Leonardo da Vinci wrote one of the first cookery books in History. We learn from his biography that he launched a famous tavern, where he innovated the strangest and most absurd original recipes.

He mastered the art of innovating painting material.

http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/leonardo-da-vinci/

Maybe this is an anecdotic case but worth mentioning. Years ago I reported to a gentleman, my senior, who was an outstanding chemist. Interestingly his wife never cooked during they 50+ years of marriage. He did. And he was an excellent chef, inventing new recipes.

Once I asked his wife why they have this weird arrangement and her answer was exactly what you wonder: "To be an outstanding cook, first one has to be an extraordinary chemist." Why?" I asked. "Because," she said, "mixing ingredients, spicing up food and applying the rules of thermodynamics to get the right meat taste are the realm of chemists... I am just a housewife."

Thank you, sirs. I see my father was indeed right. 

I wanted to amuse you, on Christmas Eve'... Your answers are lovely. 

Dear George, yes things and disciplines do mix and complerment beautifully. But I thought that to be a good mathematician, you first have to learn music (and vice-versa ...)

Merry Christmas !

It might also help to be a medical professional. 

I remember that the first time  Ihad to spend Christmas at the hospital's emergency room, the chief surgeon took a turkey to the surgical block, and cannulated its arteries to instill good wine, until the animal fell with this original anesthetics. The nurses took it to the oven. 

I hsd never tasted such delicious beautifully scented turkey. I will never forget that Christmas diner.

Hi all

First of all merry christmas and happy new year. Most of my friends including me in the university done PhD in other countries. We know how to cook for many reasons. Even we did not like the food in other countries or we can afford it :( . So I think this sentence is true :)

Hi all

First of all merry christmas and happy new year. Most of my friends including me in the university done PhD in other countries. We know how to cook for many reasons. Even we did not like the food in other countries or we can afford it :( . So I think this sentence is true :)

My dear @Maria, regarding your father, the chemist, you should read this article:

What’s the Chemistry of Cooking?

"A lot of cooking involves chemistry and is essentially a series of chemical reactions. Knowing about this kitchen chemistry can help you to understand much more about what’s happening – and why your recipes sometimes go wrong..."

For my colleagues I do bring good reading. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

http://www.science.ie/features/archived-feature-articles/chemistry-of-cooking.html

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

http://www.scienceofcooking.com/

Thank you, dear Ljubomir.

You certainly do know of things.

I love that cooking site for engineers. !!!

Merry, scented tasty Christmas for you and family!

Dear Maria,

To cook is not only an important, useful and possibly successful activity but also a kind of relaxing. Even some can do it at artful level.  I am only a beginner or elementary cook but I prepare dishes with enthusiasms. For Christmas, I prepared a traditional Hungarian fish soup. According to my family members, it was eatable.     

Dear All,

I wish you the opportunity of human cooperation leading to real – mutual – happiness: understanding, tolerance, peace, justice and love.  This is the message of Gospels.

Yes Maria, I do need to cook.  I realize that many of my family members and church friends have been putting on weight.  For myself, I am fortunate to have a good field to exercise at college.  But at home, my people have been very sedentary.  So recently I have been cooking vegetable dishes.  Cauliflower and garlic with spices, a whole large pumpkin with curry leaves and spices.  Without cooking, we cannot guarantee to keep our health.  MANY GREAT RECIPES ARE ON OUR NET.  NOW ANYONE CAN COOK. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt0GTuzLP1c

Why not ?The kitchen is a laboratory where we prepare food, often without a prior prescription, but in order to discover new flavors and seasonings.

Dear Maria

Why not ?The kitchen is a laboratory where we prepare food, often without a prior prescription, but in order to discover new flavors and seasonings.

I would rather say that what I cook, YOU should not eat. Cooking is a physical and a chemical process. Science requires some more skills than that. Those modificationsneed to happen obeying strict rules.

When scientists cook I believe due to their scientific and research oriented characters/tempers the dishes turn out to be innovative and out of the world!

Why not, food scientists always do this job!

Dear Vilemar.

According to my professor of physics best cooks are chemists or engineer chemists because they are taught by chemistry to observe proportions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2016!!!

Weihnachten und Frohes Neues Jahr!!!

At our Department, there is an applied chemistry program wich includes a 3rd year level course entitled (Chemical Processes Laboratory). This course teaches the students various topics but I shall just mention those concerned with dear Mary's question: production of artifical & natural jams, white cheese, soft drinks, ice cream, and biscuits topped by cream with vanilla. A colleague & me usually teach this 2 credit-hours course.

