Now a few words about the scientific
approach to food and cooking and the
organization of this book. Like everything on
earth, foods are mixtures of different
chemicals, and the qualities that we aim to
influence in the kitchen — taste, aroma,
texture, color, nutritiousness — are all
manifestations of chemical properties. Nearly
two hundred years ago, the eminent
gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
lectured his cook on this point, tongue partly
in cheek, in The Physiology of Taste:
You are a little opinionated, and I have had
some trouble in making you understand
that the phenomena which take place in
your laboratory are nothing other than the
execution of the eternal laws of nature, and
that certain things which you do without
thinking, and only because you have seen
others do them, derive nonetheless from
the highest scientific principles.