Science and Cuisine: The Physics of Food. From Everyday to Haute Cuisine

Every time you step into the kitchen to prepare something, you become not just a cook, a professional or an amateur, but also an experimenter, changing the physicochemical properties of food. After all, all the main processes of culinary food processing, whether boiling, frying, baking, canning, fermenting, and others, have a scientific explanation, and the concept of "tasty" is not just an expression of emotions but an assessment of the balance of a dish and how correctly, skillfully, and thoroughly its components are processed at the macro and micro levels. And for the most curious practitioners, those who like to dig to the essence, there is a great opportunity to enhance their theoretical training and confirm that cooking is not just a science, but an exact science. Heating, fermentation, diffusion, phase transitions, emulsification, electrostatics, denaturation, pH transformations… What exactly happens to what you cook in a pot, on a pan, in an oven or in a fermentation vat is interestingly and accessibly described in the second edition of a book by esteemed Harvard scientists who pay attention not only to traditional, mass-produced, but also to innovative products and materials present in the modern kitchen (foams, emulsions, gels, and others).
"In this book, we look at food as a science, but food is also history, culture, diplomacy, national security, and much, much more… Interesting for everyone, not just those studying the exact sciences, this book will help readers establish connections and create a systemic picture of the fascinating world of food."
José Andrés, American chef. Winner of the "Chef of the Year 2009" award, "Outstanding Chef" by the James Beard Foundation and the "Man of the Year 2009" award by GQ magazine