Cool alum: Michael Chu, founder of Cooking For Engineers
by Rachel Jackson
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Michael Chu in action.
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At the Cooking for Engineers Web site, you'll find the usual do-it-yourself gourmet fare: mouth-watering recipes, how-to articles, and gadget reviews of spice grinders and kitchen scales. But you'll also find tidbits like this: "The salt solution on the outside of the meat and the less salty solution inside the meat sets the stage for the flow of solvent and solute. The salt (solute) diffuses into the meat when some water (solvent) diffuses out of the meat. Then, (this is the key), the extra salt that enters the meat begins to denature the proteins in the meat, producing both additional solutes and additional 'holes' for water to fill up. The osmotic pressure inverts and water begins to flow into the meat at this point producing juicier meat."
Michael Chu (B.S. '99 EECS), is the mastermind behind the unusual cooking website that's skyrocket in popularity. Along with a selection of his personally tested recipes, Chu spices up the mix with some engineering-esque content such as a measurement conversion tool and a chart on the smoke point of oils.
"It's written and presented in what I hope is an analytical viewpoint with interesting tidbits of info that most cooks don't bother to find out, but which engineers and science-minded folks like to know," he says.
A hardware applications engineer by day, Chu discovered that cooking was cathartic after a hard day hacking. The idea for Cooking for Engineers gelled when the recipes he stored on a server at work were accidentally deleted. Cooking For Engineers premiered last June with Chu 's variation on a Cook's Illustrated recipe for Salsa Cruda. Less than a year later, the tens of thousands of fans who visit the site each month are smacking their lips and smiling at the engineer in the apron.
From one recipe: "Traditionally served over linguine, shrimp scampi makes a quick and easy dinner that works equally well eaten in front of the computer or as the main dish of a romantic candlelight dinner."
Cooking For Engineers
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Updated 3/1/05.
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