Herv THIS

Hervé THIS
Hervé This, Physical Chemist at INRA, is Director of the Molecular Gastronomy Team, in the
Laboratory of Chemistry, AgroParisTech, as well as Scientific Director of the “Food Science & Culture”
Foundation (French Academy of Sciences).
After his Degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie de Paris (ESPCI) and
graduated in Modern Literature (University Paris IV), Hervé This began his studies in the laboratory
that he had at home, while he was pursuing a career in Scientific Publishing, first at Belin Publishing
inc, then at Pour la Science (he remains its Scientific Adviser), the French Edition of Scientific
American. At the same time, he was collaborating to Panorama (Radio program on France Culture),
and was Scientific Director of the scientific TV series Archimedes (Arte) and Pi=3.14 (France 5).
He created the scientific discipline called Molecular Gastronomy in 1988, with Nicholas Kurti (19081998), then professor of physics in Oxford.
After his PhD (1995) on La gastronomie moléculaire et physique, with a jury including a chef and two
Nobel Prize winners (Pierre Gilles de Gennes and Jean-Marie Lehn), he was invited by Jean-Marie
Lehn to conduct his studies at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Interactions Moléculaires, of the Collège
de France.
He moved to this lab full time in 2000, being appointed by INRA in 2000.
In April 2006, while he was moving his lab to AgroParisTech, the French Academy of Sciences asked
him to create Fondation Science & Culture Alimentaire, to which he was appointed Scientific Director.
This foundation has as objectives the development of food culture in all parts of France (as a start),
and the stimulation of research and studies around culinary issues.
Hervé This has been frequently requested by French Ministries (National Education, Research,
Agriculture, Industry) to develop projects: new curricula for teaching culinary practices, new ways of
teaching science in schools and in colleges, creating an Advanced Studies Institute for Gastronomy…
He is also the director of the International Workshops on Molecular Gastronomy N. Kurti, of the
Journées françaises de gastronomie moléculaire, of monthly seminars of molecular gastronomy. In
2008, he was the president of the scientific committee and of the organizational committee of
EuroFoodChem XIV, appointed by the Food Chemistry Division of EuCheMS.
He runs Courses on Molecular Gastronomy, and delivers many lectures. He writes regular columns in
journals, and he is the author of several books : Les secrets de la casserole, Révélations
gastronomiques, La casserole des enfants, Science et gastronomie, Casseroles et éprouvettes, Traité
élémentaire de cuisine, Six lettres gourmandes, Maths'6, Petits propos culinaires et savants, La
cuisine, c’est de l’amour, de l’art, de la technique, Construisons un repas, De la Science aux
fourneaux, La Sagesse du chimiste, Science, technologie, technique (culinaires) : quelles relations ?
Honorary member of various culinary Academies, Member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France;
Member of the Académie de Stanislas; Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of
Belgium; Member of the European Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, he is the recipient of many
awards such as the Grand Prix des Sciences de l’Aliment by the International Association of
Gastronomy . He belongs to many scientific committees.
Hervé This is Officer in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Officer in the Ordre du Mérite Agricole, Officer in
the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and Knight in the Order of the Légion d’Honneur.
Some scientific publications:
Hervé This, La gastronomie moléculaire et physique, in La Science des Denrées Alimentaires, Food Science, Jacques Aghion ed., CSIPWIC 1996, Liège, Commissariat général aux Relations internationales de la communauté française de Belgique (CGRI), p. 7‐11. Hervé This, La gastronomie moléculaire, in LʹActualité chimique, Juin‐Juillet 1995, p. 42‐46. Hervé This, Can a cooked egg white be « uncooked »? , in The Chemical Intelligencer (Springer Verlag), octobre 1996, p. 51. Juillet 1997 : Hervé This, From Chocolate Béarnaise to « Chocolat Chantilly », The Chemical Intelligencer, Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 52‐57. Liebig et la cuisson de la viande : une remise à jour d’idées anciennes, Hervé This et Georges Bram, in C.R. Acad. Sci, Paris, Série IIc, p. 675‐680, Novembre 1998. Hervé This, Questions of temperature, international Journal of sciences of wine and wineyard (special issue: tasting) , juillet 1999. Hervé This, Lipides et goût, in Oléagineux, corps gras, lipides (OCL), Juillet‐Août 1999, vol.6, n°4, pp.330‐335. La gélatine face aux extraits et aux bouillons de viande (H. This, G. Bram, Cl. Viel), in L’Actualité chimique, Novembre 2000, 50‐54. Hervé This, La gastronomie moléculaire : la chimie n’oublie pas le citoyen qui cuisine, in L’actualité chimique, Novembre 2000, p. 58‐60. Hervé This, Molecular gastronomy, in Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English, 2002, 41, N°1, pp. 83‐88. Hervé This, Les rendez‐vous du goût, Pédiatrie Pratique, N°144, janvier 2003. Hervé This, 2003, La gastronomie moléculaire, Sciences des aliments, Vol. 23, N°2, 