From Newton to crouton: the science of cooking
Most people who cook take a practical approach: watching to see when a sauce thickens up, when bread rises perfectly and how long it takes to scramble eggs. We learn by trial and error, from each other and from recipe books. But how many of us know what is really going on when we cook, in scientific terms? Some famous chefs, most notably Ferrán Adria of top restaurant El Bulli and Heston Blumenthal, have taken a scientific approach to cooking, turning the kitchen into a laboratory and producing some novel and astonishing results.