Transcriber: Alexander Litavskiy Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
Hi, everyone. It's Matt Golinski here.
"Channeling through space and time"by Vivian Barry.
And actually I do know that Matt Golinski is in his hospital bed:
at the moment watching this live stream".
(Applause)
I'm really disappointed that I can't be with you today.
I thought I'd be able to come,
and chat to you after my surgery this week.
But my doctors had other ideas!
I am not going to ask Vivian to present my speech
as I figured she's got enough to do today.
But I did want to share with you a little more about it.
I hope you'll get ... I'll get a chance
to do the full presentation another time.
When I was asked if I'd be interested to give a TEDxTalk,
I was honored and excited, until I found out about the theme
- space...
As a chef, my main considerations when it comes to space is:
"Do I have enough of it, in a cold room to fit all the food in?
Is it safe for a group of sweaty stressed-out people
in commercial kitchens with very sharp knives in their hands,
to be working so closely together and in so little of it?
And then I thought about how much space in my mind
is filled with thoughts of food, cooking and science,
and cooking in general.
And then arrived in a strange and distant world
of molecular gastronomy.
I was going to spend the majority of my time
talking about molecular gastronomy
and how much I hate it.
(Laughter)
And how apart from the initials M. G. being the same as my initials,
which is kinda cool,
molecular gastronomy may as well be something from outer space.
Unfamilliar, unnatural, complicated
and in a cooking skills galaxy far, far away.
I was planning on spending my fifteen minutes
making fun of soils, foams, gels and spheres,
and back up my argument for using the best possible ingredients
simply and with respect.
And after a few days researching the history of the discipline
and the people behind it, and the techniques,
and the chemicals and the equipment,
before I knew what was happening,
I was online, credit card in hand,
ordering this molecular gastronomy ultimate kit from the US!
(Laughter)
And the following day, I bought myself a vacuum sealer
and a thermal immersion circulator.
(Laughter)
I made a few dishes, conducted a few experiments.
And you know, I created a dish that I was really proud of!
It may not look like it, but this is actually figs, prosciutto,
black pepper, basil leaves and olive oil.
I passed the fig through a fine strainer, I added
sodium alginate to it, I passed it through the strainer again
and put it to a syringe and I dripped it,
a drop at a time in a bowl of water,
containing a small amount of calcium chloride.
And the droplets developed a fine membrane around them,
which gave it this caviar-like texture.
And then I infused basil and pepper into olive oil
and processed it, strained it, processed it again with maltodextrin
to turn it into a powder. And as the powder hits your tongue,
the maltodextrin melts
and turns it back into olive oil.
I shedded the prosciutto finely, so I could call it Taglialini,
like the thin pasta.
And as far as I'm aware, this dish is the only one of its kind
in the whole world.
People have been wrapping figs with ham for centuries.
But this is a dish that I've invented. I own it.
I am the only person who's ever eaten it.
(Laughter)
And that dish is a little piece of history.
Something I created in my own mind,
in my own space, and time
for no one else's satisfaction but my own.
And it might as well have been made on the moon.
I learned that it's possible to teach an old cook new tricks.
And to open the mind to new and inspiring ideas.
And that's exactly what TEDx is all about.
I learned that it's possible to make space in your brain
to change opinions and attitudes.
And my experiences, since the accident, have also taught me
the importance of making quantum brain shifts
and the value of embracing the unknown.
Although I'm still passionate about simple fresh ingredients,
cooked well,
now I'm prepared to entertain the concept of molecular gastronomy,
who knows what are the cooking frontiers I will discover.
Whether it's the simple act of cooking toast or putting together
a more technical creation,
the process of creation and cooking
is afterall, it's a kind of science.
When food changes its structure and appearance
by the process of heating or cooling,
a kind of magic and alchemy which is created,
where pleasure is derived from eating the end results.
So, as Vivian leaves the stage
and makes place for the other speakers today,
I wanted to thank you all for coming in and for listening to my thoughts.
It turns out that food and cooking isn't really that far away
from the topic of space, after all.
And that's why I love being a chef.
And I'll finish with this quote from Brillat-Savarin,
a French lawyer, a politician and an epicure:
"The discovery of a new dish does far more for human happiness
than the discovery of a new star".
(Applause)