Lots of scientists I know like to cook. (Not the dutch ones tough, but there is a cultural bias there (;-))) I always wondered if there was any rational behind that.
For example :
- I love to bake stuff, mainly sweet pâtisserie.
- One of my friend -who will immediately recognize himself- cooked/cooks for hours in the middle of the night when coming home late from the lab.
- One of my previous PI was an excellent cook who weighted ingredients at +/- 1 gram. And wrote up recipes like science protocols.
- People like to bring stuff they cooked for coffee breaks in the lab.
- Every scientist once said “I’d like to take a molecular cuisine course” …
Well, I think one of the things that make a great cook is the ability to see what you want at the end and plan the cooking process accordingly. And this is what we f***** know how to do in labs, no ? (no ?)
And here is the twist … in the lab, our experiments can fail, require optimization(s), etc … Unless you’re doing haute cuisine, cooking does not need this ! A standard recipe has 99% chances to turn out great, or at least decent. You could never say the same for experiments.
I think this is why scientists like cooking … If you follow the protocol recipe, it generally turns out fine … It’s comforting, reassuring, and satisfying. Mentioning no names …
These are definitely some of the most awesome and nerdy Drosophila cookies I ever saw. They are from this wonderful blog.
So scientists like to cook because it probably won’t go wrong? Like some kind of escape from the harsh realities of continuously failed experiments. I thought you’d go down the chemistry route! I like this one more though…
Yeah, that’s my explanation for it. Although, the chemistry behind is also quite a realistic one 🙂
I agree! I like to cook because of the satisfying feeling that I actually produced something good! Which I can’t say every day in the lab…
But ehm.. I’m a Dutch scientist and like to cook! (guess there are exceptions to everything ;))
Haha, indeed, some Dutch know and like cooking also. But it’s more the exception then the rule ! (And my point of comparison is the french scientists who are truly obsessed with food ;-))