Match made in kitchen

Culinology is the word on everyone's lips at National Starch's new Food Creation Centre. But resist the urge to roll your eyes to heaven as yet another seemingly non-sensical marketing term attempts to weave its way into the modern language. National Starch is quick to explain that the term, which is borrowed from our American cousins, has been around for years and forms the basis of the US Research Chefs Association. Culinology refers to the blending of the culinary arts and food technology and National Starch hopes that it will help the company to improve its development offering to customers.

The principal applications technologist of the firm's wholesome and culinary division, Janette Callagan now meets regularly with National Starch development chef Chris Lightfoot, but the route to culinary and technical harmony hasn't always been smooth.

"The first time I came across a chef in a real-life situation was really quite scary because I was used to talking about technical areas," says Callagan, describing her first encounter with Lightfoot. "Suddenly I'm in a room with this guy who's asking loads of questions and I can't show him a PowerPoint presentation because he won't stand still!"

The language of food

To adopt the culinology approach, Callaghan had to revisit her food terminology. "I didn't even know how to talk to him because I wasn't used to the language - it was all about texture and mouthfeel," she says. "We had to find a common ground and that is part and parcel of what National Starch wants to do."

Lightfoot explains why culinology is at the heart of the business. "There are development teams out there that still work the way I did at the end of the nineties, where the development chef just cooked a great dish and it didn't matter whether it could be manufactured. Then it would be passed on to the technologist, the commercial team, the process team and any issues would be their problem," he says. He claims that this is no longer a sustainable attitude. "I'm starting to see those chefs struggle because they're just showing customers a great dish and then the customer is complaining further down the line that the [manufactured] end product isn't the dish they were shown at the start, which was cooked up in a kitchen."

And it isn't just chefs who need to build bridges in order for culinology to work, many technical experts are strangers to the culinary world. "A few years ago I did a revision course at Manchester Metropolitan University and I was shocked at some of the young people who were starting out their food science degrees," says Callagan. "Yes, they had their A-levels in chemistry, physics, biology and maths, but when the lecturer asked them what ingredients were needed to make a mayonnaise, they didn't have the faintest idea!"

A hands-on approach

Now that National Starch has grasped hold of the culinology concept, the firm is relying on the Creation Centre to draw customers into its new way of working. The centre is designed to give manufacturers a more hands-on approach to development, with a wealth of ingredients at their fingertips and has been built alongside the company's existing European Technical Centre. Callagan is eager to get as many customers involved as possible.

"We want to put the new facility through its paces," she says. "We want to show, not only internal business what this is about, but we need to be showing our customers as well, so we're trying to drag everyone up to speed very quickly. This is a fantastic facility we have here and we are keen to bridge the gap between our food scientists and chefs." FM