A New Mountain Cookery

This is very interesting. A blog called "A New Mountain Cookery" is worth a serious read: http://newmountaincookery.typepad.com/a_new_mountain_cookery/2008/06/the-red-hen.html

Their Mission Statement

"Our mission is to provide a collaborative network through which chefs, food-lovers, food scientists, and other interested parties will have the opportunity to explore the culinary area of modern cuisine and its role within the larger food community of Virginia, America, and the world. The group will focus on three key components:

• Tradition

As with any new philosophy, understanding the past is equal, if not paramount to
understanding the present and the future. We will examine historical approaches to
cuisine, as well as aspects of food cultures and anthropology with the hope of combining the old with the new.

• Innovation

Modern cuisine is constantly changing, and one must be on top of the ever-changing
environment in order to understanding where the movement is going. Some of the
techniques that will be studied are sous-vide cooking and food texture modification,
which entails an extensive list of processes.

• Collaboration

The movement will focus itself on the importance of forming an effort that will involve experts from any field that could be vital to the growth of knowledge within modern cuisine. Chemists, local farmers, and area merchants, not to mention chefs of this style of food, would all provide valuable insight to the processes and ideas that we hope to examine and study. In this field, the more collaboration, the better, and the group will become more useful as it grows in size and scope."