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How Molecular Gastronomy Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is
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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and that makes this stuff you
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Speaker 1: should Know the podcast for now. What kind of intro
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Speaker 1: is kind of curious And to those of you out there,
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Speaker 1: I often sit with bated breath, not often always and think,
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Speaker 1: what's Josh got for me? Obvioush you hadn't just built
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Speaker 1: that up because this is it's not really a particularly
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Speaker 1: special We've done three d s and I'd say three
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Speaker 1: hundred or more of them have been very interesting that many.
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Speaker 1: Huh sure, well, and to heck with it. Um, I'm
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Speaker 1: just gonna wrap on this one. Okay, alright, Chuck. You
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Speaker 1: remember when we went to flip Burger Yeah, okay, Central Blaze. Yes,
1:01
Speaker 1: Richard Blade. Um, he is an excellent chef. He has
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Speaker 1: not only flipped Burger boutique here in Atlanta. I think
1:08
Speaker 1: he's got a second one that just opened, was about
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Speaker 1: to open. Yeah. And he's a Richard's a top chef guy.
1:13
Speaker 1: He's a winner. Right. No, he actually, um, he's head
1:17
Speaker 1: a winning personality. Yeah, he and he will admit that
1:19
Speaker 1: he choked on his season because he's clearly the best
1:23
Speaker 1: chef and he just kind of choked at the end,
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Speaker 1: which is not a very blazing thing to do because
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Speaker 1: he's pretty money. Well, we know a lot about choking.
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Speaker 1: People send us emails about them choking. Yeah, and he's
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Speaker 1: now on which I'm watching now, the Top Chef All
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Speaker 1: Stars and as well as of now he is will
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Speaker 1: probably resolved by the time this comes out. But now
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Speaker 1: he's one of the top three. Okay, he's in the
1:44
Speaker 1: final three. Well, who else is on there? Uh, it's
1:47
Speaker 1: it's a lot of the second place finishers from all
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Speaker 1: the years. Yeah, I mean tough competition. Um okay. Well,
1:55
Speaker 1: I should also say to anybody out there whoever is
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Speaker 1: thinking of coming to Atlanta, UM, a lot of the
2:00
Speaker 1: stuff you should know. Listeners email us right and they
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Speaker 1: say where should I go eat? Every single time we
2:05
Speaker 1: recommend Flip. Yeah, it's fun place, it's awesome, but the
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Speaker 1: food is just amazing. I also strongly recommend the Awsobuco Burger. Right,
2:13
Speaker 1: awesome stuff. Anyway, Chuck, you've had the crispy cream milkshake.
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Speaker 1: I know you have. I've watched you drink it. Right.
2:20
Speaker 1: Did you notice when it came out it was steaming.
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Speaker 1: Although it was piping cold, it was steaming. And the
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Speaker 1: reason it was steaming is because Richard Blaze, as his way,
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Speaker 1: had just injected a bunch of nitrous oxide into it.
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Speaker 1: And he did that to basically fluff it and I
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Speaker 1: believe to also chill it very quickly, which are both
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Speaker 1: very um their hallmarkian of molecular gastronomy, which coincidentally is
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Speaker 1: what we're podcasting about today. That's right, Josh, molecular gastronomy,
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Speaker 1: which is Uh, let's go ahead and just give a
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Speaker 1: quick history here. Uh, there was a guy name while
3:00
Speaker 1: there still is. A guy's name is her Vats. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he's very active still. He still has a has a
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Speaker 1: blog into website going. In the nineteen eighties, he was
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Speaker 1: a physical chemist and he was working on a soufle
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Speaker 1: in his kitchen and it was a cheese souffle and
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Speaker 1: the recipe um had very strict instruction said to yolks,
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Speaker 1: egg yolks at a time. He said, yeah, we'll put
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Speaker 1: in for egg yolks. I'm a I'm a chemist chemist
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Speaker 1: and it failed big time, as this souffle is apt
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Speaker 1: to do. And he said, you know what, this is
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Speaker 1: really interesting. I've been follow those instructions even though they're
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Speaker 1: the right ingredients were we're put in the recipe and
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Speaker 1: it flopped. So let me start studying this. And he
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Speaker 1: started doing this with more dishes. The scientific study of
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Speaker 1: food preparation very systematic. He said, I think I'm onto
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Speaker 1: something here. Uh. Partnered with a guy named Nicholas Curtie
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Speaker 1: who was an emeritus professor. Did that too or is
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Speaker 1: that a mistake? And atist professor emeritus? Is that a title?
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Speaker 1: I could see it being a title at Oxford? Okay,
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Speaker 1: So he was at Oxford and he was another physical
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Speaker 1: scientists and they launched together molecular gastronomy. They originally called
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Speaker 1: it molecular and Physical gastronomy, and that was a very
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Speaker 1: new thing at the time. This is very new discipline
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Speaker 1: in cooking, it was, and and basically the the there's
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Speaker 1: kind of two bases of molecular gastronomy. It's number one.