187‐198. Hervé This, Georges Bram, Justus Liebig et les extraits de viande, Sciences des aliments, 23 (2003), 577‐587. Hervé This, Molecular Gastronomy : a scientific look to cooking, Volume II of Life Sciences in Transition, Special Issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology. Hervé This, Molecular gastronomy, in Nature Materials, January 2005, Volume 4 Number 1, pp 5‐8. Hervé This, Modelling dishes and exploring culinary ‘precisions’: the two issues of Molecular Gastronomy, British Journal of Nutrition, Volume 93, April 2005, S139‐S146. Hervé This, Cooking in schools, cooking in universities, in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, Volume 5, Number 3, pp. 48‐50 (2006). Anne Cazor, Catherine Deborde, Annick Moing, Dominique Rolin, Hervé This, Sucrose, Glucose and Fructose Extraction in Aqueous Carrot Root Extracts Prepared at Different Temperatures by Means of Direct NMR Measurements, Journal of agricultural and food chemistry , 2006, 54, 4681‐4686 (10.1021/jf060144i). Hervé This, Robert Méric, Anne Cazor, Lavoisier and meat stock, C.R.A.S Chimie (2006), 11‐12, 1511‐1515, doi:10.1016/j.crci.2006.07.002. Hervé This, Food for tomorrow? How the scientific discipline of molecular gastronomy could change the way we eat, EMBO reports 7, 11, 1062–1066 (2006), doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7400850 Hervé This, Pourquoi la cuisine n’est pas une science?, in Sciences des aliments, vol. 26, N°3, 2006, pp. 201‐210. Hervé This, Let’s have an egg, in Eggs in Cookery, Proceedings of the Oxford Food Symposium on Food and Cookery 2006, Prospect Books, Totnes, 2007, pp 250‐258. Septembre 2007 : Hervé This, Molecular gastronomy, programme, results and international development, Proceedings of EuroFoodChem XIV. Septembre 2007 : Food Chemistry, a molecular based science, Introduction des Proceedings of EuroFoodChem XIV, Paris. Hervé This, Une histoire chimique du bouillon, in Mémoires de l’Académie de Stanislas, Nancy (à paraître) Février 2009 : El vino y la gastronomia molecular, ACE Magazine of Enology, http://www.acenologia.com/ciencia10 1_1.htm Audrey Tardieu, Hervé This, Comparison of Mono‐ and Disaccharides Release in Aqueous Solutions by Raw or Fried Dice of Onion (Allium cepa L.) Bulbs using Quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (qNMR), Journal of Food Science (accepté). Audrey Tardieu, Walter de Man, Hervé This, 1D and 2D 1H‐NMR analysis of taste compounds extracted from raw or fried Allium cepa L. tissues. Methodological questions, in Proceedings of NMR in Food 2008 Congress, Iceland. Hervé This, Molecular Cooking and After, Proceedings de la 5th International Whey Conference, Paris, Septembre 2008. Audrey Tardieu, Alice Guerez, Sidarin Phana, Walter de Man, Hervé This, Quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (qNMR) analysis of mono‐ and disaccharides in aqueous solutions obtained by soaking raw or fried dice of onion bulbs (Allium cepa L.), soumis au Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, September 2008. Hervé This, Twenty years of Molecular Gastronomy, Japanese Journal of Cookery Science (à paraître). Hervé This, When shall we have « comparative Molecular Gastronomy » ?, Japanese Journal of Cookery Science (à paraître) Hervé This, O. Leveque, Jean‐Pierre Haigneré, Thomas Bouvet, Food for space, Proceedings of the Glasgow International Space Meeting (submitted). Hervé This, Molecular Gastronomy, a chemical look to cooking, in Accounts of Chemical Research (invited/submitted). Hervé This, Descriptions formelles, pour penser et pour la formulation, in L’Actualité chimique, Septembre 2008, N°322, 8, pp. 11‐14. H. This, Dans la famille « mousses au chocolat »…, L’Actualité chimique, Mai 2008, 319, 5, pp. 5‐
9. Hervé This, L’œuf dur : un festin de réactions chimiques, in L’Actualité chimique, Février 2008, N°316, 2, pp. 5‐9. H. This, A. Cazor, D. Trinh (2008). Color Evolution of Aqueous Solutions Obtained by Thermal Processing of Carrot (Daucus carota L.) Roots: Influence of Light. Journal of Food Science, 2008, 73 (4) , E176–E182 doi:10.1111/j.1750‐3841.2008.00724.x Scholten, E.; van der Linden, E.; This, H. The Life of an Anise‐Flavored Alcoholic Beverage: Does Its Stability Cloud or Confirm Theory?, in Langmuir; (Research Article); 2008; 24(5); 1701‐
1706. DOI: 10.1021/la702186g Juan Valverde, Hervé This. 1H NMR quantitative determination of photosynthetic pigments from green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2008, 56(2), 314‐320, doi. 10.1021/jf070277j. Janvier 2008. Juan Valverde, Marc Vignolle, Hervé This, Quantitative determination of photosynthetic pigments in green beans using thin‐layer chromatography and flatbed scanner as densitometer, in Journal of Chemical Education, September 2007, vol. 84, No. 9, pp. 1505‐1507. Hervé This, Formal descriptions for formulation, in International Journal of Pharmaceutics (Int. J. Pharmaceut.) (2007), vol 344/1‐2, pp. 4‐8, doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2007.07.046 Hervé This, Is chemistry killing culinary tradition, Proceedings of the Conference Why Chemistry?, Krakow, Poland (2007). Janvier 2008 : La chimie des aliments et du goût, in L’Actualité chimique, N°315, 1, pp. 7‐9. Hervé This, Histoire d’une pièce d’argent, in L’Actualité chimique, Janvier 2008, N°315, 1, pp. 9‐
11.