The Scientist and the Cook: Mind-Opening Recipes - Potential and Success recipe cookbook

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The Scientist and the Cook: Mind-Opening Recipes - Potential and Success

Written by Editorial Team

Thursday, 30 April 2009 20:01

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The chemistry of bread is complex. If you let the bread rise too long, you end up with ethanol... Yes, that ethanol that you pay lots of money to drink; bread rising due to yeast is just another fermentation experiment. If you want a wonderful thin pancake that is sour and spongy, try finding an injera recipe from Ethiopia and make that since the ethanol content is what makes it sour and spongy at the same time. You intentionally force the chemical reactions to move far to the product of ethanol, ending up with something delightful and perfect for thick stews, or as a scooping media to eat instead of using a spoon.

I guess it's not just the ingredients, but also the processing conditions that matter with all bread processes.

Has the use of cooking as a model for teaching chemical engineering been a success?

I think so, although I've never assessed the "success" formally on the cooking front. Students from two years ago remember exam number three and still curse me for it...I had them estimate the amount of Iranian air (world's largest producer of pistachios) that would be need to dry their entire crop of nuts from 33% moisture content by mass to 7 % used for shipping. This involved the first six chapters of the book we use and had students think about a real problem. My wife's comment after she heard about the problem was, "Can't I just give you a gift for your birthday (pistachios) without you making it into a problem for your students?" Um... No.

To me, success means that students stick with this tough major through all the trials. I'm successful if they can explain some topic to a non-chemical engineer using food or any other real world example. This ties in with your next question.

Instilling an interest in chemical engineering among the public is crucial for the field’s growth and financial support for future projects. Do you see a potential for the teaching initiative in classroom settings for the young generation?

Chemical engineering has many, many issues in attracting students and interest from the public. Most of the companies that produce obvious chemical products like petroleum/gasoline are viewed negatively by the public, even though they provide critical energy needs for the world. So, when people know about our major, they are often negative.

I see potential for teaching initiatives with younger students in the classroom that help them see not just chemical engineering, but engineering as a whole as a way of leading to a better world. I do many recruiting activities with high schools, but also middle schools as well. When you can tell students, "Vaccines to end re-emergent polio are made by chemical engineers," you reach them in a life saving way. If you can tell them, "We are behind the technologies that let you have ice in your lemonade during the summer," they know there is a connection to their lives. If you show them how colored dyes diffuse in Kool-Aid after solubilization of the dyes, you address how color and flavor may not be linked by having them sample with and without sugar and with and without stirring. They get mass transfer and transport phenomena on a visceral (literally! and yummy) level... :)

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