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Freakonomics Radio

20. Waiter, There’s a Physicist in My Soup! (Part 2)

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.632K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2011

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What do a computer hacker, an Indiana farm boy, and Napoleon Bonaparte have in common? The past, present, and future of food science.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Previously on Frekenomics Radio.

0:03.0

So then you cook it to perfect medium rare, then you dunk it in liquid nitrogen, which

0:09.1

freezes the outside.

0:10.6

Then, we deep fry it, we pop it in a deep fryer, or you use a torch on it.

0:15.4

And either one will give you this incredible crusty outside, but because you put it in liquid

0:20.2

nitrogen, that prevents it from overcooking, so you get perfect medium rare hamburger.

0:25.7

I am so hungry for the taste of the real, that I am just not able to get into that, which

0:38.7

doesn't feel real to me.

0:40.9

It's a kind of scientific experiment, and I think there are good scientists and you know,

0:48.5

crazy old scientists that can be very amusing.

0:53.8

But it's more like a museum to me.

0:59.0

Alice Waters is the owner of the legendary Shepenys restaurant in Berkeley, California, and

1:03.8

she's a champion of simple, slow, organic food.

1:08.0

The guy who wants to build a perfect hamburger, one tank of liquid nitrogen at a time, that's

1:13.3

Nathan Mirvold.

1:14.6

He runs an invention company called Intellectual Ventures.

1:18.1

He trained as a physicist and also as a chef.

1:21.9

He is about to publish a cookbook, a six volume 2400 page, $625 cookbook called Modernist

1:30.6

Quizine.

1:32.1

It's a celebration of molecular gastronomy, the high end practice of turning ordinary food

1:38.2

into works of art.

1:39.6

The book is also a serious effort to bring the scientific method into the kitchen.

...

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