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Speaker 1: It's debunking myths, like there's so many Old wives tales
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Speaker 1: surrounding cooking, right which like, for example, um adding olive
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Speaker 1: oil to boiling water that you're cooking pasta and that
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Speaker 1: still separated. It's just bunk. It is bunk. The reason
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Speaker 1: why it's bunk is because oil and water don't mix.
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Speaker 1: Even when you're boiling at the oil floats at top,
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Speaker 1: the noodles are down below that, and it's doing absolutely nothing.
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Speaker 1: What you should actually do is that a little bit
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Speaker 1: of vinegar, like white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, just
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Speaker 1: a little bit, because that at actually does keep posta
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Speaker 1: from sticking to itself. And one of the points of
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Speaker 1: molecular gastronomy is getting to the actual truth of does
5:08
Speaker 1: something work, yes or no. If it doesn't, we should
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Speaker 1: broadcast that it doesn't work with people you know, don't
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Speaker 1: feel like chumps, right, that's right, or waste time and
5:17
Speaker 1: money and effort. And if it does work, why and
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Speaker 1: why is explained on a scientific level. That's molecular gastronomy.
5:26
Speaker 1: It's right. He began looking at the physics and chemistry
5:29
Speaker 1: of the preparation of food, and he organized the first
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Speaker 1: international Workshop on Molecular and Physical gastronomy and presented the
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Speaker 1: first doctorate in that field at the University of palis In. Yeah,
5:43
Speaker 1: which is pretty huge because he created a brand new
5:46
Speaker 1: field and within like a decade or so, they're handing
5:51
Speaker 1: out PhDs in it. Yeah. Well it didn't substantial. It
5:53
Speaker 1: was substantial, but it didn't catch on like wildfire wasn't
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Speaker 1: super popular at first. No, and actually it was very
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Speaker 1: um um shunned conversial. Yeah. Well, because chefs are all
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Speaker 1: about cooking with the soul and cooking with love, and
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden there was a sky these two
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Speaker 1: guys that were breaking it down to the molecular level
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Speaker 1: and kind of taking all the fun out of it
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Speaker 1: to some people's in some people's opinion, right, And and
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Speaker 1: as you said, it's soulful, it's artistic cooking is when
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Speaker 1: you apply science to art, it loses something intangible but
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Speaker 1: very important. Um. But on the other hand, molecular gastronomy
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Speaker 1: has been able to produce things like snail porridge. You
6:34
Speaker 1: want to read the quote, Actually I don't have that
6:37
Speaker 1: to you. I do. Um one one eater of the
6:40
Speaker 1: snail porridge. Wow, what just happened to me? And um
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Speaker 1: of snail porridge described it as quote successively savory sweet
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Speaker 1: snailey crunchy and tart ellips nothing less than magical. That's
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Speaker 1: pretty substantial for for snail porridge. And with snail porridge
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Speaker 1: or with molecular gastronomy, you can come up with dishes
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Speaker 1: like snail porridge which no one would ever have thought
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Speaker 1: of creating. Um, and you can also make it perfect
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Speaker 1: nothing less than magical every single time. Yeah, which is
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Speaker 1: that kind of precision is good when you're a chef
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Speaker 1: because one of the keys to a successful restaurant is consistency.
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Speaker 1: But early on it got a lot of criticism because
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Speaker 1: a lot of chefs didn't find it was accessible to
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Speaker 1: your average home chef and they think not yeah, they
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Speaker 1: think to be a successful uh discipline then because Julia Child,
7:35
Speaker 1: for instance, she was a talented cook and chef, but
7:39
Speaker 1: she didn't really hit it big until she put out
7:41
Speaker 1: that book. She was nothing that everyone wanted in their kitchen,
7:44
Speaker 1: right and Chuck, while we're talking about books, we should
7:46
Speaker 1: probably give a shout out to Liz Um, who's the
7:49
Speaker 1: stuff you should know a listener um and who runs
7:52
Speaker 1: a little bit sweets l I D D A B
7:55
Speaker 1: I T S W E E T S dot com. Yeah,
7:59
Speaker 1: we plugged her before in her awesome. Cha. Yes, and
8:02
Speaker 1: I think it's been a little since we've got some chocolates. Frankly, yeah,
8:05
Speaker 1: I think it's about time for a little uh what's
8:06
Speaker 1: it called pala? Yeah? Um. She gave us her Ve
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Speaker 1: Teases book, Molecular Gastronomy Exploring the Science of Flavor, right,
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Speaker 1: and um, I've had it since June of last year,
8:22
Speaker 1: almost a year, and I've read the first entry. But
8:25
Speaker 1: we have the book thanks to her and she she
8:28
Speaker 1: gave us the book to kind of grease the wheels
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Speaker 1: toward a molecular Gastronomy podcast. So here it is. It's
8:33
Speaker 1: almost a year late. So to wrap up the history
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Speaker 1: her a Teases partner and starting up this new discipline,
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Speaker 1: Nicholas Curty passed away her a uh then changed it
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Speaker 1: to just molecular gastronomy, dropped the physical part. I think
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Speaker 1: that's very honorable that he waited until the guy died,
8:50
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm getting rid of this part. Well,
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Speaker 1: he didn't call it tse and gastronomy. No. He seems
8:56
Speaker 1: like a pretty cool dude, so uh. He also loosened
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Speaker 1: his um viewpoint a little bit on pure science and said,
9:03
Speaker 1: you know what, there is a lot of art and
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Speaker 1: soul involved, and so let's just say it's art and
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Speaker 1: science and not one or the other. And it's um quote,
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Speaker 1: the art and science of selecting, preparing, serving, and most
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Speaker 1: importantly to me, enjoying food. That's right, because you can
9:18
Speaker 1: get to a point where you're no longer enjoying food.
