Mass Innovation's Food Innovation night brought out foodies, scientists, cooks and restauranteurs. In the cooking/science category, here are the innovations that were presented.
For many, the best way to know what they're eating is to cook their food fom scratch. There are alot of cook books on the market, but none like "Cooking for Geeks". With chapter titles like Hello Kitchen, Initializing the Kitchen, Choosing your Inputs ... and Fun with Hardware, you'll probably guess that the Boston based author Jeff Potter is not only a software engineer, but that the text is sprinkled with programming references. Have no fear, even if the references go over your head you will get a lot of sound advice about selecting recipes, ingredients and utensils as well as the chemistry of cooking. You can read a preview of the book on Amazon.com and listen to the podcast of Jeff's appearance last week on NPR's "Science Friday". If you're an Alton Brown fan, you'll love this book.
Another scientific approach to producing food comes from Top Sprouts. Local food and green building are hot topics right now, and Top Sprouts combines both to bring roogtop farms to urban buildings. By developing and operating rooftop greenhouses on urban buildings, Top Sprouts is able to supply quality fresh produce to consumers without using chemical pesticides.The greenhouses are also designed to increase energy efficiency for the building on which they are located. They do this by providing insulation which prevents heating and cooling loss, and the heat that is emitted from the building is captured and used in the greenhouse. They also collect rainwater, filter it and use it in the greenhouses.Other pluses for the building are the qualification for LEED points and tax credits. For consumers it means top quality produce where they live and work.
In addition, they have just introduced modular hydroponic kits that can sit on your window sill or be located in other places in your home as edible art. The systems come as easy to assemble kits that include an instruction manual and video that explains kit assembly, the science behind the system, growing tips, and suggestions for using the produce. Currently they are looking for early adopters to try out the in-home kits and hold demo-parties.
Although technically not cooking, mixology can be an important ingredient to the success of any meal. Like cooking, it is part science and part art. Add a nifty gadget to the mix and you have "The Barmaid Drink RImmer" from Lime Tree Cove. This is a nifty gadget that lets you rim a margarita glass in an easy and economical way.
Rather than rimming your glasses by dipping them in a plate of salt, this handy gadget travels around the rim of the glass depositing just the right amount of salt as it moves. Need to re-rim a half sipped drink? Difficult to do using the plate of salt method, easy with the "Barmaid Drink Rimmer".
In addition to the rimmer, Lemon Tree Cove has also put together cocktail spice samplers. There is the "Margarita Fiesta Cocktail Spice Sampler", the "Martini Fling Cocktail Spice Sampler", and the "Cocktail Spice Sampler" which contains two spice mixes for martinis, One spice mix for mojitos, one spice mix for margaritas and a spicy chili cocktail salt that can be used for bloodys marys, bloody caesars and margaritas.
Photo Source: Flickr
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Food innovations
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