Aryana Libris

Authors : Vega César - Ubbink Job - Van der Linden Erik
Title : The Kitchen as Laboratory reflections on the science of food and cooking
Year : 2012

Link download : Vega_Cesar_-_Ubbink_Job_-_Van_der_Linden_Erik_-_The_Kitchen_as_Laboratory.zip

This book is a culinary anthology, a dream come true. In it is a collection of carefully selected stories that relate to food, its preparation, its perception—and how we eat it. However, what distinguishes this collection from others is the fact that it is infused with science. Our objective is to help the reader better understand how food is transformed during cooking and eating. The essays are as diverse as the foods they aim to describe: from simple foods, such as chocolate chip cookies, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, and soft-boiled eggs, to foods of a higher level of complexity (both culinary and scientific), such as sauces, sugar glasses, and jellified beads. Some of the stories even touch on food and culture, and on the relationship between food and society. The discussion incorporates how personal background, one’s culture, dining companions, eating environment—the lighting, the occasion, and the like—affect the way foods are perceived. Similarly, some of the essays address cooking methods: from the characteristic hightemperature wok-sautéing of Chinese cooking to slow cooking in temperature-controlled water baths and distillation-based aroma extraction and concentration. To some readers, the diversity of the topics and approaches of the stories might take away from the cohesiveness expected in a book. To us, as editors, the beauty of the book is in the common thread that runs throughout: the quest to transform personal culinary observations and reflections into scientific knowledge. Gastronomical knowledge is necessary to all men, for it tends to augment the sum of happiness. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du goût. ...