The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

if I didn’t follow it.
My mother did not take the news well.
Sure, I finished up my schooling (eventually graduating
with a degree in architecture) while working part-time in
restaurants, and I learned quite a bit about good science
along the way (never once did I lose my interest in science
itself—just in the practice of biology), and after graduating,
I started working for some of the greatest chefs in Boston,
but to my mom, a cook was a cook was a cook. Carefully
plating a perfectly sautéed fillet of striped bass with a caviar
beurre blanc and cute little tournéed radishes was no
different from flipping burgers to her. (Ironically, she was
sort of right—these days I find flipping burgers more
fascinating than fancy restaurant food.)
At least, I thought to myself, working in these great
restaurants, I’ll finally have the answers I’ve been seeking.
Not so fast.
First day on the line, I was given a lesson in the traditional
double-fry technique for French fries: a dip in low-
temperature oil for a few minutes, followed by a second fry
in high-temperature oil. My first question was one that I
thought was obvious to any free thinker: if the purpose of
the first fry is merely to cook the potatoes all the way
through, as many people had told me, shouldn’t it be
possible instead to boil the potatoes first until cooked
through, followed by a single fry?
The chef de cuisine’s response: “Em . . ., it might be
possible, but you just don’t do it. Don’t ask so many
questions, I don’t have time to answer them all.” Right as
his answer was, it was hardly the pinnacle of scholarly