Molecular Restaurants

Since I saw the bar scene in Star Wars, I dreamt about an “extra-terrestrial” bar or restaurant that would serve food from outer space. First I thought about coloring meat in blue and serve it with red rice, but I’m not a cook so I couldn’t push further.

A customer of “Mos Eisley” cantina in Star Wars with some local drink

But now, it should be possible to create a chain of restaurants with a very original concept, serving excellent food and leveraging semi-industrial food processing techniques.

“Molecular gastronomy” was invented by Hervé This. It consists in discovering natural chemical and physical reactions involved in cooking, and results in new dishes in which food is processes in original ways to reveal and combines tastes.

Today “molecular gastronomy” is the new trend in high-end gastronomy, led by Ferran Adrià. His restaurant “El Bulli” is quoted the best restaurant in the world for the second year by Restaurant Magazine, the world’s reference in this domain. Other chefs like Pierre Gagnaire or Denis Martin quickly climb the scale in Michelin or Gault & Millau guides.

Denis Martin tasting (testing?) one of his creations

Menus in those restaurants are very expensive, partly because of the creativity involved in developing new dishes, and partly because of the work involved in processing small quantites of food in gastronomic restaurants.

The business idea consists in bringing “molecular gastronomy” to mainstream market by leveraging quantities through semi-industrialisation of the food processing in a chain of (franchised) restaurants.