Chemistry and the mundane

I heard someone remark how they thought science could contribute to how food was made. I am sure we have heard these wide eyed comments before and not just on this subject. That someone would suggest such a thing amuses me. Food is the basis of chemistry, biochemistry and the application of physics. While it is mundane it is most vital, it is probably how we learnt some of most vital aspects of dealing with chemicals. A friend of mine has always eaten cake with fascination and why not, cake she claims is the invention of a very clever chemist. Cooking is magical if you think about it, combing flavours in different way with different temperatures is very scientific, and yet we take this fro granted.

I spent this weekend making kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage). It was fascinating to think how someone came  up with the idea in the first place. The careful process of draining excess water out of cabbage, adding various spices and vegetables to the mixture all to have vegetables during a cold winter. Cheese is just as fascinating. At what moment in time did we decide to drink another animals milk and when did we realise we could cook this milk to make something completely different out of it? The first cooks probably felt a sense of adventure to create different tastes and textures, preserving food, making it more palatable, heating or cooling it. Even now when you see a good cook you get the feeling that they know something innate about combing ingredients and dishing out something tasty.

It also brings me to my next question- have we lost our most basic understanding of how things are created? As a child I was fascinated by basic experiments, it made my world come alive, boiling water bubbling away on a hot stove, a magnifying glass enlarging small objects. The very basic of these activities are some of the most profound. We live in a world where we are surrounded by very complex technology however the most basic of these is what started it all. Everything around us is technology from the humble door latch to a touch screen computer.  It is not the complex that informs the basic but the other way around.