British TV cooking demonstrations would help home cooking or eating takeaways?
Posted on May 31st, 2017

Dr Hector Perera      London

I assume that TV cooking demonstrations would help the general public in many ways such as encouraging them to cook at home then saving energy wastage. There is no point of rushing from one to the other without a proper explanation or just talk something totally irreverent to cooking. In some cooking programmes there are a few people come to demonstrate their kind of cooking of different things. Sometimes there are two judges as well watching their progress. The contesters make so many mistakes while cooking various dishes such as cooking at high temperature then letting out too much cooking aroma and sometimes they let the cooking aroma catch fire for no reason. The cooking aroma sometimes contains inflammable vapours from the ingredients added to cook. It may be attractive to see something catching fire but does it help in cooking? Yes people like to see fireworks that is why they go and watch firework displays during New Year and Christmas. The so called judges witness these actions and reactions but they sometimes express an impressive facial expressions than saying something to the contestants about that kind of cooking.

It reminds our back home good old Kussi Amma” or kitchen servants who cook in extremely difficult conditions in firewood kitchens. They keep on stirring the curries constantly by opening the lids then keep on tasting them several times. Some of these British TV chefs are no better as they also lick the spoons by getting something while the food are allowed to cook. In firewood stoves the fire cannot be easily controlled but these gas and electric cookers have those facilities but the British TV chefs hardly make use of them. They put the fire at full pressure then some of the fire goes out of the base of the cooking vessel that means there is a wastage of energy. The fire that goes out of the base of the cooking vessel are lost due to radiation and that would not help in cooking but just warms the surrounding for no reason. In firewood kitchens energy cannot be easily controlled but gas and electric cookers they have these facilities but most of the times the British TV chefs ignore these facilities. The public watch these TV cooking programmes and they assume that must be the way to cook and perhaps try and follow them. One must witness these cooking programmes then you would assume that home cooking would be a tedious job. Who would like to shower with cooking aroma while cooking? Sometimes those contestants run in studio kitchen to get to the oven or get something from the fridge or freezer. One must realise kitchen is not a place to run about, there might be drops of oil, water or pieces of vegetables on the floor so they might slip on them. I treat the kitchen as a kind of chemistry laboratory. In a kitchen one deals with chemicals, all the food we eat and drink are nothing but chemicals so my comparison of kitchen to a chemistry laboratory should be correct. In a chemistry laboratory there is adequate ventilation to get rid of any chemical vapours and smells. In some of these TV kitchens one would witness that the place is full of cooking aroma and sometimes smoke from burning food. I assume the extractor fans are running all the time to get rid of those gases but still there are cooking fumes. Sometimes they do grill cooking of burghers and pieces of meat. Most of the times the contestants have to inhale that kind of air and who would argue that is healthy. Any burnt meat contains carcinogenic compounds and the people are aware of these things but still they happily eat them as they taste different. During the summer there are garden parties where they eat meat burnt on firewood or coal, just like our primitive human beings. There is a saying that good old habits cannot be totally forgotten so they still eat burnt meat.

Breathing problems

According to research findings, too long exposure to cooking aroma leads to respiratory and cardiovascular problems. In China some chefs suffer from these problems as they cook long periods of times by the method of sauteeing that means cooking on a very hot pan by tossing the food with a small amount of fat to cook the food very quickly. It browns the surface of the food and develops complex flavours and aromas while doing this process. The chefs invariably inhale these cooking aroma continuously for long periods of time leading to health problems.

Food are slow conductors of heat

All the food we eat are bad or slow conductors of heat that means they take time to cook but some of those TV chefs do not understand those scientific rules. Take a simple thing such as rice or pasta, they take a few minutes to cook at a moderate temperature. If cooking on a stainless steel cooking pan, they cook faster than cooking on a clay pot because stainless steel are better conductors of heat also they have a high thermal capacity than clay pots. Some cook in Aluminium pots but certain chemicals attack this kind of metals and very likely to get dissolved in them. Aluminium is an amphoteric metal that means it get attacked by acidic as well as by alkali chemicals. Eating even traces of Aluminium for a long periods of times might lead to Alkerzima or to forgetfulness.  In some restaurants and hotels they use Aluminium vessels as they are less heavy to handle than stainless steel cooking pans.

I got an official approval

I had several different TV cooking opportunities to demonstrate how to cook and save energy. I even demonstrated this scientific method of energy saving and smell avoiding cooking to The Sustainable Energy Authority in Sri Lanka. A whole team watched my work and accepted that my scientific method of cooking saves energy and stops any cooking aroma on the persons who cook. The Invention Commission added my work to their official web site and still can be found these work under Google search.

My method is scientific

Unlike some of these British TV chefs cooking, I apply science in cooking. One must understand some science in cooking otherwise there is no point of rushing from one to the other just like some British TV chefs. I keep my challenge still open for any so called energy saving experts or to any British TV chefs to step forward to disprove my scientific method of cooking. My method would certainly educate the public about cooking and even encourage them home cooking. How would the authorities who are responsible to broadcast these cooking programmes think that some of those chefs are cooking the correct way?

My challenge is still open

Why not those energy saving experts step forward to examine my method of cooking? If they proved my method is a scam then my challenged money would be given away. My work is based on science and some laws are more than 200 years are old. If I work on them, I cannot be wrong. If my work was good enough to four different TVs to broadcast in Sri Lanka why not the British TV give me a chance to demonstrate so they have the chance either to approve or disprove my scientific method of cooking. By the way please don’t think I am a professional chef. I became a secondary school chemistry teacher after completing BSc MSc PhD in synthetic organic chemistry. I got an official approved scientific method of energy and smell saving cooking technique and I would like to help the general public benefit. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, I sure you all know what I mean. Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk

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