I had always considered cooking an art but was a little surprised at the level of scientific process involved. The green bean acidity test reignited my interest in molecular gastronomy. I was shocked to realize that many michelin starred restaurants (for example, The Fat Duck in the UK) actually had laboratories where chefs experiment with food and are encouraged to use scientific methods (for example, hypothesis testing) when creating new dishes. I believe that this area accurately represents the intersection of science and art – chefs routinely don the roles of scientists, and like many chemists, create new substances (dishes) by combining many different ‘elements’ (or ingredients) in a chemical reaction (heat or ice).
I really enjoyed watching Heston Blumenthal’s video below:
I would be further interested in experimenting with using different temperatures, and really seeing the effect of too much heat or too little on changing the flavor of the dish. I would also be interested in learning how heat or ice effects the taste that your dish is aiming to achieve, for example, whether tartness requires a different temperature than achieving a specific level of spiciness, or whether flavors depend more on the actual ingredients being used. Last week’s reading really opened my eyes to the potential laboratory that the kitchen represents, and like the scientific experiments I conducted in my high school, I would be interested in conducting similar experiments in the kitchen, and identying the effect of temperature on taste.