Kitchen Chemistry

Ted Lister, Heston Blumenthal

Kitchen Chemistry

One of the most exciting things that has happened at my restaurant, The Fat Duck, recently is the Royal Society of Chemistry producing this resource for schools - Kitchen chemistry. It is based on taking a scientific approach to cooking - an activity that has traditionally been regarded as an art, rather than a science. Topics range from the simple (what is the role of salt in cooking vegetables?) to the complex (separating volatile flavour components in foods by gas chromatography mass spectrometry), to the 'just for fun' (breaking the world record for ice cream making by using liquid nitrogen as a coolant). What the RSC has done is to provide flexible material that teachers can 'dip into' that relates the chemistry that goes on in the home or restaurant kitchen to that which students learn about in the school curriculum.

Kitchen chemistry makes chemistry more accessible because it brings together scientific theory and everyday practicality. After all, we all know something about cooking even though we may not do it very often, and children are no different. When I left school I had no scientific background whatsoever. I have taught myself slowly and with much difficulty, so this new initiative is music to my ears. I just wish it had happened a few years earlier.

Royal Society of Chemistry; 2005