Hi, my name is George and I am the site creator and author in the majority of the posts. I handle recipes, photography and site maintenance. I also love food. I am a food enthusiast for since I can remember the concept of food. I enjoy everything about food. I enjoy making it, eating it, learning about it. I love to learn the history and the science behind every dish. Both chemistry and physics are involved to transform a pile of raw materials to a tasty wonderful dish. In my writing and perspective on food, I was greatly influenced by Harold McGee, Alton Brown, a great chef and TV personality, and my science. I hold a PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering. Food is nothing but materials and really the physics and chemistry behind making a new alloy and tempering chocolate is not that different. The science of the emulsion and micro-emulsion is not different from the science of salad dressing, mayonnaise and espresso. Suddenly old Voodoo recipes were just science.
My food style or liking, if you prefer, is not very clear in terms of generic food terminology (chinese, asian, american, greek etc). It is more specific to the methodology and ingredients. I prefer to use well know techniques of the french cuisine, for instance, on Greek ingredients, or Chinese ingredients with Greek style cooking. That said, it does not mean I am not well-defined. I have a very strong influence from Mediterranean cooking, specially Greek, but the emphasis is given on the fresh ingredients, the olive oil and the least use of meat. I also like to make authentic dishes from all around the world. Poster children, dishes that defined a nation. I am trying to be as authentic as possible, to ingredients and methods. You will find Mexican classics like the pico de gallo and the dulce de leche, japanese classics like miso soup and american classics like strawberry shortcakes. As I like to say “Around the world in 80 posts”.
I started the blog to convey my love for food and gastronomy. I wanted to add a new aspect to the world of food, primarily to chefs wannabes where I want to show that cooking well, is not a miracle but something, everyone can do. I am not a chef and yet I cook; you can too. Although the website is something I love to maintain, it cannot have my full attention. I am also a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health. Until recently I was at the University of Florida, as a researcher and teaching a class of interfacial phenomena (with a small break to serve mama Grecia). This was probably one of the most influential elements in my understanding of food, science and food mechanics. Everything in food is about interfaces: emulsions, foams, sponges, bubbles, colloids.
My food fetish, if something like that can be said, are the spices. I think is the one thing that can travel you in space and time faster than everything else. Smell is the sense of memory and spices are waking it up as noting else. Over and over in this blog you will read about spices, their history, their uses, their meaning and their significance in the world history. It is the one commodity that changed the world. Spices drove Columbus around the world, thus discovering America, and the world was never the same.