Saturday, February 17, 2007

Chef David Mullen Uses Physics to Add Flavors

I got excited when I read the title of this interview. Being a "foodie" and an amateur cook (read my post on how I learned how to bake bread because of physics), anything that mixes my profession with my hobby is always exciting. This is because I've always considered cooking as being chemistry.

However, when I read this interview, I see hardly any "physics" involved in here. The closest that David Mullen said that had anything to do remotely with physics was

I have been working with a technique called spherification. This is exciting because it allows me to change the physics of an ingredient. It doesn't change the flavor. The process just creates a light 'shell' about this tiny ball bursting with flavor and a liquid center. You can also change liquids to solids, in either case, it brings a new dimension to a dish.


Well, that wasn't a lot of "physics", was there? Minor application of phase transition, maybe.

I think those pastry competition where they had to construct outrageous chocolate and sugar pieces have more physics involved, or at least, structural engineering. :)

Zz.

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