Robert

Hi I am Robert. We chose the theme of the science behind the ‘Full Irish’ as it combines both of our interests of both science and cooking. I have been in love with science, in particular chemistry, ever since secondary school. I was fascinated by the way you can react substances with one another and get a completely new product as a result. Cooking, in particular baking, has also helped develop my love of chemistry. I have had a love of baking ever since childhood, when I would help my mum bake cupcakes. I enjoy taking the time to weigh out each ingredient, carefully mixing them together and producing a sweet treat as the end result. Chemistry is similar to baking as both involve accurately weighing out reagents, allowing them to react and produce the product as the end result. The chemistry of our poster is the science behind a fried breakfast, specifically a full Irish breakfast. We will be discussing the individual elements of the ‘Full Irish’ and the science behind each of those ingredients we associate with a fired breakfast, from the reason butter is a soft spreadable solid to how do eggs cook and become tender.  

Grace

Hello, my name is Grace. As Robert has said above, we combined our interests of science and cooking to bring about the theme of the science behind the ‘Full Irish’ for our poster, because who doesn’t love a Full Irish breakfast! I have loved chemistry ever since I began to study it in more detail for my Leaving Cert, as chemistry explains that certain reactions happen for a reason. I have loved cooking and baking ever since I was a little girl. One of my fondest baking memories is me helping Mam to make apple pie and using my plastic kid’s knife to chop up apples for her. I personally am a very methodical person, so weighing out and mixing exact amounts of substances to get a desired result or reaction, whether it be a lab experiment or a fancy recipe, appeals to me so much. As a group we both felt that our passion for both chemistry and cooking would help you to understand all the reactions and the science behind a fried breakfast, what happens to the food that you eat, and why it behaves the way it does. We hope you enjoy our poster! 

Robert

My reading of Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé – This, complemented my interest in both chemistry and baking. This book talked about various well-known dishes and explained the chemistry in a simple but informative way allowing anyone with an interest in science or food to enjoy this book. This book helped add to my enjoyment of both baking and chemistry by providing another way for me to link the two together. Especially how changing the chemical makeup of the dish can affect its preparation and most importantly its taste. It helped me understand why these reactions took place, why certain foods are the way they are and how different styles of cooking shaped simple ingredients into world renowned dishes.  This book inspired the exhibit of the science behind the ‘Full Irish’ as it has several chapters on the items typically involved with breakfast. The idea of the ‘Full Irish’ is a result of reading the content page and then immediately thinking of breakfast. We then refined the idea of breakfast to something that is very specific and easily recognised. Through reading of the book and seeing how chemistry shapes the foods we eat reinforced this idea and made it abundantly clear that it was the ideal idea for a poster designed by people who love to make food by either cooking or baking.  

Grace 

As I’ve grown older, I’ve become more interested in the reactions involved in food, as cooking and baking are essentially a science, both comprised of complex and not-so-complex reactions.  Hervés’ ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ gave me a great basis to begin to understand these reactions. This book starts off simply and describes your basic everyday items of food and why they cook or react the way they do, there’s no diving headfirst into intricate details which are hard to understand. Robert and I both agreed this book was perfect for our poster as we wanted to convey to others how simple, every day foods are used in cooking, instead of explaining complicated concepts on fancy gourmet foods that no one can either pronounce or has eaten before. Our theme came about after we saw a reoccurring theme of breakfast foods being mentioned throughout the book and we figured it’d be great to show people what goes into making their traditional fried breakfast.