Hervé This is a chemist geek. He’s a chef geek. He’s two, two, two geeks in one. Hervé This got a degree in physical chemistry in 1980 and went off to study cooking. Among his accomplishments is the reduction of 451 classic French sauces to 23 distinct types. That’s some reduction. He does cooking formulas.
In 2001, This came up with a formal system of classification for what happens when foods are mixed, baked, whipped, fried, sautéed in lime juice, and so forth. It shows, for example, how the 451 classical French sauces break down into 23 distinct types. More important, the system allows the creation and pairing of billions of novel, potentially tasty dishes. To demonstrate how, This randomly generated a formula describing the physical microstructure of a previously nonexistent dish, then asked chef Pierre Gagnaire to plug real ingredients into it. The result — a bitter orange, scallop, and smoked-tea concoction — delighted Gagnaire’s customers.