Kitchen flows: Making science more accessible, affordable, and curiosity driven
Résumé
Culinary fluid mechanics is the study of everything that flows related to food, covering a wide range of surprising phenomena that can be harnessed for the benefit of gastronomy, or to further science itself.1 Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, the kitchen offers a rich lab environment where flows are omnipresent and widely accessible.2 The phenomena emerging in the kitchen inspire fundamental research,3,4 which in turn improved gastronomy ever since.5–7 Immersing ourselves in this special research setting, we can deal with high-interface materials and thin films,8,9 we mix fluids to make emulsions,10 we work with bubbles,11 highly viscous and non-Newtonian materials,12,13 we explore heat transfer in fluids,14 we stabilize foam structure in bread15 and beverages, and we produce novel food from basic ingredients. In this Special Issue,16 we celebrate the connection between the physics of fluids, food science, and education. We received over 30 articles concerning all types of kitchen flows, from simple to complex, from small to large scale. They include research articles, short reviews, educational articles, methods papers, and expert tutorials. In the remainder of this editorial, we will summarize these works and highlight some exciting new opportunities in this effervescently growing branch of science.