“Coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with.”

Molecular Gastronomy is a fast-growing part of the culinary world and one I enjoy. The idea is to understand the science of cooking and be able to use commercially available products such as gums and gels that are normally incorporated into food processing in a culinary, restaurant setting. Using these products allows chefs to create food that they would normally be unable to make. One of the most memorable meals I have ever had was at the holiday party that Mont Blanc hosted several years ago, where the chef incorporated molecular-gastronomy techniques into the different dishes using such ingredients as liquid nitrogen to create ice cream tableside in about sixty seconds. One of the highlights of that evening was working with the chef to make the ice cream, pouring the nitrogen on our hands and watching the “smoke” rise from our skin. Check out the pictures and story on my blog.

One of the co-founders of molecular gastronomy is Herve This, who has written a book called “Molecular Gastronomy.” It is a fascinating introduction to thinking about cooking in a scientific fashion. The book is composed of short chapters, each one detailing a new product or dish to be created. The chapters range from appetizers to entrees to desserts and drinks. One of my favorite chapters was on creating Chantilly Chocolate, a foamy chocolate dessert that is light and airy. It is made by combining chocolates and water, something not normally done since chocolate has a tendency to seize up, and whisking the mixture so that the ingredients are incorporated and assume the foamy texture. Reading this book offers a fascinating introduction to molecular gastronomy and will make you think about cooking in a very different way.

400 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide each year, making it the second most popular beverage after water.

“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.”

On my recent trip to Brazil, I visited the Coffee Museum in Santos. The museum is housed in the building where coffee traders would meet to sell their coffee: the Bolsa Official de Café, or Brazilian Coffee Exchange. It opened in 1922 and operated until 1954. With its marble floors, stained-glass windows, frescos and carved wooden seats, it is an ornate monument to the power of coffee and the wealth and prestige it brought to its purveyors. Brokers sat in the Auction Room in their reserved seats on the main floor, which were purchased just as seats on a stock exchange can be occupied only by members. Above, in the second-floor gallery, farmers, producers and associates would look down upon the activity.

The Coffee Exchange

Throughout the building are exhibits speaking to the impact of coffee on Brazil. The legend is that coffee was introduced to the country in the early 1700s, supposedly smuggled in as a few seedlings given by the lover of a French naval captain as a gift before he left French Guyana headed for South America. Whether the legend is true or not, the seedlings thrived and became a major crop. The growth of the coffee industry in Brazil helped the country develop in other ways, helping attract immigrants, establish a working class and develop a strong transportation and electrical network to ensure the rapid movement of the crop to the port.

The stained-glass ceiling

With the abolition of slavery in the 1800s, the sugar crop was diminished and the focus shifted to coffee. Brazil aggressively worked to attract immigrants from Europe to work on the coffee plantations and soon had a thriving Italian community, as well as a number of Germans, Poles, Japanese and others who chose to work in the fields. Almost 1 million Europeans came to Brazil during that period. The railway network was developed to ship loads of beans from the outlying provinces to the ports. The pace of expansion was remarkable. In 20 years, the rail network grew from 200 kilometers to more than 6,500 kilometers of track. The train station in Santos was constructed just a few blocks from the Coffee Exchange, which was the center of economic activity in Santos. Wealthy merchants who lived and traded near the building inhabited the area around the exchange. Coffee was so important that there are still mosaics of coffee beans in the streets and on the walls of buildings, and the collection box of a nearby church is even decorated with beans!

The Coffee Exchange Seats

Santos became the most important port in Brazil because of the amount of coffee that was shipped from its docks. On the docks, laborers would hoist the 60-kilogram bags on their backs, and some of them would carry as many as five sacks at a time. There is a statue of one of the dockworkers inside the exchange, showing the tremendous weight of coffee that he shouldered – almost 700 pounds at a time. And the economic impact of that coffee on Brazil was staggering. At that time, coffee passing through Santos accounted for almost 50 percent of the world’s supply and almost 60 percent of Brazil’s GDP. Today, the amount of Brazilian coffee shipped globally accounts for almost 30 percent of the world’s consumption but less than 5 percent of Brazil’s GDP, as the economy has diversified. Still, coffee remains an important crop and was the springboard that helped create Brazil’s modern economy, the eighth largest in the world. The exchange is no longer used, standing now as a museum as a testament to a time when coffee was the most important commodity in Brazil, helping modernize and develop the country and secure its place in the world.