Customer Reviews

The Science of the Oven (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)

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I received this book as a review copy from the publisher. "The Science of the Oven" explores the chemistry and physics of cooking (and eating).

The author's main focus was on how the scientific understanding of cooking and eating can lead to new possibilities in food experimentation. He discussed new scientific findings, explained how this information could be used to make cooking more effective or exact or varied in taste, and then sometimes offered experiments a reader could do in the kitchen to demonstrate the point or create a new taste for his/her eating pleasure.

The introduction was very chatty and funny with asides in the middle of sentences. The asides decreased in the main part of the book, but the author's enthusiasm for the subject still shone through.

The book is easiest to follow if you have at least a basic understanding of chemistry. However, he did explain scientific terms as he went along and assumed he was talking to a non-scientist. He generally kept the explanation simple or gave a summary statement in nontechnical language after giving the technical explanation. There was a short glossary of terms at the back to help with this.

Chapters 1-4 reported in detail on a series of scientific studies and so were a bit heavy on the technical language. Chapters 4-7 still focused on the science but were more conversational in language and easier for me to follow.

Chapter One explored how our various senses affect how we perceive taste. Chapter Two discussed some studies on how various foods affect our health. Chapter Three discussed how food growing conditions and different food varieties affect our taste.

Chapter Four and Five got into specific examples like how tannins in wine change over time and how that affects their taste, why some corks spoil the wine's taste, why eggs cook the way they do and some experiments one can do with eggs, and the science involved in kneading dough, making of noodles, and jelling liquids. Also, how to effectively tenderize squid, keep the "fresh" bright green color in vegetables when cooking, why re-heating can change the taste of meat, how to effectively flavor meat with liquids before cooking, the conditions where a lute seal does work, why lobster shells turn red when cooked, how food thickeners affect taste (like in yogurt), and experiments in making new sauces.

Chapter Six explored (among other things): how cooking in earthware changes food taste; "new" types of milk coagulants for cheese; the chemistry of making cheese, fondue, and spreadable cheeses; the chemistry of creating pickles; how bread gets stale and how this is prevented commercially; the optimal time to beat egg whites for meringues; the color of emulsions; how champagne bubbles develop; the color and taste of port wine; and preserving the smell of fruit jams.

Chapter Seven discussed cooking with hard water, how food color and smell changes when the pH changes, and future possibilities in cooking.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't always agree with his opinions. (For example, he's down on people who prefer 'natural' sources in their foods whereas I can see how food chemistry has overall improved people's lives but I still think natural is better if you can get it.)

Overall, this was a slower read than normal, but I had many fun "so that's why!" moments. I think this book would be most interesting and useful to people who like to experiment with creating new dishes, industry professionals, and those who are both scientists and cooks.

Reviewed by Debbie from Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews (differenttimedifferentplace. blogspot. com)

This book is focused on the oven, baking and roasting mostly. It's probably not the best introduction to molecular gastronomy (try Building a Meal: From Molecular Gastronomy to Culinary Constructivism (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) or Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History), both by Herve This as well), but is excellent at covering what happens, in time and temperature with foods. It's the physics and chemistry of food, for those without a lot of science background.

As an amateur chef and professional scientist, this book is a revelation of the facts behind the recipes. Of the reasons for the kitchen rules. What is a sponge of eggs? What's happening inside chemically? What is the cooking of meat all about?

I found the content of the book very interesting, but felt it was structured more like a series of notes, or voice recordings and didnt read like a well written book. At many points it starts to sound like a speech..

Herve this introduces the concept of molecular gastronomy, its history, and possibilities. Throughout, he uses many examples, but not much that is immediately useful, or eye opening. He does talk about mayonaise a lot.

Overall, the book ends up being more of this's ideals of what molecular gastronomy ought to be, and what science ought to be, rather than a book packed with tips for everyday use. (which the book does not claim to be) Much more conceptual than practical. To his credit, he does make a clear distinction between a scientist and a cook, so perhaps its no surprise he keeps talking about science in gemeral.

A word of caution.. The book is extremely poorly translated, which could be part of the reason why the text seems to be unstructured. The translation makes the book very hard to read, and is irritating to say the least. This seems to be a problem of his other books as well.. Hard to imagine in this day and age there wasnt a good french english translator.

His recent book only released in french, where he goes through the 25,000 cooking precisions, or proverbs, to test their accuracy seems much morr interesting and practical. I respect his work in the field, but this book definitely does not do him justice.

Herve This writes books that wander, in coffee table book style. The Science of the Oven starts with good information about how humans perceive tastes, and raises various ideas about bending ingredients into the food equivalent of trompe de l'oiel. He offers enough description to support the credibility of his concept, and not a systematic catalog of current research progress.

As he nears his conclusion, he raises the concept of making the pianococktail ...a set of ingredients designed first in written form without worrying about the properties of the ingredients. The results of this first foray were exactly what I would expect '...hmmmmm. Pretty good, but needs salt."

The Science of the Oven contains lots of good ideas and heads them toward avant garde experiments in post modern food. But it's more of a manifesto than a comprehensive textbook on the topic. This should not surprise us either. The stuff that's the farthest "out there on the cutting edge" wasn't written down when Herve This wrote the Science of the Oven. If you want an example of where all this leads, check out [...]

Imagine: a book about food with absolutely no photos or illustrations, calorie counts or ingredient assessments. "The Science of the Oven (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)" is a serious book about how food is cooked and the chemical and physics that lead to the end product.

Herve This writes about how the cooking process transforms food on its most basic molecular level. In doing so, he explains how consistency, flavor, nutritional aspects and more of what goes into producing the food that we want. We will learn about producing sauces, eliminating lumps, why egg whites beaten in copper dishes are more stable, odors and flavors and a whole lot more, using specific dishes to explain science.

While the author is mildly amusing at points, this is mostly a sober, but not dull, explanation for what most people do every day but without thinking about how they're achieving what they want. This is a useful book for those who want to know more about what they're doing and why or perhaps simply enjoy learning more about the scientific side of our daily lives.

Culinary science comes to life in a collection applying scientific method to the kitchen. The chemical art of cooking s considered in a survey of common culinary techniques and practices, examining food's molecular components and considering how flavors are created and how the properties of liquids, oils and fats play into basic culinary practices. Culinary libraries strong in science will find this a winner.

Herve This shares some of his vast knowledge about the science involved in everyday cooking. The book is organized more as a series of essays about particular topics rather than one cohesive work which threw me off at first but allows the book to be read in short bursts, which is sometimes all you can handle of the more technical passages. As someone deeply interested in food science it was fascinating but if you don't want to delve into the molecular reactions that occur when an emulsion is created it may not be the book for you. Still, some of the passages (particularly the one about wine) would be interesting to anyone. Highly recommended if you are interested in food science or molecular gastronomy.