Preserving the food from decay was the obsession of the man since the moment he found himself in a less rich environment and when he "discovered" the seasons. There are 3 main methods to preserve the food: desiccation, fat, sugar. They all correspond to major cultural cycles of the perfumer's art. The notion of Leather and Skin was developped in a previous article.
Embalming with fat
The fat, its texture, scent and properties have a universal value for us. In the human history it is as important as fire. First there was the natural fat on our skin in a time when hygiene was different and the tensioactive products less potent. Shower yourself for several days without soap or any other product and you will understand. Then, the animal fat and the vegetal oils were used to preserve food in almost all cuisines and they were a major element in the diet. For many centuries, before the invention of alcohol and its later use for perfumes, it was the best method to extract and preserve scent, used mainly for the flowers. Raw materials extracted with fat through enfleurage were the basis of luxury perfumes until the first part of the XXth century and they brought with them their scent. But the role of the "fat" in our olfactory suffered 2 major changes in the XIXth century - more hygiene whici brought a significant change compared to the previous centuries and the spread of cosmetic industry with its creams rich in oils and fats. By 2000 we had less fat in our dish, concerned with health and body shape, but more fat on our body because people started to use more cosmetics since ever. The scent of fat, crucial for us, had simply changed the medium. There are 2 major cultural reasons why any real perfume could not be launched today by l'Oréal, at least not conceived in the same building. When you work in a building that is saturated with the scent of fats used for cosmetic purposes you cannot conceive perfumes with a huge quantity of floral absolutes. Just look inside the composition of jasmine absolute and you'll understand immediately. The molecules already present in the air have a subliminal influence on those who decide at l'Oréal and are orienting their choices. In fact, their perfumes are similar to the scents used in their shampoos because they both use light fresh fruity and very volatile molecules that are able to cover the base. One should not consider L'Oréal as a conspiracy to destroy the world. They simply cannot conceive good perfumes because they are surrounded by the wrong scents. For this reason, fine fragrances should always be conceived in different physical environment.
What happened since 2000, with a change in our diet and in our cosmetics, simply means that our culture has changed the notion of "embalming through fat" with something else.
Embalming with sugar
We preserve our food with sugar and who doesn't know the candied fruits and the delicious oriental pastry with honey. The art of preserving with sugar and the creation of syrups and jams was related in the past to the perfumer's art, as we can see in a work of Nostradamus, dedicated to cosmetics, perfumes and jams, all in the same title. Today we say "gourmandise", but sweets were just another form of preserving the taste of the "forbidden fruit". Remember: the "inventors" of alcohol could not preserve the flavour of fruits in liquors because they were forbidden to drink it. The Orient, with its hot weather when fat quickly goes rancid, became sugary.
Unlike fats, who started to be used extensively elsewhere than in our well examined dish, the sugar and the flavors associated with it did not. Since 2000 sugar started to be banned from our culinary habits and from our drinks, everything is "light" and "zero".
Today, unlike 20 years ago, a market in Paris is full with fresh fruits all the 365 days of a year, people buy more natural juices they did in the past. But something is very different compared to the emotion of picking the first peach in your garden or receiving a banana from abroad. Fruits from today lack intensity, they are present visually but the effect is not the same. The basic ingredient to "enhance" the taste of a fruit is sugar, but sugar is bad. For this reason, when perfumers have discovered how to create fruity perfumes with strong sweet, veltol and furaneol notes, they gave the solution to a cultural paradox. We do not need to preserve something that is around us every day but we cannot feel the abundance.
We are in an era that I call "sugar embalming" when everything is and becomes candied. Since the 90's, the fruity notes have started to change the top note of the perfumes. Fragrances were sold in a new type of stores where the first impact was more important than the whole story. But when gradually fruity notes became more important, something else occurred. They were too volatile and even if they were coupled with musk, they were not strong enough in a competitive market with an increasing number of launches. Some perfumes are not bought in Sephora because people can barely smell them. They needed something to make them more intense and recognizable. This "invention", that I credit to a master perfumer from Firmenich, came from the food. It was "sugar" and all those special molecules that are present in small amounts in natural fruits (like pineapple) or can occur during the heating of a jam. From now on, all the emotions inside a perfume would be surrounded by crystallized sugar.
PS: The notion of embalming is also quintessential for the baroque cuisine, but I will not enter this subject for the moment.
PS: The notion of embalming is also quintessential for the baroque cuisine, but I will not enter this subject for the moment.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
