Hooray for geeks in the kitchen!

Harold McGee, the author of On Food and Cooking: On Science and Lore in the Kitchen, has a new column in The New York Times. And in another great book, The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen, by Michael Ruhlman, I just read that when McGee wrote the second edition of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, he discarded about 90 percent of the original text and research he had done and compiled when reworking and rewriting the new edition. I'm a couple of years behind; I haven't yet read this one yet, but I'll be heading down to the library to pick up a copy shortly.

For sparking this interest, my eternal gratitude goes to Julie Phillips, who taught one of my favorite classes in my entire school career: a class on Kitchen Chemistry at Casey Junior High.