Life and professional activities of chef аnd restaurateur Homaro Cantu (1976–2015)

Abstract

The article analyses the life and professional activity of one of the most famous American chefs and restaurateurs, a representative of molecular gastronomy, Homaro Cantu (1976–2015). Obsessed with the diversity of food forms, Homaro Cantu was set to change the restaurant experience: to redefine service, the way customers interact with food, what can and cannot be consumed. One of his main ideas was to get rid of cardboard or plastic packaging for juices by treating fruit with an ultrasonic wave generator. Homaro Cantu also actively researched the effect of miracle berry (synsepalum dulcificum). This small West African fruit contains miraculin, a complex molecule that temporarily disrupts the sweet and sour receptors on the human tongue. On Future Food TV series (2010) chef Cantu demonstrated how tasteless but edible plants can be used to mimic familiar flavours in foods by tricking the appropriate receptors. In 2013, Homaro Cantu published the book «The Miracle Berry Diet Cookbook», where he presented more than 150 dishes where it is suitable to use this miracle berry. Homaro Cantu was a media personality who regularly participated in television shows. In his media appearances, he advocated ending world hunger and believed that his edible paper creation and miracle berry could play a significant role in achieving this goal. One of his projects was consulting with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Elon Musk’s company SpaceX on 3D printing food for astronauts and growing crops on board spaceships. At the beginning of 2015, Homaro Cantu was busy with his famous establishments «Moto», «Berrista», his own research company «Cantu Designs», a new brewery, a non-profit mentoring program that he ran in honour of Chef Charlie Trotter, trying to support each of his projects. Despite all this, friends and colleagues did not notice anything strange in Homaro’s behaviour. On April 14, 2015, Homaro Cantu hanged himself in the large warehouse where the brewery was about to open. In 2016, Brett A. Schwartz directed a documentary «Insatiable: The Homaro Cantu Story». After his death, the book «Moto: The Cookbook» (2017) was published. Homaro Cantu entered the history of world gastronomy as a true innovator and visionary, whose creative ideas continue to be actively explored and used.