What Einstein Told His Cook

Kitchen Science Explained

By: Robert L. Wolke

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Why is red meat red? How do they decaffeinate coffee? Do you wish you understood the science of food but don't want to plow through dry, technical books? In What Einstein Told His Cook, University of Pittsburgh chemistry professor emeritus and award-winning Washington Post food columnist Robert L. Wolke provides reliable and witty explanations for your most burning food questions, while debunking misconceptions and helping you interpret confusing advertising and labeling. A finalist for both the James Beard Foundation and IACP Awards for best food reference, What Einstein Told His Cook engages cooks and chemists alike.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2002 Robert L. Wolke (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"With its zest for the truth, this book will help cooks learn how to make more intelligent choices." ( Publishers Weekly)

For the kitchen nerd with a sense of humor. An absorbing read. ( Food & Wine)

Wolke...is one of the great demystifiers of scientific information. ( BusinessWeek)

A Delight for Foodie Nerds

Any additional comments?

If you like Alton Brown's "Good Eats" or "Iron Chef," this is your book. My husband and I enjoyed it on a car trip. Then, my in-laws listened and share it with the grandkids one chapter at a time on the way home from school. The science has captured the interest of our 9 year old nephew.

Very informative

What other book might you compare What Einstein Told His Cook to and why?

I would compare this book to freakonomics. Although freakonomics has nothing to do with cooking, this book is similar in that the revelations will blow your mind. The author is fairly witty, and it completely held my attention while in the car.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Way better than I thought it was going to be.

Any additional comments?

This book is simply amazing. You would have to search on google for hours and read hundreds of other cook books to amass the amount of information in this 9 hour narration.

A word of caution: I am a Mechanical Engineer and found this book to be very technical for the average person. Although the author does lay most of the stuff out in layman's terms, he does get technical. Without prior knowledge of thermodynamics, chemical bonding, etc... I would have had a difficult time understanding the concepts.

Pay close attention

Any additional comments?

I loved all the explanations. Wolke gives you the tools to understand the basics of food chemistry, and he gives you the vocabulary to do research on your own. I'm a distracted listener, so I found myself often rewinding the audio to catch important facts. This book definitely feels more like a lecture, so I listened to it in shorter bursts than I would with most audiobooks. I found myself wanting to take notes and see charts and other visual elements, and I think this book would do well to have a visual kindle companion. As is, I feel like I absorbed a third of the information. I'll be able to grocery shop with a more educated eye, but I don't quite understand the concepts well enough to repeat them to someone else. Time permitting, and in lieu of online notes/support, I'd like to listen again with a notepad close at hand.

The scientific side of cooking explained

This is a funny, fascinating account of what really goes on when you cook.

The author delves into things like whether or not you can cook an egg on the sidewalk, chemical reactions that take place when you mix ingredients, and why you can't use copper pots on certain types of stoves.

The narrator has a good voice and cadence, and it was a fun listen.This book didn't necessarily teach me a lot about cooking itself, but it made the process more interesting.

Full of curious and useful details

This book is a very clever way to explain what happens with the food we consume, since we buy it, till we prepare it and consume it. The style is funny and manage to explain concepts that could be complicated in simple ways.

Great stuff to learn; fun book

I like this book because I have a lot of academic scientific knowledge. I love to learn day-to-day practical science.

This book is filled with cheesy jokes. OK, a few are pretty funny, but most are more like groaners. The narrator has a fantastic voice, but he reads the jokes in a snarky, condescending tone. I would have much preferred them to be more jovial. So while I did have to grit my teeth on a regular basis over the snark, I still really enjoyed this book. It has nothing to do with Einstein, but it's a wonderful set of explanations for kitchen phenomena.

I misunderstood what this was about

I'm sure this is a great book, but I was looking for something very different.

Interesting

I agree with other reviews that this book isn't so much intended to be read from beginning to end, but I found it an easy listen for my commute. The science was explained clearly and mostly interesting. I did find the conversation with Alice in Wonderland in the refrigerator to be bizarre. Narrator was good and I've enjoyed other books he has read as well.

A chefs book

This book is amazing. Talk about details of some I wish it went in more details but hey it's was a refresher course for me. This is a great book for every kind of chef new or old

Informative, but not quite what I expected

I found the book interesting and informative, but I would have preferred a more narrative style (rather than the choppy Q&A style that was used).