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The Kitchen as Laboratory: Reflections on the Science of Food and Cooking (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) Hardcover – Illustrated, January 31, 2012

by César Vega (Editor), Job Ubbink (Editor), Erik van der Linden (Editor)

87 ratings

3.9 on Goodreads

126 ratings

Part of: Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History (50 books)

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Eating is a multisensory experience, yet chefs and scientists have only recently begun to deconstruct food's components, setting the stage for science-based cooking. In this global collaboration of essays, chefs and scientists advance culinary knowledge by testing hypotheses rooted in the physical and chemical properties of food. Using traditional and cutting-edge tools, ingredients, and techniques, these pioneers create, and sometimes revamp, dishes that respond to specific desires and serve up an original encounter with gastronomic practice.

From the seemingly mundane to the food fantastic―from grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, and soft-boiled eggs to Turkish ice cream, sugar glasses, and jellified beads―the essays in The Kitchen as Laboratory cover a range of creations and their history and culture. They consider the significance of an eater's background and dining atmosphere and the importance of a chef's methods, as well as the strategies used to create a great diversity of foods and dishes. This collection will delight experts and amateurs alike, especially as restaurants rely more on science-based cooking and recreational cooks increasingly explore the physics and chemistry behind their art. Contributors end each essay with their personal thoughts on food, cooking, and science, offering rare insight into a professional's passion for playing with food.

Part of series

Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Columbia University Press
Publication date

January 31, 2012
Dimensions

6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
ISBN-10

9780231153447
ISBN-13

978-0231153447
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Behind today's celebrity chefs and starred restaurants is a mostly unsung army of dedicated food and science lovers working to uncover the scientific principles that make our modern gastronomical marvels possible. In offering thirty-three highly readable and often amusing essays by warriors in this multinational kitchen army, the editors of this anthology have accomplished the great service of filling a much-needed gap in the public's understanding and appreciation of twenty-first-century culinary 'magic.' Where else can one have fun pondering the acoustics of crunchy foods or the texture of an ice cream that stretches like a rubber band? -- Robert Wolke, former Washington Post food columnist and author of What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

The editors of The Kitchen as Laboratory provide not just intimate and fascinating anecdotal insights but also the scientific principles that inspired them. They have created a new altar for chefs and gourmands to worship: the poetry of science. -- Will Goldfarb, creator of Willpowder, Experimental Cuisine Collective

The Kitchen as Laboratory provides good perspective on the scientific approach to cooking while reflecting the interests and passions of each essay's author. Readers are likely to come away with a lot of new ideas to use in the kitchen, as well as some recognition of the breadth of contemporary applications of science in the kitchen. -- Peter Barham, author of The Science of Cooking

The Kitchen as Laboratory is not only an in-depth study of many areas of food science, but also an entertaining read. For someone like me, who relishes understanding more about cooking from the inside out, it's heartening to see this area of literature expanded. -- Chef Wylie Dufresne, wd~50

Nothing is more difficult to master in the world than science itself. The Kitchen as Laboratory creates a beautiful synergy between food and science while amazingly representing difficult concepts in colloquial language. It is a powerful book. -- Chef José Andrés, James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef

Cesar Vega, Job Ubbink, and Erik van der Linden have assembled a complete document that seamlessly bridges the inherent connection of the science of cooking and the art of cooking. They have created a testament to the fact that precise understanding and open minded observation are invaluable tools for creative cooking. Kitchen as Laboratory: Reflections on the Science of Food and Cooking is a thought provoking, insightful and approachable resource for professional chefs and home cooks alike. -- Maxime Bilet, head chef for recipe research and development at The Cooking Lab, co-author of Modernist Cuisine

serious and substantive anthology -- Harold McGee ― Nature

Refreshingly, the Kitchen conveys simple and attainable advice... ― Scientist

Engaging, thought-provoking and accessible ― Yum.fi

Highly recommended. ― Choice

About the Author

César Vega holds a Ph.D. in food science and a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu and is research manager at Mars Botanical, a division of Mars, Inc. He has consulted with several avant-garde restaurants on aspects relating to science-based cooking, and he regularly teaches seminars on the relation between science and cooking.

Job Ubbink is a senior consultant at Food Concept and Physical Design in Flüh, Switzerland. Trained as a physical chemist and biophysicist, he has more than twelve years of R&D experience in the food industry. Along with his research on food material science and food biophysics, he is a passionate cook devoted to developing sustainable food practices and culture.

Erik van der Linden is professor of physics and physical chemistry of foods at Wageningen University. From 1991 to 1997, he worked at the interface of science and industry at Unilever Research in the Netherlands and in the United States, leading innovation projects on structural and sensory aspects of detergents, cosmetics, and foods. He earned his M.Sc. degree in theoretical physics and his Ph.D. at Leiden University and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University, where he focused on the stability of oil in water emulsions.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0231153449
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Columbia University Press; Illustrated edition (January 31, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780231153447
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0231153447
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #803,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #986 in Gastronomy Essays (Books)
- #1,032 in Food Science (Books)
- #3,574 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
87 ratings

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5 star		56%
4 star		23%
3 star		13%
2 star		7%
1 star		1%

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Hayford Peirce

not for the amateur or layman

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2012

Verified Purchase

I was greatly disappointed by this book. Most of the language is in fairly technical chemical terms that very few general readers will be able to follow -- or will be interested in *trying* to follow. I guess that there is some general pattern to the various chapters, since several of them refer to earlier chapters, but mostly it's a mishmash of items. Also, I expected each chapter to have at least one super-duper recipe to illustrate the point of that chapter. Many of them do, but a number of them don't.

