IIT: Molecular Gastronomy

I'm on IIT's listserv. Just got this. Daley's quote is classic.

Chicago, March 31, 2006—Construction is set to begin next week on the $27 million Institute of Future Food Sciences (IFFS) at the Illinois Institute of Technology's (IIT) University Technology Park. Located on the main campus of IIT and funded by public and private sources, IFFS marks America's first research institute devoted to molecular gastronomy as pioneered by Spain's Ferran Adrià at El Bulli and Chicago's own Grant Achatz of Alinea and Homaro Canto of Moto. It is also the largest commercial investment in Chicago's South Side since the completion of US Cellular Field in 1991.

Noted experimental chefs Achatz and Canto are spearheading private fundraising efforts in partnership with venture-capital firm Reanimated Science & Technology, LLC. Tax Increment Financing has been provided through the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois.

Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley announced yesterday: "This will be the world's first and only research facility in the world devoted to the most excited developments in food. And it's right here in Chicago. We've come a long way from being the hog shoulders to the world."

"We want to go beyond machines that blow bubbles out of cheese," Achatz remarked.

Canto stated: "People are a bit sick and tired of steak and eggs. IFFS will redefine what's for breakfast."

Joanne Dudley, Vice President of External Affairs at IIT, stated: "IFFS will allow IIT's top chemical engineering faculty to partner with the food industry, to develop the fundamental knowledge, methods and strategies in the areas of particle nucleation, crystallization, and characterization that will result in faster development of "blow-me-away" food compounds Chicago is becoming known for."

IFFS will join established University Technology Park tenants Safe Cell Technologies, LLC, Phobia Technology, LLC, Chloramate, LLC, Tank Systems, and Air 2 Air, LLC.

At full build-out, University Technology Park will have 1.5 million square feet of space housing mid-sized growing, high-growth, and spin-off technology companies and research institutions.

http://www.universitytechnologypark.com ... index.html

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