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Speaker 1: The definition of of gastronomy was the art of selecting, preparing, serving,
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Speaker 1: and enjoying food. And a lot of people worried when
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Speaker 1: molecular was added to gastronomy that it was going to
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Speaker 1: take out the last part. It's not fun when you
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Speaker 1: apply science to it. But he managed to um combine
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Speaker 1: the two and since then there's a whole just slew
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Speaker 1: of really talented chefs out there working in this field.
9:46
Speaker 1: That's right. And it's delicious food too. I mean it
9:48
Speaker 1: looks funny and looks interesting and different, but it's it's
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Speaker 1: also yummy. It wouldn't be around at fifty plate if
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Speaker 1: it wasn't yummy. Just because you can make a cube
9:57
Speaker 1: out of mayonnaise doesn't mean we're gonna eat. It's still
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Speaker 1: gotta taste like good mayonnaise, right, And if you're gonna
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Speaker 1: call something snail porridge because it's made out of snail,
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Speaker 1: you have better taste. Kid, who was that? Nothing less
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Speaker 1: than his recipe? That was? Was it? Wild Frame? I
10:13
Speaker 1: don't know. I know you're a big fan of his,
10:14
Speaker 1: aren't you. Yeah? And I haven't been to w D fifty,
10:16
Speaker 1: but next time we're we're in New York, dude, we
10:18
Speaker 1: should go. Okay, for sure? He makes a s that
10:23
Speaker 1: length the ice cream bagels, Yeah, it's amazing and it's
10:26
Speaker 1: it's it looked like little bagel halves, but their bagel
10:29
Speaker 1: flavored ice cream made into the shape of a bagel
10:33
Speaker 1: and then dust like an airbrush to to give it
10:37
Speaker 1: the shading an appearance of being toasted. It's pretty crazy something. Alright,
10:41
Speaker 1: So let's talk is heston blue menhal was the snail porridge? Alright,
10:46
Speaker 1: Let's talk chemistry for a second. If you're a chemistr
10:50
Speaker 1: you're gonna classify matter into one of three things. It's
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Speaker 1: going to be an element, a compound, or a mixture.
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Speaker 1: Element can't be broken down any further because it's like
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Speaker 1: oxygen or hydrogen. Sure compound is let's say oxygen and
11:02
Speaker 1: hydrogen water salt. That's a compound, and they are actually
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Speaker 1: chemically uh combined, but they have properties that are separate
11:13
Speaker 1: and distinct from their components. That's the constituents right right.
11:17
Speaker 1: And then you have a mixture, which is when you
11:19
Speaker 1: combine substances that are not held together chemically and they
11:22
Speaker 1: can be separated by physical means like filtering something, right,
11:27
Speaker 1: And then that's that's pretty basic stuff, right, chemistry On
11:31
Speaker 1: the one um one of now we start to kind
11:35
Speaker 1: of get into um, molecular gastronomy's interest in chemistry, like
11:40
Speaker 1: all of that is is taken into account of course,
11:43
Speaker 1: but um, we get to colloids. And once we reach colloids,
11:47
Speaker 1: which we just have, we really have entered the realm
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Speaker 1: of molecular gastronomy and food. And a colloid is basically
11:54
Speaker 1: a mixture of to two substances that are um. They're
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Speaker 1: dispersed but not dissolved in one another, and they can
12:00
Speaker 1: actually be of two different phases or states. So you
12:03
Speaker 1: remember there's three phases of matter, technically four which is plasma, remember,
12:08
Speaker 1: which is liquid so hot it behaves like a gas. Um.
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Speaker 1: But I don't think they've entered that field with molecular
12:15
Speaker 1: gastronomy yet where they use plasma probably like trying to
12:19
Speaker 1: search that out. He's like plasma huh. Um, that's gas,
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Speaker 1: liquid and solid, right, and you can um introduce one
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Speaker 1: into the other, uh and create something new. So, for example,
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Speaker 1: if you introduce gas, you disperse it into a liquid,
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Speaker 1: you're gonna get what's called foam, for example, whipped cream
12:37
Speaker 1: or beer foam. Or if you're Marcel from Top Chef,
12:42
Speaker 1: he'll put a foam on anything and everything. I like
12:45
Speaker 1: a nice egg wash on some drinks. It's just like
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Speaker 1: egg white. It becomes emulsified and turns foamy. Yeah, you're
12:52
Speaker 1: into the cocktails. Oh yeah, I'm into pouring whiskey onto ice.
