Physics And Food

"Hey, if this physics thing doesn't work out, you should be a chef!"

I get comments like this every so often, especially after I have people over for dinner, or if I bring something to be shared. I take that as a compliment, since obviously, they were impressed by what I can cook. Still, knowing how difficult it is to make it and survive in the restaurant business, I don't think it is something I would consider doing.

So how often does the world of physics collide with the world of food? For me, personally, they collide quite regularly. I have a physics blog that I started many years ago, which is still going strong, and I've posted several stories relating to how these two worlds met.

The first one was how I learned how to bake bread by hand as a sort of trying to get my nervous energy out while I was studying for my oral comprehensive exams.

How I learned how to bake bread because of Physics.

During my career as a physicist, I've made banana breads and the blueberry pound cake for various meetings at the office/lab. I remember one time, we had a Dept. of Energy review, and I was requested by our group leader to make something for the breakout group that we will be in, since we usually are served only coffee and maybe pastries from the catering service. So I baked my blueberry pound cake and brought it in.

One of the reviewers actually asked us where we bought the cake, and my boss pointed to me as the person who baked it. My response to all the praise was:

"Hey, making photocathodes, and making pound cake. Not much of a stretch there!"

(One of my major tasks at that time was to produce/fabricate photocathodes for our accelerator). So that got a good laugh.

More recently, I actually used a loaf of banana bread to teach my students a lesson.

Drilling in the importance of units, via a banana bread

So yeah, in my world, physics and food live side-by-side.

Zz.