The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking

daeley writes "Wired has a feature on Alton Brown, host of FoodNetwork's Good Eats and favorite chef of geek foodies everywhere: The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking. AB has his own website, of course, and his own blog, of course. (If you are familiar with Alton's distinctive delivery, you can hear his voice as you read. My only complaint is that he doesn't write anywhere near often enough.) He's also been interviewed on Slashdot. From the Wired article: 'Brown, 41, is a culinary hacker, the poster boy for a movement that's coming to a boil in kitchens across America. The essence: Cooking is a science, not an art, informed by chemistry, physics, and biology. "Everything in food is science," Brown says. "The only subjective part is when you eat it."'"

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A similar book with recipes

[snooo53]

A similar book I have read and enjoyed is How to Read a French Fry (and other intriguing Kitchen Science) by Russ Parsons.

If you like this,

[nexthec]

you should check out What Einstein Told His Cook, a interesting, informed and somewhat scientific approach to cooking in the kitchen. To quote a two line review: " Science in the kitchen. Wolke, a columnist for the Washington Post, offers explanations, humour and some pretty engaging recipes. Unlike many other books of this nature, Wolke wields a lively and light pen."

You might also want to check out..

[gadders]

Heston Blumenthal, the improbably named chef of the two-Michelin-star rated Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, England. He has a show on the Discovery Channel in the UK called Kitchen Chemistry where he discusses "the science behind cooking and how it affects the way that we perceive taste and flavour."

I've only eaten at his brasserie, but the food was superb. This chap knows what he's doing.

Another GREAT Q&A with Alton Brown

[Corvus]

eGullet hosted a great Q&A with Alton Brown recently.

You Miss the Point

[Greyfox]

Alton's show introduces you to some basic concepts of how stuff works in the kitchen. His show won't make you a three-star chef but it can free you from TV dinners every night. Even if you don't care to tinker, his canned recipes work right out of the box, although some of them do take some tinkering up here in Denver.

If all his show does is make people think about their equipment and help them get over their fear of getting that ol' wok extra-freaky-hot, he's done more than any other TV chef I've ever seen.

Re:finally!

[lifebouy]

I agree. the processes behind cooking may be science, but the act of cooking is art, or at the very least talent and skill. Unless you are cooking only one dish at a time, there is considerable juggling and timing involved. Baking and Pastry are an art. Some chefs can just look at the dough and tell whether the cake will rise or fall. Others (most of them) are hoping with crossed fingers, no matter what they say. Knowing which spices to use, when, and how much is not science. It's art, like knowing how much paint to put where on that oil painting. Fixing a broken sauce is something most cannot do. Some chefs, however, can fix just about anything. Those are artists. Oh sure, there's science behind it, just like there's science to mixing colors and making canvas and determining oil paint viscosity. But painting is still an art no matter how much science you throw at it and so is cooking.

Alton Brown does rock though.

I am a Food Scientist

[DeThude]

and I *like* Alton. The parent poster has missed the point of Good Eats. AB tries to give the viewer some idea of the underlying chemistry, microbiology, and thermodynamics involved in cooking so that the viewer can use those ideas to understand why ingredients and instructions in recipes are there.

i can't count how often something i've tried in the kitchen that chemically and scientifically should have worked fine, but in the end came out curdled, or tasteless, or fallen.

Don't blame science for your shortcomings in the kitchen. Watching Good Eats will eventually give you a better idea of what went wrong. If you really want to learn to cook, read a book on Cordon Bleu techniques

By far the best part of Good Eats is the entertainment value - AB has a background in film, and it shows. If you really want to learn about food science, come to Cornell. Also check out the IFT.

Other chemists in the kitchen

[base_chakra]

Alton Brown may be the quintessential hacker-chef, but he's a newcomer to the world of Western cuisine, and definitely not the pioneer when it comes to applying practical chemistry and microbiology to the culinary arts.

For example, James Peterson (chef, author, and recipient of numerous James Beard awards) studied chemistry at Berkeley before engaging in culinary studies at Le Cordon Bleu, and that was more than thirty years ago. In his books and classes, he applies and encourages such topics as understanding of emulsification, the importance of pH balance, how to adjust yoghurt with microbes, the chemistry of caramelization, and so on. His cookbooks are a revelation for those serious about the culinary arts.

I'm a fan of Alton Brown's emphasis on kitchen science, but in its portrayal of his work Wired demonstrates its typically superficial take on science and technology as seen through the pop-culture lens, and fails to put Brown's contribution into a relevant context.

Cookery book by scientist

[eetiiyupy]

I use The Science of Cooking by Dr Peter Barham who is a physics lecturer at Bristol University. Its the only cookbook I have which is on the Springer Verlag imprint.

It has really helped improve my cooking.