Experience and tradition are essential for great food—but being ready to experiment is a big help too
Is cooking a science? For years, many home cooks—myself included—would have said no. A kitchen is a place we go in search of warmth and coziness. I used to find the idea of treating this homely space as some kind of high-tech laboratory slightly off-putting.
But there are signs that more home cooks are embracing science in the kitchen. The other day, while browsing for food books, I noticed that “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science,” by J. Kenji López-Alt, had overtaken the 2019 edition of “The Joy of Cooking” in the number of customer reviews it had received on Amazon, with an average rating of five stars.
Ratings aren’t everything, but this is surely a sign that thousands of home cooks now see scientific cooking as a positive thing, giving us the tools to produce everyday dishes in a more delicious or reliable way. If science can help us make a meat loaf that won’t fall apart (gelatin is the secret ingredient) or produce lighter waffles (by adding club soda), then what’s not to like?
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