the next generation of assembly line. For gourmet and specialized food, bioprinting through cell growth will allow chefs to create the exact flavor, texture, or quality they desire.
As an emerging niche technology, bioprinting is inherently specialized. Using it for specialized cooking is a natural step forward. Bioprinting has the ability to remove toxic chemicals from food currently taken in during the printing process, bringing it closer to its natural state. Many foods we produce today are affected by the general pollution of the environment, but when cells are taken as a base for printed foods, the pollution can be consciously removed or avoided. Bioprinting could be the ultimate answer for food and food purists. After all, you’re putting nothing in your body but the pure cellular makeup of your dinner.
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Contact me at sgt26@georgetown.edu with any and all questions or thoughts. To learn more, check out Printing Your Dinner: Personalization in the Future of Food, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle starting June 11!