We are concerned with the chemistry involved in these productions & the products must be better than those seen in the market. The students get marks on the spot besides marked reports (which are about quality tests) & a final written exam.

Chemists are either pure or applied (a chemical engineer is applied). An applied chemist is usually a good cook in most cases. In the above course, students are very keen on getting the best product among the class in a competition which lasts 3 hours/week. Note that a lecture precedes laboratory work.

This is an interesting question by Maria. Scientists do cook their food but Chemists are the best cook. How to minimize errors at each step of measurement  can be best understood by the recipe of cake or railway time table.

A very happy new year2016.

Cooking is something everyone should enjoy- to see the fruit of one's labor instantly, to perform a self review,to make necessary corrections and finally to experience the wholesome satisfaction of having attempted and done a good job.. these are things which would pique the interest of any scientist.

Cooking is one of the few tasks that exercises and utilizes all of one's senses.. and as such - people who do cook, or try cooking should be appreciated for their abilities.  The confidence generated when one cooks something truly sensational, and the joy of sharing it with others is something to be enjoyed by one and all.

When I was a boy I learn how to cook. Now, I forget the details but certainly I can rebuild the cookings.

Roland my friend I am glad that sense I last was able to either participate or in some small (minute) way actually contribute to the discussions on Research Gate I open up and there you were the first question I read. Thank you for that that. It felt familiar and comforting to have you there my friend.

Yes Roland I cook and I cook well if you believe what company has stated and the women in my life. Cooking is a way of presenting who I am to those not completely or for that matter even remotely with academia and the University.

It is a way of making those uncomfortable with my scholarship and my positions on issues at ease to a certain extent. As for specialties I will put my sauces or as called in Italy gravy against anybodies and also my chicken parmasion (sp). I think it important especially for males to be able to express themselves in some creative way and for me one avenue is through my food.

Douglas

Well, I am very good to say which food goes with what. How food can be stored. Some characteristics of the itens. But when I have to put them together I am sure teacher Nizar Matar would give me a zero and laughing to death. 

Good morning, dear Dr. Vilemar !

That is a sweet answer. I am sure Dr. Nizar would not gives us bad marks for being sweet. I know you cook great mandioca dishes !!! I hope to be able to taste them some day soon.

Yeah, tapioca is OK and eggs too. I can only use marine salt as it does not raise blood pressure as the refined salt. I only cook again when I forget the last dish I cooked. Not even ants eat them.

Dear Maria ,

Happy Christmas to you with my prayer that May God offer you for the success in your life .

From our earlier year up to the stone age for,preparing food the material wood & stone was taken for preparation of food .With the passage of time stove

Gas ,electricity ,& after words well many research have seen the day light .For all this we have to salute & their researcher.

Their contribution for preparing cooking range of all items have been due to their research in every part of the countries .

We have to forget about the cooking range as the the area of scientist become small & limited .In other words they have to make their research experiences in

the labotary by thinking & concentration while range of research areas & with their experience they may bring something useful for ultity purpose for saving of time

& comfort for the overall mankind .

In this line it is not the range of cooking for the magnitude skill .

This is my personal opinion

I do know many scientists who used to cook for many years, as they do not have a family, while they could not afford restaurants. I think some of them like it very much.

"Dear Maria, to understand Chemistry, you must cook.  To understand cooking, you must learn Chemistry (by your Dad)."

First part: To understand Chemistry, you must cook and see the effects of heat on raw food to turn it into cooked food that can be more easily digested. This is change of state.

Second part:  To understand cooking, you must learn Chemistry.  "You can see that cooked food does not turn back to its raw condition." This is again a change of state.  miranda.

Dear Miranda !

And at a time of great difficulties, with the economic crisis, we must also apply a fundamental law of Physics, that nothing is wasted, nothing is lost and all things transform.

Dear  Vilemar & Maria, You will not get bad marks at all. In the 1st semester which ended by this Christmas holiday, a good student made this grave mistake: While producing natural apple jam, she added 15 g. of sodium sulfite (a chemical which preserves color) instead of 15 mg. She came to me in the lab placing some of the jam on small plastic spoon & said : Sir, please taste this jam. I did & it was bitter. I asked her about what she mixed & found out this 1000 times increase. I threw the jam in the dustbin & told the students:  Be ready to take her & me to the hospital because a high dose of Na2SO3 may cause lethal allergy within half an hour. Thanks God, nothing bad happened but the student's grade dropped from (A) to (B) in the course.

