The everyday alchemy of creating food for the body and the mind This 17th century woodcut compares the alchemical (“chymick”) work of the bee and the scholar, who transform nature’s raw materials into honey and knowledge Whenever we cook we become practical chemists, drawing on the accumulated knowledge of generations, and transforming what the Earth offers us into more concentrated forms of pleasure and nourishment (The first Latin caption reads “Thus we bees make honey, not for ourselves”; the second, “All things in books,” the library being the scholar’s hive Woodcut from the collection of the International Bee Research Association.) Introduction Cooking and Science, 1984 and 2004 This is the revised and expanded second edition of a book that I first published in 1984, twenty long years ago In 1984, canola oil and the computer mouse and compact discs were all novelties So was the idea of inviting cooks to explore the biological and chemical insides of foods It was a time when a book like this really needed an introduction! Twenty years ago the worlds of science and cooking were neatly compartmentalized There were the basic sciences, physics and chemistry and biology, delving deep into the nature of matter and life There was food science, an applied science mainly concerned with understanding the materials and processes of industrial manufacturing And ... Twenty years ago the worlds of science and cooking were neatly compartmentalized There were the basic sciences, physics and chemistry and biology, delving deep into the nature of matter and life There was food. ..Introduction Cooking and Science, 1984 and 2004 This is the revised and expanded second edition of a book that I first published in 1984, twenty long years ago In 1984, canola oil and the computer... and compact discs were all novelties So was the idea of inviting cooks to explore the biological and chemical insides of foods It was a time when a book like this really needed an introduction!