Spherification and Molecular Gastronomy
A lot people involved in Molecular Gastronomy (the modern cooking revolution, Modernism, Molecular Cooking, Techo-Emoti{ve,onal} Cooking) use the term spherification to describe the technique of forming food into spheres. Some folks hate the term Molecular Gastronomy (for many reasons, some good, some bad) and rail against its use to describe a style of cooking. A lot of energy is expended debating the term, or attempting to change this part of the culinary zeitgeist. While it rails against one word, it invents another. That's right. Spherification is not a word. The closest Merriam Webster provides (in Mar. 2009) is: sphere Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): sphered; spher·ing Date: 1602 1 : to place in a sphere or among the spheres : ensphere 2 : to form into a sphere Do I really care about this? No, I actually like that language is fluid and that made up words can become real words. Up next, actual spherification sphering.