The Science of Temperature in the Kitchen

Great cooks go to great lengths to control the temperature of their productions. As Shizuo Tsuji tells it, one Tokyo restaurant built an entirely new kitchen on the second floor in the very center of the building so that soup can reach all the diners in less than 30 seconds. But temperature control is much more than challenging your guests’ ability to elegantly sip hot soup without making too loud a slurping sound. As temperature changes, food goes through physical and chemical changes, which lead to changes in texture and flavor. The iron chef and average home cooks could be separated by a couple of degrees on either side of a critical temperature.

But what exactly is temperature?