Dear Nizar !!!

I thank God that you don't get allergies to sodium sulfite...

Maybe you just got better preserved yourself. You should be thankful to your student !!! 

(I am thankful to your student, because we will be able to read your thoughts for longer and longer here on RG !)

ah ah, dear Roland.... Probably not before they grab the money of the prize...

Dear Maria,

 I agree with your farther. Cooking, as Chemistry, is a combination of art and science.

 The best Wishes for the Holiday Seasons to all.

The way in which we get to know and understand the science may be different. As you can see to understand some of the chemical laws need to know cooking, to understand the thermal conversion of knowledge of physics. I was explaining to his students the method of extraction as the first example I give pożenie morning coffee or of tea, in order to understand what this process, but I do not know if they become by it barista?

Dear Maria et al.

I have been silent all the time. Dear Maria , you know I cook, you have seen some photos of my meals.

So my opinion is, dont use science when cooking, please cook with phantasy and develop spontaneous ideas. My meals are wonderful without any scientific  background.

i do =D

Dear Khalid, that looks good. Thank you for the marvelous sight and scent !

Dear Hanno, dear Napoleon. You describe and present the beautiful link between Arts and Science.

If Music is mathematics, Poetry is Phylosophy, Cooking is Chemistry... What is Medicine? (I might answer all of those, allied with the imbalance between sensitivity and sensibility. Someday, I'll get there ! )

Dear Maria,

medicine is a central part of life. And I´m convinced, if you save a life, the feeling will be poetry for you and the saved person.

Dear Hanno.

I believe that when I save a life, if I do it the right way, it should be hardly noticed and the remniscent feeling will be of love and respect for human life...

I had my moment of sad poetry, when my very first patient died in my arms, on my first day in Internal Medicine ward, This was my first visit to the ward, and I noticed the gentleman was in very poor condition. As I would not know what else to do, so I held and hugged the poor 83 year old man, as he died... and then I cried in silence.

Dear Napoleon,

at the moment, I am trying as hard as I can, to invent some original way of cooking the left-overs from Christmas turkey. (the huge animal seems never-ending... and my family hates pies. Today, I used tiny slices of pineaple, and chestnuts and raisins, to conceal with lemoncurd and cognac rice... very funny indeed !

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Cooking was not problem at all since I was 14 years old I used to cook for my father and brothers, when our mother used to visit her Mother & Dad (grand mother & father).The problem was in washing the dishes and arranging the house!!

I can cook all Iraqi & English dishes easily. I am very quick in cooking, comparing with other people that I know!! I could remember my mother used to stay for ages in the kitchen to finish the lunch!!

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Scientists have discovered a simple way to cook rice that dramatically cuts the calories

......"An undergraduate student at the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka and his mentor have been tinkering with a new way to cook rice that can reduce its calories by as much as 50 percent and even offer a few other added health benefits. The ingenious method, which at its core is just a simple manipulation of chemistry, involves only a couple easy steps in practice."

Please, see the original article for details....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/25/scientists-have-figured-out-a-simple-way-to-cook-rice-that-dramatically-cuts-the-calories/

Good morning, dear Hazim.

This is simply great. There's always a new way to cook anything. And this goes very much in the line of reasoning of our dear Nizar. Are we to reconsider all our conventional ways of cooking? Sometimes, just reverting to older traditional ways is the healthiest thing to do.

Hi Maria,

Good Day,

well, I am 60 years old now, I love cooking alot, my wife and two boys, they do love my cooking. From time to time they ask me to cook for them, I do, sometimes, invent omelette, as a quick snake.  If I come to Lisbon, Portugal, I will cook for you, and that is a promise!! I will let you taste Iraqi food!!!

That would be lovely. You are very welcome to sunny Portugal, dear Hazim !

Hello Maria and all, to keep our HEALTH, there is little choice but to cook.  Here, restaurants use recycled oil.  We tend to eat quite a lot of fruits and veggies, and some spicy food is really welcome.  I stay away from fast food like McD and KFC as much as possible.  Only when I need to travel, I will eat fast food.

Dear @ Hazim, I have found that engineers, doctors and teachers cook quite a lot and do it very well.

Thank you, dear Ivo, dear Miranda , for the beautiful Asian scents that you offer to this question.

Yes, dear Miranda, in an era of globalization, I agree that in order to keep our Health, we'd better cook at home.

