Chef vs. Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge
As a child, I had hundreds of questions on methods of cooking. “Why should we switch off the pressure cooker after 3 whistles?” “How do we know the oil has reached the right temperature?” “At what stage should you switch off the stove?” etc. I was also sure that all these questions had logical scientific explanations. The documentary that we will talk about today has all these answers, in terms of Physics, Biology, Chemistry and even Mathematics at times. It is called ‘Chef vs. Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge’.
One believes that cooking is an art, which needs love and understanding of food apart from precision and timing. The other trusts that it is all about the science of materials like measurement of pressure and temperature. Marcus Wareing, a two-Michelin-star chef, is challenged by Mark Miodownik, a material scientist from University College of London, on whether cooking is a science or an art.
Both of them agree on cooking London’s favorite meal, starting from an entrée till dessert, in their own cooking methods and let the final taste decide the winner. They start with the tomato soup. While Marcus does this in a traditional approach, Mark starts explaining the science of tomatoes, the amount of water content they have. their chemistry and uses heavy electronic machinery to extract the purest juice from the tomatoes, without actually cooking at all. This is how the comparison looks like.
Next they try the steak with mashed potatoes. This time, Mark teaches the Chemistry of molecules in the steak and fails terribly, when Marcus brings out the most buttery, creamy mashed potato with rich flavor filled steak.
Finally for the dessert, each of them try their hand at the incredibly difficult chocolate fondant. This time however, they end up in a draw, when Marcus fails multiple times, in spite of appointing his best chef, but Mark manages to succeed with just the help of a microwave.
After a level of mocking, challenging and learning, they realize that both of them were true scientists in their respective professions and Mark concludes that cooking is indeed an art with science behind it. The show is obviously informative on its end with science facts about our daily foods and the spirit of these makers is worth watching. I definitely don’t want to give away spoilers, so I am keeping it brief. This 90 minutes show from BBC, is available on Netflix to watch and will keep you intrigued till the end, with the hope of science winning the test.
Go watch the show and let me know what you thought about it in the likes and comments section. You could also get these posts directly to your mail, when you subscribe to the newsletter. Happy Watching!!