Interest in food science

[JAZ]

Russ,

It seems to me that your book, along with Shirley Corriher's Cookwise, really sparked an interest in "food science" among cooks. The popularity of Wolke's Food 101 column and, in a lighter vein, Alton Brown's show and books seems to indicate that it's growing. Have you noticed an increase in interest about the "hows and whys" of cooking among your readers, or are they primarily interested in recipes and reviews?

And, as an aside, can we ever expect to see a sequel to French Fry?

[russ parsons]

I think there is an interest in science in cooking. Mainly because people get so frustrated by trying to follow recipes. They always seem to leave more questions than they answer: How brown? How long? What kind of pan? Which cut? (and probably most important) Why?

Practical science (as opposed to theoretical) is really nothing more than an attempt to rationally explain the things that we see happening around us.

And then there's the really cool "Hey Martha" effect (so named by an old editor of mine who loved to put weird stories on the cover on the theory that some old guy would read it and say "Hey Martha, you gotta read this").