I also find that local food and seasoning adapts best to the places that I visit when travelling... I always try to eat local food, while abroad.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Here is a short youtube about Iraqi food/ dishes, I can cook about 90 % of them, the rest would take a lot of time to be cooked!!!.

Attached, also, a lovely link that shows some of our tasty and delicious dishes!!! Hope you like them!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmetXWNpbSg

http://www.food.com/topic/iraqi

Delicious, indeed! Looks a bit like a mixture of Greek + Israeli... doesn't it?

I might miss fish in that diet. I mostly eat fish here in Portugal. Whichever way we cook it, it is fresh and delicious, and mostly healthy.

I once tried fish, freshly taken from a fishing boat (still jumping), grilled on woodfire by the beach, with only salt as seasoning. It was the most extraordinary culinary experience I ever had...

MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY - For Dr. Nizar :

http://www.edinformatics.com/culinaryarts/culinary_science.htm

http://www.answers.com/Q/How_is_chemistry_related_to_culinary_arts

This is very interesting. I cook. 

Thanks Roland et al,

Happy New Year for you all.

Tesla was the storybook kind of genius. Shy and peculiar, brilliant and suspicious, he wove a protective coat of eccentricity around himself. With the million dollars he received for a number of patents, he created a legend at the famed Waldorf-Astoria where he lived a good part of his lonely life. His meals were epicurean delights cooked according to his own recipes. His dinners lasted precisely two hours, ending at ten o’clock. He then worked through the night.

https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/nikola-tesla-man-who-invented-tomorrow

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

if you enjoy cooking, you might find doing research is not much far different. The processes and attitude towards both of them are very similar. Perhaps the only difference is you can’t taste your results from the experiment!!!!

Dear sirs !

Thank you!

Wemight not be the best of cooks, but you all certainly are «cum laude» at answering my simple questions!

I love you dearly and I wish you the best of New Years !!!

http://bistrotdusommelier.eu/bds/en/reveillon/

http://en.destinationsuddefrance.com/Discover/Art-of-living/Wine-Fine-Dining/Traditional-Christmas-Food-in-South-of-France

https://nativocrafts.com/2015/12/latin-american-gastronomy-for-new-years-eve/

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/chinese-new-year-gastronomy/

even if I cannot cook most of these dishes, I do know how to make that famous Einstein's pouched egg. (thank you Lawrence !) and I might try to spoil some of Tesla's great scientific recipes (thank your Ljubomir !)

Kindest regards, from rainy Portugal

your Maria!

Dear Maria, Enzo, Martin, and all, I was very surprised recently that I have been eating a Paleo like diet for several years, without giving it any particular name.

Dear Ljubomir, can I help you to catch fish from the Danube?  It doesn't have to be salmon.

Hazim is quite right that cooking and doing research have certain similarities!  It's CURIOSITY THAT LEADS in the direction of research, as well as cooking!  (I wish all my friends a happy 2016.  LET'S DO MORE COOKING, AND MORE RESEARCH.)

Dear Miranda. THANK YOU FOR THE MARVELOUS SCENT.

i WISH YOU MORE OF EVERYTHING !!!

Yes you have understanding fire& water,and cooking

I can see that it is already New Year in the Pacific.

So I send best wishes and Greetings to all good RG friends.

Scientists like other professional are human being and cooking food is the basic necessity for all.So, In my opinion, there is nothing new in cooking food for self and also for family./friends.Scientists have better expertise in experimentation and beyond doubt , they are always better cook . Moreover, cooking food is different but to enjoy the food depends on individuals mind set.

I wish you all a very happy , prosperous and a wonderful year 2016.

Yes, it seems that the Fiorentine owner of the Tavern of the Two Snails invented, the napkin and Spaguetti, and was the predecessor of Nouvelle Cuisine with the strangest, nearly absurd/avant-garde culinary inventions. Only a true Scientist would so easily ally Arts and Science, in an unparallel historical way.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/toprecipes/tp/davincifood.htm

Cooking is a an art - the more you add love and care the better the dish will turn out to be!

My husband is an engineer/scientist and cooks really well. It was he who taught me to make excellent 'Rice Pulao' - rice with vegetables. Whenever I am late from work or otherwise a tasty pulao is ready for us!  

