For a natural scientist, food is usually molecules, plant cells, and phases of matter such as liquids, solids, and gases. Chemical reactions in the kitchen dictate the result, physical phenomena such as heat play important roles and the whole thing ends up as a meal and an experience.
No surprise that we, two food-loving chemists, would choose such an entrance to the book we write. Who we are would surely put its stamp on the way we talk about the food we cook and eat. But you don’t necessarily need to have an academic degree in chemistry to harness these chemical substances and reactions. This is clearly visible every day as skillful chefs, professional or amateur, apply their experience-based knowledge handed down from one person to another all over the world. While we are professionally excited about all the scientific knowledge that chemistry offers to us, we are aware that food is much more than the sum of its molecules. Food is also a part of our common and personal history, woven into the identity of every human being. It is part of our culture, of our great and small emotions and experiences. With food, we communicate, we make friendships, and we show love and affection. We hope this can be seen throughout the book as it would be sad if the food was reduced to molecules and salts—mere outcomes of chemical reactions and the laws of physics.
Often, the most commonplace transformations in the kitchen have prompted us to ask why things happen as they do, and this has been the starting point of most chapters in this book. In the context of our open and informal scientific food workshops, arranged in both Finland and Norway, we have approached various questions from both theoretical and practical points of view with the aim of understanding food, meals, and joys thereof. We have not only read books and scientific publications, but we have also carried out experiments together in the attempt to reach the very heart of the phenomena. Thus, we do not want to just convey funny anecdotes or fun facts about food chemistry or to pretend that we know exactly what’s going on at the molecular level in food. Some things we know, but much we do not know, and we are curious and will never stop asking questions. Therefore, we try to ask questions about issues that have not already been described in the research literature, can be found in cookbooks, or by a search on the Internet. And often when we look for the answer to a question, we find only part of an answer, and, in addition, two new questions appear. Rather than giving unambiguous answers, we would like to invite the reader to consider these kitchen mysteries with us. This way we hope to pass on curiosity about food, sow seeds for the reader’s own inquiries in the kitchen, and promote diversity in food and food culture.
Two other persons have been important along this journey. Chef Tatu Lehtovaara, who has shared his expertise and experience in the art and craft of the kitchen, has been involved in creating and implementing the food workshops from which most of the examples in the book are taken. Most of the book’s recipes are by Tatu’s hand, and he has also raised a significant number of interesting questions that we ourselves wouldn’t have envisaged but have been shown to be both significant and thought provoking.
The other important person in the book is graphic artist Aki Scharin, who has dazzled us with an imaginative journey into the world of food structures and molecules. Although Aki’s illustrations usually set out from food and molecules, often, at some point, they begin to live their own lives. Through his work, the food and its molecules develop to become part of our common visual heritage. As a result of this mutual effort, this book of cooperation and friendship has emerged.
Helsinki and Volda
Anu Hopia and Erik Fooladi