Chemistry in the Kitchen

A cutaway of vegetables in the canning process.

Photo Credit: Modernist cuisine, LLC

I read this article a few months ago in Wired magazine, and it definitely provides one of the more interesting perspectives on food that I’ve come across: really experimenting with every aspect of a certain dish to make it perfect. It’s like looking through the eyes of a hardcore chemist in the kitchen. Then again, what would you expect from a scientist– in particular, the former Chief Technology Officer from Microsoft, Nathan Myhrvold?

For example, to create the perfect French fry, Myhrvold takes all of two hours, using everything from vacuum-sealing to ultrasound to produce crisps that Mark McClusky, the author, describes as “amazing […] The outside nearly shatters when you bite into it, yielding to a creamy center that’s perfectly smooth.” Obviously, there are few people in the world with the time or money, much less the interest, to experiment relentlessly with their food, but thankfully, Myhrvold has done most of the work for us in his new (six-volume) cookbook, Modernist Cuisine.

Granted, there are different opinions of “perfection,” and it’s unlikely that you have the materials in your kitchen to give your potatoes an ultrasonic bath, but it’s important to recognize that food preparation involves chemistry, too. Not just the unpronounceable-ingredient-in-your-chips sort of chemistry, but the type that has to do with heating that egg up at just the right temperature for just the right amount of time with just the right amount of oil in the pan. Personally, I think that if I understood these idiosyncrasies more clearly, I would appreciate my food more.