What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained.pdf
Betty Neyhart
It is to be expected that a sufficiently original, ambitious and courageous research endeavour should be able to make significant advances in defining the emerging and little developed field of gastrophysics and demonstrate where it could lead. This is not to say that the various experimental, computational and theoretical methodologies, typical of the three pillars of modern natural science, which should be applied to gastrophysics, are in a similarly less advanced and less well-defined stage. On the contrary, the idea is to use, so to speak, the 'sharpest knives in the kitchen' to carve out the future of the field. These 'knives' include molecular simulation, single-molecule studies of taste, high-resolution micro- and nanoscale visualisation of macromolecular aggregates of food molecules and particles, measurements of physical forces controlling the stability of food formulations, molecular-structural characterization of raw food materials and their transformation during preparation, cooking, ageing, drying, conservation and fermentation, as well as the design of physical model systems tailored to mimic, for example, the absorption of food molecules and food particles in the intestines. All of these approaches are highly sophisticated and advanced and are likely to make a strong impact on the emerging field of gastrophysics.
During these classes, it occurred to me that I actually was competent to teach chemistry and teach it in a fun, memorable, and very hands-on way. Baking and cooking are like scientific experiments, combining chemical reactions of chemistry, the processes of biology and the laws of physics, and even mathematics. Most people probably would not equate baking and cooking with science, but the truth is, the kitchen chemistry found in baking and cooking can be used as a tool to teach specific concepts.
Even though I taught this subject to my high school-aged child, you can start teaching culinary science concepts to children at a very young age. Training in kitchen chemistry is ideal for children of all ages. Who knows, through this kitchen chemistry study, even we adults may learn something new.
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