http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/02/food-lab-cooking-science-kenji-lopez-alt
The food lab: better home cooking through science
10 February 2016
J. Kenji Lpez-Alt
W W Norton & Company
2015 | 938pp | 26.40
ISBN 9780393081084
Reviewed by Yuandi Li
The professional kitchen is often seen as a military operation, with the
teamwork and clearly defined chain of command. The head chef barks orders
and the cooks dutifully respond oui, chef! Perhaps this is why cookbooks
only tell you what to do without telling you the reason. Just as soldiers
do not question why they need to carry out their mission, you do not
question why you have to rest your roast before carving.
Then Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal came along. By questioning the
orthodoxy and applying chemistry and physics, their new approach caused a
lasting revolution in haute cuisine (attested by the ubiquity of foams,
liquid nitrogen ice cream and sous-vide cooking).
Understandably, such cookery is often seen as pretentious or inaccessible
by those that just want a simple home-cooked meal. However, science is
indiscriminate and what improves Michelin-star food can also improve your
sausages and mash.
J. Kenji Lpez-Alts The food lab is both a science textbook and cookbook
that brings modernist cooking to the home kitchen with the tools to
exercise our own creativity. With an infectious enthusiasm, Lpez-Alt
applies the scientific method to explain things like why fried eggs can
have a runny yolk despite the higher coagulation temperature of whites;
why salads must be dressed at the last moment; and, indeed, why you must
rest meat.
The food lab assumes no knowledge of science or cookery and provides a
thorough grounding on many common dishes and ingredients. For each, he
explains the underlying scientific principles and cooking techniques
before demonstrating them with some easy-to-make and very delicious
recipes. The dishes are generally American (a highly underrated cuisine on
the Eastern side of the Atlantic), with recipes catering for every course
apart from dessert. It is also very much home cooking and does not require
any fancy ingredients or equipment although Lpez-Alt does provide an
in-depth introduction to a myriad of kitchen gear (prepare to get nerdy
about knives!). The only criticism is that despite CONTAINING AN
IMPASSIONED PLEA FOR THE METRIC SYSTEM, the book is understandably written
for its American audience and is rife with Imperial measurements.
The books modularity means you can work through it like a textbook or
simply find a specific recipe. However, you truly do get back what you put
in. As such, it wont inspire those who have no current interest in
cuisine, but for everyone else, it is the only book you need to become a
seriously good cook.
_______________________________________________
USMA mailing list
USMA@colostate.edu
https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
