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WHEN , a chef with three Michelin stars, and , the man who coined the term 鈥渕olecular gastronomy鈥�, are standing before you, you expect a decent meal. A tender loin of venison, a touch of samphire, perhaps an 鈥渁ir鈥� or two.

Instead, This opens up a brown leather medical bag packed with bottles that have labels like 鈥淢altodextrin鈥�, 鈥淐itric acid鈥� and 鈥淎llyl isothiocyanate鈥�. He pours a few teaspoons of various powders into a pan, adds some water and heats it all up. A few minutes later, he presents a beige pancake. It tastes like meat and potato.

I鈥檓 in Paris, at the awards for the second International Contest of Note by Note Cooking. Whereas molecular gastronomy uses scientific techniques to induce weird and wonderful chemical transformations in traditional ingredients, note-by-note cooking goes a step further: it uses chemical reactions to produce meals from chemical compounds and cooking alone. 鈥淲hen you create dishes from compounds, you can design the shape, the colour, the taste, the odour and the nutritional aspects of your dish from scratch,鈥� says This.

Although still in its infancy, the concept goes beyond artistic endeavour. With the population expected to increase by 2 billion people by 2050, there is a desperate need for new ways of creating more sustainable food.

Note-by-note cooking isn鈥檛 the only concept hoping to shake up the global food industry. A number of new companies are engineering alternative foods in the attempt to overcome the ethical, environmental and economic problems that burden our food chain.

The first official note-by-note dish was created by Gagnaire in 2009. It consisted of a crispy caramel strip, lemon sorbet and jelly pearls that tasted like apple 鈥� minus any caramel, lemon or apple. To create such a dish, you first have to understand what chemicals give foods their taste, structure and aroma, using techniques such as mass spectrometry to identify the constituent parts. These building blocks can be extracted from animal or plant tissues or made artificially.

For example, maltodextrin, a chemical that improves the texture of low-fat foods and beer, is produced by hydrolysing starch. Methional, a flavour compound that tastes like potato, is synthesised in the lab.

Such structural and flavour compounds are then combined, along with any desired vitamins and minerals, and cooked to make an edible substance 鈥� one that could have, say, the texture of a meringue but the flavour of roast pork. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not trying to recreate a chicken or a carrot: it wouldn鈥檛 be as good as the real thing,鈥� says This. 鈥淚t is much more exciting to investigate dishes that have never been envisioned using traditional ingredients. Whole new flavour continents can be discovered.鈥�

鈥淲hole new flavour continents can be discovered by exploring untraditional ingredients鈥�

During the awards ceremony, This gives me a taste of some typical compounds used in note-by-note cooking. I dip my finger into a jar of powdery 2-heptanone 鈥� it tastes exactly like Gorgonzola cheese. Next, a few grains of allyl isothiocyanate explode in my mouth like Dijon mustard.

There were 73 entries this year, including one from a 10-year-old boy from Belgium. One prize was won by and his colleagues at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland. Their meal was roast chicken tuiles with rosemary pearls, a lemon mash and a potato meringue. 鈥淲e wanted to make foods that sounded familiar,鈥� says Doyle. The dish combined structural compounds such as gellan gum 鈥� a polysaccharide produced by bacteria 鈥� with flavour chemicals including 2-methyl鈥�3鈥揻uranthiol, which gives the taste of chicken, and verbenone and borneol to add a hint of rosemary (see 鈥�Roast dinner with a twist鈥�).

Rather than providing meals with all the essential nutrients, the chefs presenting their fare were more concerned with demonstrating that such chemical cuisine was a feasible concept. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to get the idea across that we don鈥檛 have to grow food products, we can make good alternatives with the same nutrients and constituent parts in a lab,鈥� says Doyle.

They鈥檙e not alone. , a beige concoction of 30 ingredients that is claimed to satisfy all the body鈥檚 nutritional needs, has been developed by Silicon Valley software engineers who claim they have no time to eat normally.

In San Francisco, food scientists at are trying to create the perfect egg 鈥� with no chickens in sight. They are analysing thousands of plant proteins to identify those that can be used to replicate an egg鈥檚 taste, nutritional value and cooking properties. Their aim is to create egg-based products without needing to intensively farm chickens. Their first product 鈥� an egg-free mayonnaise called 鈥� is now sold in Whole Foods shops in the US and Europe.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a real ethical issue with the production of eggs and the condition that caged birds live in. If we can replace some foods that normal consumers eat using plant proteins then we can relieve some of those issues,鈥� says Lee Chae, Hampton Creek鈥檚 director of bioinformatics.

Protein library

Because intensive farming of just a few plant species can harm biodiversity and reduce the richness of soil, Chae says the company aims to identify several different species with the same functional properties. 鈥淲hen we have a large enough library of proteins, we hope we can switch between using different plants each year for the same product.鈥�

The company was recently endorsed by Bill Gates, who said that it offers a potential solution to the increasing and ultimately unsustainable demand for food. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also funds in California, which is experimenting with new technologies to turn plants into foods that taste indistinguishable from beef and chicken.

Alongside sustainability, such products may offer a healthier alternative to traditional foods. For example, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, another company funded by Gates, has produced a salt product with only a fraction of the sodium, and Hampton Creek鈥檚 egg substitutes contain less cholesterol than the real thing. Designers of note-by-note meals, on the other hand, can include extra nutrients or remove potentials allergens at will. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 want these things in a note-by-note dish, you just don鈥檛 put them in,鈥� says This.

Not everyone is convinced. 鈥淲e鈥檙e generally opposed to these developments,鈥� says , policy director at the UK鈥檚 Sustainable Food Trust. While he admits that using plant proteins to replace meat and eggs might go some way to addressing problems with food supply and sustainability, he says there are hidden costs associated with any food production.

For example, you might buy a cheap meat-substitute made with plant protein, but the pesticides that protected those plants have to be removed from drinking water, which is incorporated into the price you pay for your water bill. If there were policies which worked out the hidden costs of the food we eat, then the price of food would change and people might eat more sustainably, he says.

The challenge to create a sustainable food supply for the growing population is so large that all efforts are needed, says , professor of environmental science and sustainability at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is also chairman of the , which last week brought together scientists, businesses and politicians to discuss solutions to the sustainable food problem.

鈥淚f there is a niche for synthetic meats or eggs then that niche is welcome,鈥� Rockstr枚m says, 鈥渂ut we can鈥檛 fall into the trap of screwing with our climate and then ignoring it by creating high-tech food sources 鈥� we have to work on the system we鈥檝e got.鈥�

While these alternative foods cannot be a true substitute, Rockstr枚m says, they can be a complement. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 certainly an exciting one.鈥�

Leader: 鈥�Time to chow down on 脿 la carte chemicals鈥�

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐hemical cuisine鈥