Antoine Augustin Parmentier - Essay Example

Achievements In 1766 Parmentier pass his Apothecary exams famously known as gagnant-maitrise maintaining a vegetable garden to aid in his food research. In 1772 he scooped the prize of Besancon academy owing to his findings of potato nutrients. The study on the chemical and physical properties of milk earned him the prize of Royal Society Medicine in the year 1790. He also won the same prize in the year 1791 owing to his study on blood’s chemical information (Wisniak 2010, p. 144). Napoleon Bonaparte awarded him with the Legion of Honor in the year 1802.

Contributions He significantly contributed to gastronomy in several ways including establishing the chemical and physical properties of milk and potato as a food crop. On request of Societe de Medicine, Antoine-Augustin together with Deyeux carried studies on the milk of cow, woman, and goat to ascertain their chemical and physical properties. These studies enabled them to present agricultural economic aspects of milk (cheese and butter production and production of milk alcohol) and medical aspects of milk (milk’s impact on physical feelings, food, and mood) (Wisniak 2010, p. 147). Assuming bread as the base of food for a human being, he carried out studies on potatoes to determine if it was fit for consumption.

He found that potato contained starch which was sweet and healthy for consumption (Wisniak 2010, p. 146).