12:57
Speaker 1: I like that too. Yeah. I I've to make Manhattan
13:00
Speaker 1: for you sometime. Man I have mastered it. Oh yeah,
13:03
Speaker 1: I had a fancy cocktail the other night at some
13:05
Speaker 1: place and it was it was fine, but it's just like,
13:07
Speaker 1: why are you putting all this stuff on top of
13:08
Speaker 1: the whiskey. In the end, it's not for me you.
13:13
Speaker 1: I will change your mind with my Manhattan. Remember that
13:16
Speaker 1: cocktail that youmy had it uh momo fuco. That tasted
13:19
Speaker 1: like a sweat sock. It was um, it was like
13:23
Speaker 1: the mustard whiskey. It was a mustard whiskey drink with
13:28
Speaker 1: a pretzel stir. And it sounded really intriguing and awesome
13:31
Speaker 1: on the venue. But it did. It tasted like not
13:34
Speaker 1: only like an old sweaty gym sock, but one that
13:37
Speaker 1: that was taken off a foot that had some sort
13:39
Speaker 1: of effective. It was so growth and you guys are adventurous.
13:42
Speaker 1: But both of you are like, no, I can't drink this.
13:44
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, David Change, Yeah, but MoMA Fuco is awesome.
13:47
Speaker 1: We don't want to downgrade that place, agreed, all right,
13:50
Speaker 1: So I don't think we can. We're not in any
13:52
Speaker 1: kind of position to downgrade moment exactly. So Cloydal systems, Josh,
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Speaker 1: like you said, of all two phases uma some liquid
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Speaker 1: or solid in liquid, but when you're talking about food prep,
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Speaker 1: a lot of times there's more than two phases. And
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Speaker 1: that is called a complex dispersed system, that kind of
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Speaker 1: Coydal system because there's more than two. And this is
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Speaker 1: where it gets a little like mind numbing to me,
14:17
Speaker 1: because t said, you know what, let me create a
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Speaker 1: little shorthand for CDs by um describing these complex systems
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Speaker 1: through abbreviations phases letters representing ah the size of the
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Speaker 1: molecules and what ingredients you're working with, and basically break
14:37
Speaker 1: down a recipe into what looks like a math equation, right.
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Speaker 1: And I mean the fact that he created a shorthand
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Speaker 1: for CDs kind of suggests how important it is to
14:46
Speaker 1: molecular gastronomy to to basically create these kind of new
14:49
Speaker 1: and radical textures and shapes and things like that. Um,
14:54
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's a uh for example, the I'm gonna
14:58
Speaker 1: see if I can describe it's okay, good luck, but um,
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Speaker 1: the the CDs shorthand for ioli right, just basically mayonnaise. Yeah,
15:08
Speaker 1: but it with garlic and lemon and um olive oil. Um,
15:13
Speaker 1: it's it's oh times tend to the negative fifth common
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Speaker 1: tend to the negative four divided by W times D,
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Speaker 1: which is greater than six times seven to the negative seventh.
15:27
Speaker 1: That's an actual sort of shorthanded recipe, it is. And frankly, um,
15:31
Speaker 1: I I can't make heads or tails of it. I
15:34
Speaker 1: know that the O and the W stands for oil
15:37
Speaker 1: and water, and the fact that there's a forward slash
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Speaker 1: or a division sign means that the oil is dispersed
15:43
Speaker 1: into the water rather than the water dispersed into the oil.
15:47
Speaker 1: And then the numbers like tend to the negative five
15:49
Speaker 1: or tend to the negative four. Those are shorthand for
15:52
Speaker 1: the size of the particles in that are that are
15:56
Speaker 1: meant to be introduced into this. So really, if you're
15:59
Speaker 1: her Vets or somebody her Vetis has explicitly sat down
16:02
Speaker 1: over the course of five years and explain this to
16:05
Speaker 1: you could look at this and be like, oh, well, yeah,
16:07
Speaker 1: there's ioli right there, and I know exactly how to
16:09
Speaker 1: make this and how to make it every time. And
16:12
Speaker 1: the the surprising thing, don't forget her Vets is not
16:15
Speaker 1: a chef. This whole thing started with a failure of
16:20
Speaker 1: to make sufflay. He's a physical chemist, right um. He
16:26
Speaker 1: what he came up with stands up across the board. Um.
16:30
Speaker 1: There are literally hundreds of different sauces in the French
16:34
Speaker 1: pantheon of cooking. He managed to figure out that with
16:38
Speaker 1: his CDs shorthand, this colloidal dispersion system shorthand, right um,
16:44
Speaker 1: he can he can basically categorize him and I think
16:47
Speaker 1: to twenty four different groups, three different groups, hundreds boiled
16:53
Speaker 1: down in twenty three different groups, and you can make
16:55
Speaker 1: new sauces by going backwards. And that's one of the
16:59
Speaker 1: exciting things about it is they're sort of reinventing classic
17:02
Speaker 1: recipes many times, and we should mention it too. I
17:05
Speaker 1: kind of walked over this. UM. One of the most
17:08
Speaker 1: familiar complex dispersed systems that you know of is ice cream. Yeah,
17:13
Speaker 1: because ice cream is actually very complex. It's um solid,
17:17
Speaker 1: which is milk fat and milk protein liquid which is water,
17:20
Speaker 1: and gas air because you whip air through it as
17:23
Speaker 1: you're chilling it, and in at least two colloidal states.
