Cooking for Geeks

Publishers Information

About Cooking for Geeks

Publisher Web Link: http://oreilly.com/

Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food

Are you the innovative type, the cook who marches to a different drummer -- used to expressing your creativity instead of just following recipes? Are you interested in the science behind what happens to food while it’s cooking? Do you want to learn what makes a recipe work so you can improvise and create your own unique dish?

More than just a cookbook, Cooking for Geeks applies your curiosity to discovery, inspiration, and invention in the kitchen. Why is medium-rare steak so popular? Why do we bake some things at 350° F/175° C and others at 375° F/190° C? And how quickly does a pizza cook if we overclock an oven to 1,000° F/540° C? Author and cooking geek Jeff Potter provides the answers and offers a unique take on recipes -- from the sweet (a “mean” chocolate chip cookie) to the savory (duck confit sugo).

This book is an excellent and intriguing resource for anyone who wants to experiment with cooking, even if you don’t consider yourself a geek.

• Initialize your kitchen and calibrate your tools
• Learn about the important reactions in cooking, such as protein denaturation, Maillard reactions, and caramelization, and how they impact the foods we cook
• Play with your food using hydrocolloids and sous vide cooking

Gain firsthand insights from interviews with researchers, food scientists, knife experts, chefs, writers, and more, including author Harold McGee, TV personality Adam Savage, chemist Herve This, and xkcd.

Author Information

About Jeff Potter

Author Web Link: http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/

Well, I’m the “Geek” in “Cooking for Geeks.”  My background is software engineering; I’ve worked with a number of web and tech startup companies for the past decade, usually writing code and building the first prototype of a product. (I’m a “version one” guy, if that makes sense.)

When it comes to cooking, I don’t have any formal culinary training, which means I’ve hit the same stumbling blocks that most of us encounter while trying to learn how to cook. My parents always took time to cook, and growing up, it’s just something I was around. When I went off to college I realized that there was a lot of basic cooking that I didn’t know how to do. (Spaghetti and salmon turns out to not be such a good combo.) I spent a decade experimenting and learning, and wrote the book based on my experiences, thinking about the book that I’d have wanted ten years ago. (http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/)

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Cooking for Geeks

by Jeff Potter