According to the few people I've spoken to about really great cooking, understanding the science behind food is really important. Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé This covers the chemistry and physics behind not just cooking, but eating food.
I'm a not a chemist, so the concept of even attempting to figure out how it all works on a molecular level is daunting. But this book is written for people like me, who took rocks-for-jocks to cover their science credits.
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I've got a few books on molecular gastronomy since I took up cooking and food writing as hobbies, and it's an incredibly interesting subject. You definitely started out with its origins no doubt, it's intimidating the kind of knowledge that Herve This has. A great book to read afterwards is "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen". Whereas Herve is the classic master, Harold McGee is the contemporary master, and his book is equally informative and astonishing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not have any books specifically on baking or chocolate-making, though I'm sure some good ones exist.
@ Ben - I grabbed a copy of "What Einstein Told His Cook" by Robert Wolke, we'll see how that one goes. I'll definitely check out Harold McGee after I'm done with This. Also, do you have a copy or link of that article you were telling me about the other day. Something along the lines of 80% of chocolate businesses turning a profit in the first year. I'd love to read it.
ReplyDeleteI'll try and find it, it popped up on an aggregated news site so I don't know the exact host site.
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