On Food and Cooking

Suspensions,    Emulsions,  Gels,   Foams

Cooking is applied chemistry, and the basic
concepts of chemistry — molecules, energy,
heat, reactions — are keys to a clearer
understanding of what our foods are and how
we transform them. A casual acquaintance
with these concepts is enough to follow most
of the explanations in this book. For readers
who’d like to get to know them better, here’s
a brief review.

Atoms, Molecules, and Chemical Bonds

It was the ancient Greeks who gave us the idea
of atoms, fundamental and invisibly small
particles of matter, and also the word atom,
which means “uncuttable,” “indivisible.”
Greek philosophers proposed that there are
just four basic kinds of particles in the world
— atoms of earth, air, water, and fire — and
that all material things, our bodies and our