Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal are friends and have collaborated in the past. They all hang out with Herve This and try to come up with ways to kick your culinary ass.

Wiki article on the Basic Tastes...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_taste

Wiki article on Heston Blumenthal...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal

It's true. It's interesting, actually- just how far the scientific analysis of food has come in the past century, and how most of that advancement has been squarely in the services of EVIL. Pizza Pockets, TV Dinners, Instant Mashed Potatos, Chocolate Bars with fake chocolate, etc. It was in the early 80s, at the tail end of "Nouvelle Cuisine" that Harold McGee was doing a bit of research for a project and discovered this HUGE amount of literature that no chef had ever seen, that explained SO much about the food that we work on.

That is what prompted him to write the first edition of his book, which has launched a huge interest in the haute cuisine world in understanding the science behind what we do every day. Now he, Herve This from France, Heston Blumenthal (the chef of the Fat Duck in this clip), Ferran Adria of El Bulli, and a few others are learning what "mad science" has done to food in the past century, and finally starting to use it in the aid of culturally worthwhile cuisine.