121215 – Molecular – London

At a school in Kings Cross I take a chemistry lesson in cookery. Sodium alginate, calcium lactate, maltodextrin, hydrocolloids and spherification, may have you thinking I was embarking on a Science Class, but no these were just some of the ingredients used throughout the day at the Molecular Christmas course @ the Waitrose Cookery School in Kings Cross. With the current trend for food blogs and the constant stream of food pictures on Instagram my culinary exploits remain more personal, but combining food with science does make things more interesting. How does the liquid made from reduced apple juice and coloured with squid ink, dropped by pipette into the sodium alginate instantly create a film around the sphere and set it? Even after studying Chemistry and Physics at school I am still baffled how reactions can turn one thing into something else.