Are microorganisms the new tool in the kitchen?

Chefs are creating entirely new flavours by harnessing the ability of bacteria and fungi to biochemically transform their growing environments into tasty small molecules.

The creative role of microorganisms in modern cuisine has been featured in an article published in the journal Nature Microbiology. Arielle Johnson, a flavour chemist and head of research at MAD, a food culture non-profit organisation with a close relationship to the restaurant noma, in Copenhagen, writes that fermentation — loosely defined as the transformation of food by microorganisms — has been used to preserve food for thousands of years. However, she suggests the current artisanal food microbiology movement stems from a renewed “appreciation for old techniques and their reinterpretation in the kitchen”.

Renowned restaurants such as noma and Momofuku in New York have transformed their kitchens into makeshift fermentation laboratories, providing a new cooking tool enabling chefs to work with bacteria, fungi and algae to transform ingredients and create new flavours.