17:27
Speaker 1: So ice cream is a lot more complex than you
17:29
Speaker 1: might think. Yes, and delicious, yes, But and we'll see
17:34
Speaker 1: later on. Molecular gastronomists have figured out how to make
17:38
Speaker 1: that very complex delicacy in a very easy way ablaze
17:43
Speaker 1: with his liquid nitrogen. So chuck, UM. We have an
17:49
Speaker 1: idea now that you can apply what looks like math,
17:53
Speaker 1: which is really just shorthand to cooking for molecular gastronomy. UM.
17:57
Speaker 1: Other molecular astronomers have come up with basically new ways
18:01
Speaker 1: of preparing or presenting food right, Yes, big time, and
18:04
Speaker 1: there's some some are bigger than others, some are more
18:07
Speaker 1: buzzwords than others. UM like, uh, suvied cooking very popular
18:12
Speaker 1: these days. Suvied is when you take um, sometimes it's
18:16
Speaker 1: some meat, sometimes it's vegetables, uh, and you um put
18:20
Speaker 1: it in bag with its spices that you want, and
18:23
Speaker 1: you vacuum seal it, get every single bit of air out,
18:26
Speaker 1: and then you cook that bag of you know it's
18:29
Speaker 1: something that won't melt. Obviously, you cook the bag with
18:31
Speaker 1: the food in it in a water bath that's a
18:34
Speaker 1: very steady temperature, but never boiling. It's not like rice
18:38
Speaker 1: serrouni that you're boiling a little more complex than that.
18:41
Speaker 1: It's generally a very low temperature. So like if you're
18:43
Speaker 1: gonna cook meat, you put it in about a hundred
18:45
Speaker 1: and forty degrees and you cook it for uh yeah, thirty.
18:50
Speaker 1: Well it depends on what it is, but yeah, and
18:52
Speaker 1: what it does is in the end, you retain the
18:54
Speaker 1: nutrients more, retain the juices, the flavor, and you get
18:58
Speaker 1: a perfectly even cooking experience. Right, and take it out
19:02
Speaker 1: and you flash fried on both sides to see it
19:04
Speaker 1: real nice, well not flash fry sere it and you've
19:07
Speaker 1: just basically made a steak. As per molecular astronomy. Yeah,
19:11
Speaker 1: I like your recipe better though it's been working for you. Yeah,
19:14
Speaker 1: it's nice, although I do want to try the Suvie.
19:16
Speaker 1: It's just a little price you to get into. Yeah,
19:19
Speaker 1: because really you need a vacuum seiler and uh water oven. Technically,
19:24
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you could do it on the stove,
19:25
Speaker 1: but the whole key to suvie is having a really
19:28
Speaker 1: really precise, consistent temperature, and unless you're really good on
19:32
Speaker 1: your gas range, you're probably not gonna be able to
19:34
Speaker 1: do that with just a pott and water. That is correct.
19:37
Speaker 1: What about spurification? Technically you can do this with just
19:40
Speaker 1: a normal pot of water, right, Yeah, tell me about that.
19:43
Speaker 1: So spurification is basically a way of presenting um food
19:47
Speaker 1: and kind of turning mundane stuff into delicious little balls
19:52
Speaker 1: of food that kind of explode in your mouth. Right. Yeah,
19:55
Speaker 1: it's got liquid. It's like remember that gum that used
19:58
Speaker 1: to chew that have the liquid center freshen up um
20:02
Speaker 1: that stuff still around. It's awesome. So the blue peppermint
20:06
Speaker 1: kind Yes, So basically um spherification is is taking it.
20:11
Speaker 1: It's a jelling reaction between calcium chloride and alginate and algenate.
20:16
Speaker 1: Is this gum like substance that's extracted from seaweed. Okay, so, um,
20:21
Speaker 1: you you take the calcium chloride to make um alive spheres. Right,
20:26
Speaker 1: take all of juice calcium chloride. And I'm not giving
20:30
Speaker 1: any um any amounts which are is very important, like
20:35
Speaker 1: specific amounts, but I'm just giving you a rough idea. Um,
20:38
Speaker 1: you take all of juice and calcium chloride. You mix
20:41
Speaker 1: it together. Right, You take algin it and you mix
20:44
Speaker 1: it with water, Allow it to sit overnight, let the
20:46
Speaker 1: air bubbles rise to the surface and escape. And then um,
20:51
Speaker 1: the next day you you make little tiny balls out
20:54
Speaker 1: of the calcium chloride and um all of juice mixtures,
21:00
Speaker 1: and then very delicately drop it into the um algenate
21:05
Speaker 1: blend of water and a chemical reaction happens. Right, Apparently,
21:10
Speaker 1: long chain algenate polymer's become linked because of the calcium
21:14
Speaker 1: chloride ions. Right, a gel is formed. Because you introduced
21:19
Speaker 1: them as little balls, they turn into little gel balls
21:22
Speaker 1: of olive taste. And you take them out, you know,
21:26
Speaker 1: you drain them, put them in a cold water bath,
21:29
Speaker 1: and then after that they're set and you can pop
21:32
Speaker 1: them in your mouth or serve them like caviar. I know, um,
21:36
Speaker 1: one recipe that they had in here was for someone
21:38
Speaker 1: that takes apple juice and makes a little caviar apple basically. Yeah,
21:43
Speaker 1: that you would basically would probably spoon that on top
21:44
Speaker 1: of some sort of other dish and all of a sudden,
21:47
Speaker 1: these flavors are bursting in your mouth as you bite
21:49
Speaker 1: into it, and it's just an experience it is. So
21:53
Speaker 1: I guess at this point, molecular gastronomy is food done ridiculous.
