Food Gal Featured in the New “Cooking for Geeks”

I’ve made no secret of the fact that me and technology don’t always get along.

So, it’s with both great flattery and some bemusement that I find myself included in the new “Cooking for Geeks” (O’Reilly) book by self-professed computer geek and cooking aficionado, Jeff Potter.

Potter studied computer science and visual art at Brown University. This is his first book, which looks at how science works to create so many delicious dishes we love.

Potter includes not only recipes but interviews with folks, including yours truly. I’m in good company, too. Some of the other profiled in the book include Dave Arnold, instructor at the French Culinary Institute in New York; Harold McGee, author of the seminal “On Food and Cooking” (Scribner); and Brian Wansink, author and Cornell University professor, who studies how people interact with food.

In the book, you’ll find me rhapsodizing about making preserved lemons, a process that always leaves me spellbound by the transformation that occurs when you add copious amounts of salt to fresh lemons, and let the mixture sit for a few weeks.

In my original blog post that described how to make preserved lemons, I mentioned how Moroccan cuisine expert Kitty Morse had inspired me to make my own after I took one of her cooking classes. I want to give her a huge shout-out for turning me on to this salty, intense condiment that I almost always have in my fridge now.

The book is a wealth of info — from making your own pectin for jams to whether or not alcohol truly burns off in cooking to an easy way to sous vide prepackaged frozen fish.

You don’t have to be a geek to enjoy it, either.

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