chef = chemist?

Was watching MasterChef 2011 finals last night and yes Tim deserved it! Sara and Tom were superb but Tim blew them away with his final 3 course meal with pronounced creativity.

The contestants only had 3 hours to impress the judges.

Somehow I associated the 3 hours to my lab sessions..and I started to wonder..chemistry isn't that all different to cooking.

Here are some similarities -

Chemists need to add chemicals at the right time (e.g right temperature) or else the reaction wouldn't work properly.

Cooks need to add the sauces and things at the right time too!

Cooks need to wash pots and pans after use.

Chemists need to wash apparatus!

Multitasking - While leaving a pot of whatever on the stove, cooks chop onions and things.

Chemists, while waiting for a reflux reaction to finish we could measure the melting point of the product we just made.

Washing gloves, apron.

Lab gloves, lab coat.

Spatula.

Glass stirrer.

one of the ways to tell whether the food is cooked or not is to judge by the colour change of the food.

And oh..so do chemicals :O

There are a few 'subtle' differences.......

Chemistry is dangerous. Things can go BABABOOM

and the most obvious one is....you can't eat your product.

Conclusion?

Cooking is edible chemistry :)

Looking forward for summer hols to learn how to cook (no more daily pasta!)