And the recipes themselves were a major disappointment. Some of them are clearly beyond the reach of the average amateur cook, either because of the techniques needed or the chemicals. The ones that are doable in the average kitchen seem banal and lacking much detail -- the only one I might try is for the crispy chicken thighs (to illustrate the chapter on SONICs, I believe), but it uses no seasoning at all beyond salt and pepper.

The pizza dough chapter was more interesting than most, BUT the super-recipe that the author gives us needs something called "encapulsated bakers powder" or some such to replace the yeast. BUT he doesn't tell us what it actually is OR where to find it. Infuriating!

The final chapter is well-written, and by a professional chef, BUT throughout the chapter he refers over and over to how he came to find a new way to make ice cream, particularly one using "brown butter" as a key flavoring ingredient. And then he gives us NO recipe for the ice cream, NOR for the famous "brown butter" -- maybe the butter is back in Chapter 8 or somewhere, but I couldn't be bothered to go look for it.

To be fair, I think that there's also a simple recipe for battered fish, as in Fish and Chips, that might be worth trying.

But two, or possibly three, recipes out of several hundred pages of dense text isn't worth it.

I think I'm being charitable in giving it three stars -- two is probably what I should be giving it.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

TS

Great Chemistry Resource!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

Chemistry teachers, heads up! This book is filled with real-world examples of food chemistry that could be turned into demonstrations or labs.
There are also several essays (i.e., Jennifer Kimmel's "The Science of a Grilled Cheese Sandwich") that are short enough, and written simply enough, for most high school students to read and analyze. I ordered this book with the hope that it would be a great resource for me and my 11th grade Chem students, and it definitely delivers.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Missy Thompson

Odd Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 26, 2013

Verified Purchase

If you have a disorganized mind with an interest in food science, this is the book for you. The topics seem unorganized and disconnected but it is still an interesting read. I learned a lot about a large variety of topics.

3 people found this helpful

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PM

Perfect gift for a serious foodie!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

We sent this to a friend who is a chemist and gourmet cook. He was thrilled with it and, to our surprise, he had not heard of it previously. His report is that it is a super book that is filled with great scientific information about cooking. Other Amazon customer reviews helped make the decision to purchase this and I'm glad that I read them!

10 people found this helpful

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JT

great

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

Like cooking and science...but not very good at science? This is a great book for you! While not many pictures or recipes, it provides detailed (yet fairly straight forward) description of major gastronomy issues and techniques

8 people found this helpful

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CELIA

Perfect condition

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought it brand new. It came in perfect condition. Was just the most boring book ever ! Unless you're into chemistry ....

2 people found this helpful

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J. Melanson

Interesting reading, but misses potential

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 26, 2012

Verified Purchase

Lots of interesting modernist cuisine material. It would be better if there were fewer generalities, and more concrete examples. Each chapter has different authors, and there seems to be a lot of self-promoting material.
Worth a read, but not the best. The McGee books are a lot meatier

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Hermes

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

a collection of very interesting and informative approach to cooking by different authors

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

oxfoodblog

The Kitchen As Laboratory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 1, 2012

Verified Purchase

Molecular gastronomy books have a very tough task in balancing readability, scientific detail, accessibility, and applicability of any results to the domestic kitchen. One the one hand, you have "popular science" books, easy to read, but often little more than a collection of anecdotes. On the other hand are more technical books, like Harold McGee's excellent 'McGee on Food and Cooking', which aren't the kind of book you might want to sit down and read for an hour. As molecular techniques begin to become more readily reproducible at home, there is a need for great books which hit all of the spots above. Enter The Kitchen As Laboratory.

Written as a collection of essays from many leading food scientists, each of the thirty-three chapters discusses a part of food science, from the more common topics, like the Maillard reaction or meringues, to less common topics, like the effects of Xanthan gum or "bloom" in chocolate. Often, experiments are carried out - like trying to make a meringue out of nothing else than milk - to illustrate the principles involved; so you can actually look at the results of some very strange creations. But don't let these experiments, or some of the pictures from cakes put under microscopes, make you think it is too "sciency" a book. The book is very readable, and I am sure that somebody with a limited science background could still get a lot out of the read.

I'd highly recommend this book for anybody interested in cooking, and certainly for those interested in molecular gastronomy. I hugely enjoyed reading it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it became a classic book in food science. It's not often you find a book of this quality.

10 people found this helpful

JAMES MACKAY

Fascinating concepts, less fascinating execution

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a decent attempt to write up some "molecular gastronomy" experiments for the general reader. As with so much modernist cooking, the problem for the home cook is that much of this is not of any practical use in the home kitchen. So, as this isn't really useable, it would have been better if a firmer editorial hand had been applied to improving some of the writing. I get that the authors aren't necessarily professional writers, but some of this is really quite amateurishly written (see, for example, the multiple unnecessary exclamation marks!). Also, and this might be unavoidable given the subject matter, it does start to feel quite repetitive - here is the thing we are experimenting with, here's the process, here's the end result. Without writing that really communicates the tastes and textures to the reader, this can at times be a bit of a slog.

My star rating is a compromise - I reckon it's three stars for the amateur reader, five stars for the professional who can actually use the book.

One person found this helpful

Foodgeek

Still a good book..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

The content is great. If you are into how stuff works in a kitchen on a lower level, this is a very interesting read.

It consists of different chapters with a topic in each, written by different authors.

The book itself is of pretty low quality, rough paper.

One person found this helpful

R. D. Gales

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

The mysteries of cooking revealed in an easy to follow manner, you dont have to have a degree in Chemistry to understand this book.

eoin williams

Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 15, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a really good read for anyone who has ever wondered how and why traditions develop in cooking, rather than just saying 'do this' it say's 'this is why we do this and this is how it works'

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