

Hervé This: The world's weirdest chef, building food molecule by molecule - gwern
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/herve-this-the-worlds-weirdest-chef

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tptacek
Some Dave Arnold on Herve This (no love lost):

[http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/06/01/molecular-
gastronomy...](http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/06/01/molecular-gastronomy-
is-just-a-long-four-letter-word/)

Arnold considers This a huckster.

 _This constantly says he invented (along with Dr. Kurti) a new branch of
science, namely MG. Never mind that McGee’s seminal work was published in
1984, or that people have been worried about the same problems for hundred of
years. This relegates them all to being “precursors to MG.” I actually heard
him say once that, “Molecular Gastronomy did not exist prior to 1988, because
that’s when I invented the term” – forget that MG doesn’t appear on any of the
of the Erice organizers correspondence till 1991. This statement shows This’s
strange fascination with semantics. He is basically claiming that the field
didn’t exist because the current name that This tirelessly promotes hadn’t yet
been coined. Maybe I should rename physics “Fusicks” and say I have invented a
new branch of science._

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geographomics
Puts me in mind of Asimov's short story _Good Taste_.