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Here is Iraqi/ Arabic Food easy Recipe Chicken with Rice -  Maqlooba,  Youtube short clip , Just follow it you can make the dish very easily, with no problem at all!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_KFpxb_bpM

I am very sure they cook

Of course scientists cook. That's normal. Because you could to destroy their stomack on pizza and hamburgers.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Here is another an easy Recipe "How to cook Baklava (traditional Iraqi dessert)" , very short Youtube (2:36 minutes), hope you will like it......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up6MjVb6fWk

Message just received!

Ray Leary to you an hour ago

Happy New Year!

Personally, I love cooking and relating the chemical and physical processes that occur to make such wonderful dishes. As well, I enjoy the social aspect of sharing a meal. In my household, I cook all of the holiday meals, and a few other meals during the year; my wife does much of the daily cooking.

Regards,

Ray

What is Molecular Gastronomy?

"...Molecular Gastronomy blends physics and chemistry to transform the tastes and textures of food. The result? New and innovative dining experiences. The term Molecular Gastronomy is commonly used to describe a style of cuisine in which chefs explore culinary possibilities by borrowing tools from the science lab and ingredients from the food industry. Formally, the term molecular gastronomy refers to the scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking. Molecular gastronomy seeks to investigate and explain the chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena..."

http://www.molecularrecipes.com/molecular-gastronomy/

Dear Jacic thanks for the interesting answer

Interesting, indeed, dear Ljubomir. I imediately thought of Dr. Nizar's interesting contribute, as I first read of molecular gastronomy. Very much in his line of thought, as he proposed a course of culinary experimentation for chemistry specialists.

Interesting. Thank you !!!

go to eat molecular kitchen before you build your opinion. My opinion is, really no progress and pleasure. pure show!

Haha, dear Hanno !!!

You are one of a kind ! I trust your fine gastronomic taste.

But I also like experimenting... even if the taste is bad. The idea is great (food for the soul, at least to say... kkkk!)

When I first left home, I had no idea if potatoes should be pealed before or after cooking them. Soon I found out that it was great to experiment in cooking, and also that potatoes taste much better if you never peal them. The same should apply to all vegetables, as long as you wash them carefully, and if you read further on the subject, you'll find that vegetables are far more nourishing if you don't peal them. (this doesn't apply to peanuts, of course...)

Dear Maria,

your peeling technique is a wonderful example for not using cliches. Please tell me how to produce mashed potatos without pealing. But I agree with your general statement, don´t peal if ever possible (look at my photos) and especially don´t cook your vegetables in water, use food steamers, you will preserve all important ingredients and taste.

Just checked my recipe book. They never say when you should peal, before you mash... (probably because it is easier to peal after you boil... kkk! ) The same kind of idiot instructions, when we had to insert 14 diskettes to get a program into the computer, before windows, ... they never told you to eject the previous diskette, before you insert the next...- (did they ever?-)

PS - dear Hanno, as long as I keep my original teeth, apart from the spicy taste such as Nutmeg, than you should add, I find no practical use, whatsoever, to mix oily lipidic hot liquids to the starchy mass of mashed boiled carbohydrates... - I might prefer Rösti !!! -

Humphries C. Cooking: delicious science. Nature. 2012;486(7403):S10-1. doi: 10.1038/486S10a.

Caraher M, Lang T. Can't cook, won't cook: A review of cooking skills and their relevance to health promotion. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education 1999;37(3):89-100. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/502/3/Cant_cook.pdf

Thank you, dear Martin, for two great links. Much interested. Quite interesting !!! Thanks.

Budding scientist moves from lab to kitchen!

"J. Kenji López-Alt always expected to be a scientist. His father was a scientist. His grandfather was a scientist. He loved science, but as a student at MIT he also learned he hated working in a science lab.

When he happened to find a job in a restaurant kitchen, he discovered food science. Cooking became a whole new world to explore. Gaining experience as a recipe tester at Cook's Illustrated, he began writing about food and learned to understand what people need when reading a recipe.

"Science is not just for people who wear lab coats," said López-Alt. "We all can learn lessons every day." 

What a story!

http://www.jsonline.com/features/food/budding-scientist-moves-from-lab-to-kitchen-b99638257z1-364261101.html

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Here is a special iraqi recipes, we usually do it in winter. It is called "(Bastirma)" -  Easy and Fast Iraqi Breakfast Sausage/البسطرمة العراقية/ Recipe# 66

try it, I am very sure you will love it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ7kJ6kPCZw

Lovely. Thank you, dear Hazim. 

Looks delicious.

I hope, someday, to visit your far country, in total peace, and to be able to taste and feel the scents of that superbe cuisine. Thank you for sharing. May God bless you !