Molecular Gastronomy

I don't know why I feel like writing this, but I need to defend Molecular Gastronomy. Why it falls to me? I don't know. The closure of El Bulli in 2012, and subsequent reopening not as a restaurant, but as a center of food study has brought forth the claim that molecular gastronomy is dead, since Ferran Adria was long since anointed its patron saint. Ferran Adria has also shown an aversion to the term, as has Heston Blumenthal, another prominent chef. Why? Because its a term so general that it can apply to any chef.

Fact: Ferran Adria is a guy that practices molecular gastronomy. He also makes fruit caviar, foams and espumas and spherifications.

Fact: I am a guy that practices molecular gastronomy. I also make fruit caviar.

Query and subsequent Fact: Have you cooked something? You've practiced molecular gastronomy.

Molecular gastronomy is not dead. As long as people are cooking, and trying to improve their methods, it really can't die. Don't believe me? Here is a definition: a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking. Molecular gastronomy seeks to investigate and explain the chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general. Check the wikipedia page (I know, I know it's wikipedia, but I promise, it's legit). As long as people are composing dishes and recording their techniques, its still alive. Its been around since Escoffier (If cooking and food had a god, it would be Escoffier), and it will be around until we switch to some sort of pill-based, or nutrient sludge based diet.

Just because El Bulli is closing, doesn't mean molecular gastronomy is dead. Food science lives on, even when foams, fruit caviar and odd gels go out of style. Besides, those things are made by cooking. Cooking with odd devices, and maybe some powders, but cooking nonetheless. Molecular cooking if you have to, but what does molecular really mean anyway?