This week’s class reminded me of one of my favorite cooking shows, Good Eats with Alton Brown. This show teaches you how to cook all sorts of amazing treats, while also explaining the scientific properties behind the cooking process (much like our green bean acidity test). The Host, Alton Brown, is known for being a quirky chef with a head for science. He has even said: “The kitchen’s a laboratory, and everything that happens there has to do with science. It’s biology, chemistry, physics. Yes, there’s history. Yes, there’s artistry. Yes, to all of that. But what happened there, what actually happens to the food is all science.”
If you watch this video:
You can see that Alton not only explains the scientific properties behind the use of yeast in bread making, but also uses artistic representations in his explanation. His artistic representations are pretty goofy, burping sock puppets, but they create an easily recognizable symbol for yeast that he continues to use for many episodes of his show. Science often creates recognizable shortcuts, like the atomic symbols for elements or the hexagonal carbon structure that we discussed in class. The sock puppets create a clear representation of yeast that may be more easily understandable than a complicated diagram or more scientific representation.
Alton Brown’s cooking show is one of my favorites because it uses unusual methods to teach and I feel that I learn basic principles of cooking and science that I can use in future recipes.
I’ve never heard of Alton Brown before! He seems great. I think that the science behind food is so cool, and often the best cooks really know the science behind what they are cooking. It reminds me of Ina Garten (who my family loves). She was a chemist turned celebrity chef.
Nice! This was exactly the sort of thing I thought we were gonna do during the green beans. I really wanted to learn about the science behind cooking so this is super dope and helpful.
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This is the first time I’ve heard of Alton Brown. He does have a memorable teaching style! I was surprised to learn that sourdough bread can taste different depending on where the starter was made, due to the fact that certain strains of yeast and bacteria only live in specific regions.
This is the first time I’ve heard of Alton Brown. He does have a memorable teaching style! I was surprised to learn that sourdough bread can taste different depending on where the starter was made, due to the fact that certain strains of yeast and bacteria only live in specific regions of the country/ world.