Abstract

Lab closed? Head to the kitchen! Particularly during the recent pandemic, the kitchen offered a rich laboratory environment where diverse flows are omnipresent and widely accessible. The surprising phenomena emerging in the kitchen inspire fundamental research, which in turn has improved gastronomy ever since. In this special research setting, we deal with high-interface materials and thin films, we mix fluids to make emulsions, we work with bubbles, highly viscous and non-Newtonian materials, we explore heat transfer in fluids, we stabilize foam structure in bread and beverages, and we produce novel food from basic ingredients. In this talk, I will present a curated selection of kitchen phenomena in which hydrodynamics plays a crucial role and show how the surprising phenomena that arise in the kitchen are leading to new discoveries across the disciplines. I will also discuss how kitchen flows can be used as a powerful tool in physics education.

The talk will be based in part on a recent review paper: A.J.T.M. Mathijssen, M. Lisicki, V.N. Prakash, E.J.L. Mossige, Culinary fluid mechanics and other currents in food science. Rev. Mod. Phys. 95, 025004 (2023).