NAVARRA GOURMET

Gastronomy & Astronomy: the health of the universe

GASTRONOMY & HEALTH. Moderator Jordi Estadella

(Daniel García. Restaurante Calima. Marbella. Málaga Ramón Núñez. Director of the National Museum of Science and Technology. La Coruña. )

A taste of Galileo

Despite the difficulty in pairing gastronomy with astronomy, chef Daniel García from the El Calima restaurant in Marbella, and Ramón Núñez, director of the National Museum of Science and Technology in La Coruña, did manage to find a meeting point for these two sciences. "Astronomy and gastronomy appear to have nothing in common, except when mentioning the astronomical prices of food, however there is in fact a link between the two: Galileo Galilei", affirmed the scientist Ramón Núñez during the first round table held at the Navarre Gourmet - Enjoy vegetables congress.

“In a similar fashion in which Galileo revolutionised science, present-day chefs are conducting a gastronomical revolution, aided by new technologies", explained this scientist. And the fact is that the world of flavours has evolved considerably since vegetables were first brought from the New World. Nowadays, appliances are available to replace and improve techniques such as the Bain Marie or water bath, for example, "its name is in honour of Mary the Jewess, an alchemist who discovered this cooking method".

Galileo, as well as being an astronomer, was also a gastronomist. His daughter Maria Celeste dedicated a great deal of her correspondence to talking about her allotment, in which she grew all kinds of plants. However, Galileo could never have known about tomatoes, a vegetable which had not yet made its appearance. And he would have been even more surprised by the artificial, reconstructed tomatoes prepared by Daniel García, made from diced tomatoes, onions, green and red peppers, all marinated together. To achieve the external tomato shape and colour, the chef took three small portions of the yellow, green and red diced mixture, put them in cling film and froze them in liquid nitrogen to achieve the texture and shiny skin attributed to tomatoes.

And all this with a tomato heart. "In the end, flavours must be recognisable. When cooking, particular attention should be given to our sense of taste. Taste should be paramount, because that's what we chefs are here for", he explained, whilst emphasising the fact that "everything we put on a plate is put there for a reason, nothing is by chance".

Astronomy enjoyed a greater presence in the second dish prepared by Daniel García, a vanilla and white chocolate mousse sphere, frozen using the same technique, and representing the moon by imitating the characteristic crater relief on its surface. "In 1610 Galileo observed the sky through his telescope, instead of the earth, and discovered that the moon had an irregular surface, valleys and reliefs similar to those on earth", declared the scientist, inspired by the dish.

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