Since childhood I've been fascinated with the beauty of organic molecules. I pursued this passion in graduate school at Brown University and through a postdoctoral position at Stanford University. My professional career began at a startup pharmaceutical company in California, which evolved into research positions in agriculture and food ingredients. After 30 years I retired as a vice-president of research and development for a food ingredients company. I developed a passion for food and cooking and subsequently acquired a position as the science editor for America’s Test Kitchen, which I held for over 12 years. Today at the age of 80 I still write and publish scientific papers and books about food, cooking, and nutrition.
I wrote
Cook, Taste, Learn: How the Evolution of Science Transformed the Art of Cooking
This book was the inspiration for my book and was written by a professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. It sets out a convincing argument that cooking may have been started by the earliest humans about 2 million years ago, which is far earlier than most anthropologists believe. Much of Wrangham’s arguments are based on his own research that illustrates how cooking provided better nutrition resulting in the expansion of the human brain by 60% over thousands of years giving humans a head-start over all other living species.
In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: The habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes".
Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about…
A fascinating history about the evolution of human life by a renowned expert in the field. The book focuses on the technological developments that drove the evolution of humans from the very beginning. A beautifully illustrated book. The source of my favorite lines of poetry by William Blake:
“To see a World in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
Dr Jacob Bronowksi's The Ascent of Man traces the development of human society through our understanding of science.
First published in 1973 to accompany the groundbreaking BBC television series, it is considered one of the first works of 'popular science', illuminating the historical and social context of scientific development for a generation of readers. In his highly accessible style, Dr Bronowski discusses human invention from the flint tool to geometry, agriculture to genetics, and from alchemy to the theory of relativity, showing how they all are expressions of our ability to understand and control nature.
Another beautifully illustrated book that traces the evolution of agriculture in seven different regions of the world starting approximately 10,000 years ago. Many anthropologists believe the evolution of agriculture was the single greatest technological development of all time as it transformed early humans from hunter-gathers to settled societies resulting in an explosion of the human population.
In this text, the archaeologist, Bruce Smith, explores the initial emergence and early expansion of agriculture and the transformations in human society that made it possible. He charts the course of the agricultural revolution as it occurred in the Middle East, Europe, China, Africa and the Americas, showing how basic archaeological methods and modern technologies, such as plant analysis, radiocarbon dating and DNA sampling are used to investigate this event. Although in the agricultural mind, the agricultural revolution is often seen as a one-step transition from hunter-gatherer societies to farming ones, Smith shows how truly varied the patterns of animal…
An absolutely riveting account of the tragic attempt of Captain John Franklin of England to discover a northwest passage to Asia in 1845-1848. The account is told by a professor of Anthropology who discovered the frozen bodies of three sailors on the expedition that were literally frozen in time when their two ships were ice-bound 138 years ago. The two sunken ships were discovered only recently in 2014. It is now believed that food poisoning from improperly canned food may have been the cause of the tragic fate of the crew of 125 men.
“A remarkable piece of forensic deduction.”—Margaret Atwood
The internationally-bestselling account of the Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition, and the thrilling scientific investigation that spurred the decades-long hunt for its recovery—now with a new afterword on the discovery of its lost ships: Erebus and Terror.
“Chilling . . . will keep you up nights turning pages.”—The Chicago Tribune
In 1845, Sir John Franklin and his men set out to “penetrate the icy fastness of the north, and to circumnavigate America.” And then they disappeared. The truth about what happened to Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition was shrouded in mystery for more than a…
The book honors James Boswell’s intuition that defines humans as the “cooking animal,” as humans are the only species living on earth that cook their food. It is an interesting account of the world from a cook’s perspective. Symons maintains that to be truly human we need to become better cooks and to think of cooks as “sharers of food.” His account of the history of cooking is especially interesting and well researched
It’s truly amazing when you think about it—of all the many thousands of species living on earth, only humans cook their food! Professor Richard Wrangham, one of the world’s leading anthropologists, believes that some of our earliest ancestors began using fire to cook food almost 2 million years ago, resulting in bigger brains and an evolutionary advantage over all other species. Cooking provided pleasure, better nutrition and health, safety, and an undeniable effect on social behavior. This startling concept provided the seed for my new book Cook, Taste, Learn: How the Evolution of Science Transformed the Art of Cooking.
Science-driven changes in the way we cook food will reduce the risk of developing a number of chronic diseases and increase the quality of life.
After writing The Flight To Brassbright, I realized that my characters spent a lot of time enjoying a wide variety of foods and beverages. I suppose it couldn't be helped since their author is such a foodie.
I thought it would be fun to spin off a cookbook with real, practical recipes so that readers could enjoy the same foods as my wacky cast did on their adventures. There's something for everyone, as the cookbook runs the gamut. You'll find mouth-watering treats such as hearty meat pies, 'coal' cookies, Victorian-era 'hot dogs', bread and butter pickles, and home-spun cotton…
Steamed and Steamy: Recipes from the Steampunk World of Industralia
Even fictional characters gotta eat. These are their recipes. Now you can make the favorite foods of the fictional country of Industralia, from breakfast right on through to late night snacks. You’ll even learn how to make traditional New Year's “Coal Week” holiday treats.
"Ah, the delightful sounds and smells of cooking. And explosions. Or maybe that is just my kitchen... Venture forth into the wilds of your own kitchen to explore the possibilities for flavor and ingredients you encountered in your explorations of Industralia! From carnival peanuts and cotton candy to some hearty meat pies these recipes can help…
