Are you an innovative cook, accustomed to expressing your creativity instead of just following recipes? Are you interested in the science behind what happens to food while it’s cooking? Do you want to learn what makes a recipe work so you can improvise and create your own dish?

More than just a cookbook, Cooking for Geeks inspires you to be inventive in the kitchen and piques your curiosity about food. Why is medium-rare steak so popular? Why do you bake some things at 350°F/175°C and others at 375°F/190°C? And how quickly does a pizza cook if you “overclock” an oven to 1,000°F/540°C? Author and cooking geek Jeff Potter provides the answers and offers a unique take on recipes—from the sweet (a “mean” chocolate chip cookie) to the savory (duck confit sugo). This book is an excellent and intriguing resource if you want to experiment with cooking—regardless of whether you consider yourself a geek.

• Initialize your kitchen and calibrate your tools
  
• Learn about the important reactions in cooking, such as protein denaturation, the Maillard reaction, and caramelization, and how they impact the foods you cook
  
• Play with your food, using hydrocolloids and sous vide cooking
  
• Gain firsthand insights from interviews with researchers, food scientists, knife experts, chefs, writers, and more, including author Harold McGee, TV personality Adam Savage, chemist Hervé This, and even a comic from xkcd.com