Hello, World! I’m Jeff Potter.
I love food and I love science. And what better way to teach science than with food? Whether I’m helping people think smart in the kitchen with Cooking for Geeks (The Washington Post called it “one of the most useful books on understanding cooking”) or figuring out how to make a 500 pound donut, you’ll find me using food to understand how the world around us works.
I haven’t been to culinary school and don’t call myself a chef; I actually studied computer science and visual art at Brown University. After graduating I worked as a software engineer, creating everything from interactive museum exhibits to scientific visualizations while cooking for friends as a way to escape. I spent years wondering how things worked in my kitchen until one day when something clicked for me: if I wasn’t sure which way was better—when making cookies, should I melt the butter or keep it chilled?—I’d try both, a simple “A/B” experiment, to see what happened. Science that you can eat!
These days I find myself wandering the globe to give the occasional talk on food science—everywhere from Germany to California to Australia (now that's a long flight)—and working on unusual food challenges. I'm also involved as a trustee and spokesperson for Awesome Food, a non-profit that gives out monthly micro-grants. If you have an idea related to food that will challenge how people think, bring communities together, and inspire hope for a more Awesome future, you should apply for our $1,000 micro-grant.
Happy Cooking!
P.S. If you have a food science question that you think I should answer on my blog, send me a message!
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