“The Food Lab” has been a darling of cooks and foodies alike recently.   This is a wonderful book and one that will boost your knowledge of the chemistry behind everything you eat.   It’s a fascinating read and I recommend it for a good reference.   Better yet, open the pages of Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”.   A lesser known gem about the science of cooking, this book has some wonderful charts and illustrations. Check out the photo viewed via a microscope of tempered and untempered chocolate to see how the molecular structure changes. It’s a book I reference so often. In class I ask the chefs to stump the chef. If they ask me a question I don’t know, I head right to this reference book to research it and build to my knowledge base.   For a more “hands on” approach to learning the chemistry of cooking, young chefs can sign up for “Science in the Kitchen” camp this summer.