21:59
Speaker 1: They can flash free. That's a big popular thing. They
22:01
Speaker 1: have something now called the the anti griddle, and I've
22:05
Speaker 1: seen Blaze is this too. It's basically cold cooking. Uh,
22:09
Speaker 1: he's into the cold cooking, but it's a griddle and
22:11
Speaker 1: instead of getting hot, it goes down to what negative
22:14
Speaker 1: thirty degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, And so I've seen Blaze put
22:18
Speaker 1: mayonnaise on there and then take that little frozen mayonnaise
22:22
Speaker 1: and bathe and batter it and fry it. So in
22:25
Speaker 1: the end you have a mayonnaise fried mayonnaise ball. That
22:28
Speaker 1: sounds awesome and it stays at it's in its ball
22:31
Speaker 1: for him until you like squish the burger down. Then
22:33
Speaker 1: it that is awesome. I did not know about that.
22:37
Speaker 1: Pretty cool. I don't know if he does that it flip,
22:38
Speaker 1: but I've seen him do that on a TV show once.
22:40
Speaker 1: So Yeah, with the anti griddle and flash freezing, it's
22:44
Speaker 1: basically you're you're taking something and that's liquid and making
22:48
Speaker 1: the outside hard, yeah, and leaving the in the interior.
22:52
Speaker 1: The core is like a in a liquid state. So
22:55
Speaker 1: you know you do that with like chocolate, you get
22:58
Speaker 1: something pretty awesome, right, I would think, and I guess Chuck, Um,
23:02
Speaker 1: those are some some fairly common or if you go
23:05
Speaker 1: to a molecular gastronomy restaurant around the world, you're going
23:10
Speaker 1: to run into something like that. Spification, which was I
23:13
Speaker 1: think um introduced by a guy named Ferran Adria, Spain. Yeah,
23:18
Speaker 1: who owns Abouli in in Roses, Spain. Um, he created that,
23:22
Speaker 1: but I think it's become kind of standard if you
23:24
Speaker 1: want to do it more at home, if you want
23:26
Speaker 1: to engage in molecular gastronomy, you could do severification. You
23:30
Speaker 1: just have to have the right ingredients. But it's also
23:33
Speaker 1: just kind of using technology. It's like trans human cooking
23:35
Speaker 1: as well. Um, so like if you want to cook duck,
23:38
Speaker 1: all our orange right, duck all duck all orong? I
23:43
Speaker 1: got it that time. Um, you would basically roast a
23:46
Speaker 1: duck for two hours. If you're going to do it molecularly, Um,
23:51
Speaker 1: you would prefer using a microwave. A lot less time,
23:55
Speaker 1: a lot less energy. I'm not into it. I'm not either, chuck. Um.
24:01
Speaker 1: There are some tools, and we said one of the
24:03
Speaker 1: great criticisms of molecular gastronomy is this isn't something that
24:07
Speaker 1: most people can do in their kitchen, which is, you know,
24:10
Speaker 1: that's part of cooking, that's what makes cooking soulful. You
24:12
Speaker 1: do it at home. There's a very special room in
24:14
Speaker 1: your house that you cook in and you teach your
24:16
Speaker 1: kids or your grandkids, and it's a family bonding exactly. Um.
24:22
Speaker 1: But a lot of the stuff we just talked about
24:24
Speaker 1: you can't necessarily do in your kitchen, or can you
24:27
Speaker 1: answer you can? You can go buy an anti griddle.
24:31
Speaker 1: This is something you could have like stored in your
24:33
Speaker 1: kitchen bucks. Okay, so if you were wealthy, you could
24:36
Speaker 1: go out and buy an anti griddle. Yeah. You can
24:38
Speaker 1: get a water oven for a few hundred and a
24:40
Speaker 1: and a good vacuum sealer for about a buck fifty,
24:43
Speaker 1: so all in on the SUVII bucks or less. You
24:46
Speaker 1: can do that, it's not too bad. Yeah. Um. The
24:49
Speaker 1: hypodermic syringe isn't very expensive. You can go down to
24:52
Speaker 1: your local free clinic and pose as a junkie and
24:55
Speaker 1: they'll give you a bunch of them for free. Yeah.
