This is not your usual food blog!

Let me explain…

Except for an occasional bad-ass omelette, which I would make only to save my life, I successfully evaded all kitchen duties for the first 3 decades of my life. I’m not kidding, I didn’t even know how to prepare a decent cup of tea! Eventually some 11 years ago, a case of terrible morning sickness which was triggered by the most ordinary kitchen smells forced my wife out of the kitchen. A truant and opportunistic cook made things a bit more desperate than they already were, and I had little choice but to hesitantly enter the zone I was so terrified of – our kitchen. Until then, my philosophy about cooking was that I didn’t want to expend any effort towards doing something that was going to take two hours to make and 10 minutes to eat. Just pay somebody else to do it… or order in… simple!

The world of good food!

We have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit on work, and one of the beautiful things about travelling is that you get to taste some very interesting dishes that you would otherwise never encounter. Whether it is an authentic Nasi Goreng from the streets of Malaysia, or a Pad Thai from the markets of Bangkok, an authentic “Italian” Chilli Pesto Spaghetti, the most lip-smacking Beer Battered Fish and Chips, or the most tender Teriyaki Barbequed Chicken, there are delicacies that I tend to associate with places. Have you noticed, that we tend to have very vivid memories of interesting and unique food experiences. Sometimes one can remember smells and flavours even years later, as clearly as you were tasting it right then. with some luck you might have been able to find a decent imitation back home, but it wouldn’t taste like the real thing. I remember thinking that if we were able to find the right ingredients, it might be worthwhile trying to rustle it up yourself. That way, even if it ended up wrong, you cut your losses. Hopefully, nobody ends up in hospital, and if you’re lucky you end up with a recipe for your cookbook! But for a lazy bum like me, that was still not motivating enough… there was still something missing.

Do it yourself, or maybe not?

That didn’t stop me from experimenting with simple dishes – 2-minute noodles, ready to cook stuff out of a packet – all stuff I could experiment on, and if the experiment failed, it failed quickly and cheaply. I tried my hands at several things, cakes, stir fries, Chinese dishes… most turned out ok, but I was always intrigued by the unpredictability of how a dish turned out. A cake would occasionally turn out as flat as a rock, and sometimes bubble up and crack at the top, but still remain gooey inside. Noodles would stick to the pan one day, and be completely al-dente the other. That is when I discovered the final link to this puzzle, the link that got me hooked. That link was science… and you would be amazed how much physics, chemistry and biology can possible be involved in separating an ordinary dish from a masterpiece. Unfortunately, I’m a sucker for all things scientific, and once I started exploring the science behind cooking I was hooked.

So where are we going with this?

Though I have a long way to go, to build a repertoire rich enough to be truly satisfied with, I’d like to use this blog to record some of my successful experiments. In doing that, I can hopefully interest you in the key tools that every aspiring cook should seek to understand –

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Process
• Science
• Secrets!

Watch this space for more on this, and happy cooking!

D.S.