My own experience watching the food network tells me that if you use a lot of science (i.e. new methods of cooking or getting down to the molecular specifics) in your cooking then you are a food chemist.

Well, I think it depends on the cooks. Sometimes cooks use certain techniques or cooking methods that release certain chemicals or tastes in food, which I would consider food chemistry, much more than simply cooking. If your doing the kind of thinking that Alton Brown does on Good Eats while you're cooking, then I'd say you're a Food Chemist. There are certainly a lot of people who cook for a liviing that don't look out for these important factors when they cook, so I wouldn't call them "Food Chemists"....

Well, I think it depends on the cooks. Sometimes cooks use certain techniques or cooking methods that release certain chemicals or tastes in food, which I would consider food chemistry, much more than simply cooking. If your doing the kind of thinking that Alton Brown does on Good Eats while you're cooking, then I'd say you're a Food Chemist. There are certainly a lot of people who cook for a liviing that don't look out for these important factors when they cook, so I wouldn't call them "Food Chemists".

Yes and no.
In cooking one uses reactions and combinations to produce taste and texture.
However sometimes foods are placed alongside each other e.g. figs and blue stilton. The chemistry occurs in the mouth of the consumer.
Lastly how about a solitary and beautifully ripe peach. Only a philistine would dream of dressing it up. No chemistry at all. Just a piece of good ba...

Yes and no.
In cooking one uses reactions and combinations to produce taste and texture.
However sometimes foods are placed alongside each other e.g. figs and blue stilton. The chemistry occurs in the mouth of the consumer.
Lastly how about a solitary and beautifully ripe peach. Only a philistine would dream of dressing it up. No chemistry at all. Just a piece of good basic food.