24:57
Speaker 1: I actually use those. They have like the cooking syringes. Yeah.
24:59
Speaker 1: It's inject meats, Yeah, inject meats with um, with marinades
25:04
Speaker 1: or if you want to do make the little apple caviar.
25:07
Speaker 1: This is good to have. It's also very good for
25:09
Speaker 1: extracting egg white from egg yolk. Um. Where there's a
25:13
Speaker 1: very famous picture that appears in this article of a
25:15
Speaker 1: correct egg and a syringe dipping into it. That's like
25:18
Speaker 1: the visual icon for molecular astronomy. Yeah. Um. A vacuum
25:23
Speaker 1: machine is very important for Suvie cooking, right, Yeah, I
25:27
Speaker 1: can't let any water in there, gotta be sealed tight.
25:29
Speaker 1: And then there's the gastro vac which is kind of
25:32
Speaker 1: like an all in one utility for cooking molecularly. It's
25:38
Speaker 1: about five thousand dollars. Yeah, so it's uh, what is it?
25:41
Speaker 1: A crock pot vacuum pump and a heating plate all
25:43
Speaker 1: in one. Not bad. And then you got liquid nitrogen,
25:47
Speaker 1: which is what Blaze loves to work with. Right, and
25:50
Speaker 1: we were talking about making um ice cream actually easier
25:54
Speaker 1: than creating a colloidal system. UM. You can say, follow
25:59
Speaker 1: any recipe for ice cream and you get the ice
26:01
Speaker 1: cream mixture already, but before you the step of actually
26:04
Speaker 1: processing it, you just pour in some liquid nitrogen and
26:08
Speaker 1: you stir it and botta boom, bought a bing. You
26:11
Speaker 1: have just created ice cream. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Another
26:14
Speaker 1: thing I've seen Blaze do is to get um like
26:17
Speaker 1: on a very large serving plate. He'll have a very
26:20
Speaker 1: small uh like let's say, almost like in a moose boush,
26:25
Speaker 1: like literally one bite, and then he'll have spices sprinkled
26:28
Speaker 1: on the plate and he'll at the table. They will
26:31
Speaker 1: pour some liquid nitrogen onto the plate and it starts
26:34
Speaker 1: at like it's like something out of the Abyss. It
26:37
Speaker 1: it stays together and it starts like dancing all over
26:39
Speaker 1: the plate and collecting the spice, and so it's a
26:42
Speaker 1: clear you know, it looks like vodka or something, but
26:45
Speaker 1: it's vodka sailing all over your plate until it's collected
26:48
Speaker 1: all the spice into its little sphere. That's very cool.
26:52
Speaker 1: Very where was that? I saw YouTube of itne Blaze
26:55
Speaker 1: has done it. Okay, very invent of guy and he lives.
26:58
Speaker 1: I mean we should have had him in here. Actually,
27:00
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have come in here. We could probably get
27:02
Speaker 1: in touch with him. All right. Well, Richard Blaze, if
27:04
Speaker 1: you're out there and you have a time machine, touch
27:07
Speaker 1: with us, because we'd like to have you on. I
27:08
Speaker 1: see him walking his dog and his kid all the
27:10
Speaker 1: time over now, saw over near the Edgewood Shopping Center. Hi,
27:16
Speaker 1: say hi for me next time. Like, how you do
27:19
Speaker 1: that thing with that liquid nitrogen? Thing? You do exactly?
27:23
Speaker 1: Bengal goat fell over. That's it? You got anything else? Chuck? Uh, Well,
27:28
Speaker 1: we should say that if liquid nitrogen seems odd, it's really.
27:33
Speaker 1: Blaze likens it to deep frying, except it's cold frying.
27:37
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. Um, there is a
27:41
Speaker 1: there is a lot of criticism to molecular astronomy. There's
27:44
Speaker 1: also a lot of um explanation to it too, Like
27:46
Speaker 1: that right her a teeth once said. We pointed out that, Um,
27:52
Speaker 1: you can cook an egg by adding heat to it.
27:56
Speaker 1: You can also achieve the same end by adding alcohol
27:59
Speaker 1: to it. Really yeah, um, so you know what's the problem,
28:03
Speaker 1: especially if you can change the flavor create like something
28:07
Speaker 1: new by adding alcohol rather than just cooking. I think, um,
28:11
Speaker 1: molecular astronomers kind of think that people who have a
28:14
Speaker 1: problem with it are just kind of looking at it
28:17
Speaker 1: the wrong way, Like you're still achieving the same thing,
28:19
Speaker 1: you're just using a different process or different means. Right. Um,
28:23
Speaker 1: I think it's cool. I wouldn't want to eat that.
28:24
Speaker 1: You know, it's expensive. For one, if you go to
28:26
Speaker 1: one of these restaurants, you're gonna drop some serious cash.
28:29
Speaker 1: It's true. But you know, I'm kind of classicists as well.
