Cooked - Air

According to Michael Pollan, "Agriculture - which consists mainly of growing edible grasses like wheat, corn, and rice - is our term for this revolutionary new approach to getting food from the soil and the sun" (206). "Those in this industry "succeed not by dictating to them, as a carpenter might to lumber, but by aligning his interest with theirs" (218).

In this week's section of "Cooked," we dove into the effect air has on bread baking. As a species, we have the desire to understand and control everything we interact with. Food scientist continue to try to reduce food into a summation of its parts. This reductionist science doesn't work. In the situation of bread, specifically, "science can't reduce this complexity to a simple answer" - nor does it need to (262). Personally, I like to be able to have complete control over everything I'm responsible for. Baking, especially, has too many free radicals for my liking. Pollan's outlook is one that settles my need to control. 

• "The baker is the conductor of an intricate symphony of transformation that takes in everything from the grass seed to the millstone, the microbial fermentation to the pressure-cooking, and culminates in the salivation that a well-baked bread inspires in the mouth." (241)

I like this because it almost sounds like the baker isn't playing God for baking; he's more of a facilitator for learning (like a professor) - allowing various elements such as soil, sun, and air to explore and create, rather than telling them what to do.