28:34
Speaker 1: No you're not. I don't know egalitarian. I don't want
28:38
Speaker 1: to know e multifiers in my food. Oh so you're
28:41
Speaker 1: a classist upward not downward. No, I mean I don't
28:45
Speaker 1: mean a classicist. I mean a classic I'm into the classics. Well,
28:50
Speaker 1: you went right from like very expensive meals into class that.
28:54
Speaker 1: I didn't realize you were, sorry, and what's sad? As
28:57
Speaker 1: you said it correctly, I just assumed you meant classes.
29:00
Speaker 1: Now Yeah, I'm all confused. Now, yeah, me too. So
29:03
Speaker 1: that's it from Molecular Gastronomy. If you want to learn more,
29:07
Speaker 1: um including a list of some of the churches of
29:10
Speaker 1: molecular astronomy around the world. If you can type in
29:12
Speaker 1: molecular gastronomy in the handy search bart how Stuff works
29:16
Speaker 1: dot Com and will pull up a great article. And uh, now,
29:20
Speaker 1: of course we've just traped innocently into the forest of
29:25
Speaker 1: listener mail. That's right, Josh, And this is a sad one.
29:29
Speaker 1: No jokes on this one, because we have lost a
29:34
Speaker 1: listener sadly, and her friend Amanda wrote us to tell
29:37
Speaker 1: us about it. Uh, hi, guys and Jerry, hope you're
29:40
Speaker 1: keeping well. I am, unfortunately the bear or bad news
29:43
Speaker 1: one of stuff you should know as big as fans.
29:45
Speaker 1: Lynn Volos passed away from a particularly virulent cancer a
29:49
Speaker 1: few days ago. And I think we got this letter
29:53
Speaker 1: last week's so mid March. My friendship with Lynn epitomize
29:57
Speaker 1: all that is new in this century. I was a
30:00
Speaker 1: all time student with no money, needed some entertainment in
30:03
Speaker 1: the evenings in early two thousand one, and I had
30:06
Speaker 1: just read a book that delighted me. The publisher set
30:08
Speaker 1: up a message board, so off I went and joined
30:10
Speaker 1: a rabble rousing community of women from all over the world.
30:13
Speaker 1: Lynn was one of the first to welcome me, and
30:16
Speaker 1: in the ensuing decade would often give me the keys
30:19
Speaker 1: to the bus, so to speak, when she was away
30:20
Speaker 1: or indisposed to keep the peace. Because you see, Lynn
30:24
Speaker 1: was a peacemaker. She must have seen in me a
30:26
Speaker 1: glimmer of her ability to relax frayed nerves, bring people
30:29
Speaker 1: together in crisis and joy, and be a center of
30:32
Speaker 1: calm and still water during many of the storms we
30:35
Speaker 1: have weathered individually and as a community. Lynn lived a
30:39
Speaker 1: life that I doubt many of us could imagine. She
30:41
Speaker 1: discovered her true self later in life and moved from
30:44
Speaker 1: the Deep South to the Northeast to be with her
30:46
Speaker 1: darling Nikki. Facing hardships from the life to which she
30:50
Speaker 1: had given so much, Lynn gave more as a mother
30:53
Speaker 1: to Jessica and Becca, a beloved auntie, as a caregiver
30:56
Speaker 1: to seniors and special needs kids, and to her wonderful
30:59
Speaker 1: animals gave her so much happiness. Just a short time ago,
31:03
Speaker 1: Lynn was diagnosed with cancer, and with the bravest of faces,
31:05
Speaker 1: she fought on until she could no longer. I never
31:08
Speaker 1: met Lynn in life actually, but I cannot imagine the
31:10
Speaker 1: last ten years of my life without her in it.
31:13
Speaker 1: Not only have I lost a friend, our community has
31:15
Speaker 1: lost a beloved presence. And Stuff you should Know is
31:17
Speaker 1: minus one evangelists who got a treat with her last
31:21
Speaker 1: almost hour long show last week. Lynn love stuff you
31:24
Speaker 1: should know. I think more for the rational, measured and
31:26
Speaker 1: well balanced way you all present information without judgment and controversy.
31:31
Speaker 1: So many traits that you all share with Lynn, and
31:33
Speaker 1: I will think of her whenever I hear Hey, welcome
31:36
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and with me as
31:38
Speaker 1: always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, as always your friend Amanda.
31:44
Speaker 1: Very sad and it is sad. Thank you, Amanda. And
31:46
Speaker 1: I asked Amanda if there was any kind of charity
31:48
Speaker 1: that her family might want us to mention, and she
31:51
Speaker 1: said yes, and she wrote her family and said that, um,
31:54
Speaker 1: if any was moved by this, that you can make
31:56
Speaker 1: a donation to the Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi at
31:59
Speaker 1: the b WW dot A, r f M S dot com.
32:05
Speaker 1: So a great charity as well. Uh well, thank you
32:07
Speaker 1: again Amanda for letting us know and rest in peace.
32:10
Speaker 1: Lyns Volos um. Although we never knew you, we were
32:14
Speaker 1: glad you listened to us. Thank you for listening. Part
32:17
Speaker 1: of the part of the stuff You know family for sure,
32:19
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32:22
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32:26
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32:30
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32:32
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32:36
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