Nathan Myhrvold: Cut your food in half

翻译人员: Qian Yue 校对人员: Jenny Yang

So I'm going to tell you a little bit

我将告诉大家一些东西

about reimagining food.

关于重新看待食物

I've been interested in food for a long time.

我对食物感兴趣已经有很长一段时间了

I taught myself to cook

我通过一堆这类书

with a bunch of big books like this.

自学如何烹饪

I went to chef school in France.

我去法国烹饪学校进修

And there is a way

这个世界对食物的设想，

the world both envisions food,

以及对食物的描写、学习，

the way the world writes about food and learns about food.

都有一些既定的概念

And it's largely what you would find in these books.

这些通常你都能在这些书里面找到

And it's a wonderful thing.

这也是很奇妙的事情

But there's some things that have been going on

但是自从食物这个概念被定义之后

since this idea of food was established.

有些事情就有了了变化

In the last 20 years,

过去20年里

people have realized that science

人们意识到科学

has a tremendous amount to do with food.

对食物有着巨大的影响

In fact, understanding why cooking works

实际上，要了解为什么烹饪会有用，

requires knowing the science of cooking --

需要了解烹饪的科学--

some of the chemistry, some of the physics and so forth.

有关化学，有关物理等等

But that's not in any of those books.

但是这些没有写进任何一本书里

There's also a tremendous number of techniques

另外还有很多由厨师

that chefs have developed,

发明出的技巧

some about new aesthetics, new approaches to food.

有一些是新美学的，有一些新的烹饪方式

There's a chef in Spain named Ferran Adria.

在西班牙有名厨师名叫费伦·阿德里亚

He's developed a very avant-garde cuisine.

他发明了一种很先锋派的烹饪方式

A guy in England called Heston Blumenthal,

英国一个叫Heston Blumenthal的人

he's developed his avant-garde cuisine.

发明了他自己的先锋派烹饪方式

None of the techniques that these people have developed

这些人发明的技术

over the course of the last 20 years

没有一个记录在过去20年中

is in any of those books.

任何一本书中

None of them are taught in cooking schools.

他们没有谁是在过烹饪学校进修过

In order to learn them, you have to go work in those restaurants.

为了学会烹饪 那就得去那些餐厅工作实习

And finally,

最终

there's the old way of viewing food

守旧的审视食物的模式

is the old way.

产生出守旧的烹饪方式

And so a few years ago -- fours years ago, actually --

几年之前--实际是四年前--

I set out to say, is there a way

我试问是否有种方法

we can communicate science and technique and wonder?

来让我们将科学、技巧以及奇观联系在一起？

Is there a way we can show people food

我们是否能以一种从未有过的角度

in a way they have not seen it before?

把食物展现给大家呢？

So we tried, and I'll show you what we came up with.

于是我们开始尝试，接下来我想展示给大家我们的结果

This is a picture called a cutaway.

这是一张横切面图

This is actually the first picture I took in the book.

实际这是我书里第一张照片

The idea here is to explain what happens

这里的意思是为了当你蒸西兰花时

when you steam broccoli.

会发什么什么

And this magic view allows you to see

这神奇的角度让你看清

all of what's happening

蒸西兰花时

while the broccoli steams.

发生的一切

Then each of the different little pieces around it

周围的每个小插图

explain some fact.

都解释了一些事实

And the hope was two-fold.

有两层目的

One is you can actually explain what happens when you steam broccoli.

一个是，你可以解释当你蒸西兰花时发生了什么

But the other thing is that maybe we could seduce people

另一个是，我们希望能引诱人们

into stuff that was a little more technical,

去多了解一些技巧层面的东西

maybe a little bit more scientific, maybe a little bit more chef-y

可能多一点科学性，可能多一点专业性

than they otherwise would have.

比他们原本能得到的多

Because with that beautiful photo,

因为这些美丽的画面旁

maybe I can also package this little box here

我可能会附上这种小版块

that talks about how steaming and boiling

讲述蒸制和沸煮

actually take different amounts of time.

为何所需时长不同

Steaming ought to be faster.

蒸制似乎应该会更快

It turns out it isn't because of something called film condensation,

而事实并非如此，因为某些叫做膜状冷凝的现象

and this explains that.

导致蒸制所需时间更长

Well, that first cutaway picture worked,

第一张剖面图初见成效

so we said, "Okay, let's do some more."

于是我们说到 "好的，我们再做多一点吧。"

So here's another one.

这是另外一个案例

We discovered why woks are the shape they are.

我们发现为什么锅子是这个形状的

This shaped wok doesn't work very well;

这种形状的锅子并不是很好用

this caught fire three times.

它惹了三次火灾

But we had a philosophy,

但我们有自己的信念

which is it only has to look good for a thousandth of a second.

它只要一千分之一秒地时间是好的就行啦

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And one of our canning cutaways.

这是我们其中一个罐头剖面图

Once you start cutting things in half, you kind of get carried away,

一旦你开始把事物对半开，你就会有点激动得忘形

so you see we cut the jars in half as well as the pan.

所以你看到我们把罐头还有平底锅切成两半

And each of these text blocks

这些文字

explains a key thing that's going on.

每段都解释了所发生的关键

In this case, boiling water canning

这个例子中，沸水中的罐头

is for canning things that are already pretty acidic.

是用来贮存酸性食物的

You don't have to heat them up as hot

不需要煮太热

as you would something you do pressure canning

不能像处理加压罐头一样

because bacterial spores can't grow in the acid.

因为细菌孢子本来在酸性环境中就不能生长

So this is great for pickled vegetables,

这对腌制蔬菜来说是个好事儿

which is what we're canning here.

我们这个罐子里装的就是腌制蔬菜

Here's our hamburger cutaway.

这是我们的汉堡切面

One of our philosophies in the book

我们这本书的另一个信念

is that no dish

就是

is really intrinsically any better than any other dish.

没有一种食物从根本上比其它食物更高级

So you can lavish

你大可以

all the same care, all the same technique,

采用那些高级餐点的技巧

on a hamburger

来制作

as you would on some much more fancy dish.

一个汉堡

And if you do lavish as much technique as possible,

而且如果你尽可能使用更多的技巧

and you try to make the highest quality hamburger,

同时你尽可能制作最高质量的汉堡

it gets to be a little bit involved.

那汉堡自己也会变得很争气

The New York Times ran a piece

纽约时报写了一篇报道

after my book was delayed

是有关我的书的延迟出版的

and it was called "The Wait for the 30-Hour Hamburger

报道名为

Just Got Longer."

“30小时汉堡需要等待更久”

Because our hamburger recipe, our ultimate hamburger recipe,

正是由于我们的汉堡菜谱，我们顶级的汉堡菜谱

if you make the buns and you marinate the meat and you do all this stuff,

如果你亲手烘烤面包，以及制作肉末，这些所有的事

it does take about 30 hours.

确实是需要30小时

Of course, you're not actually working the whole time.

当然了，你并非一直在工作

Most of the time is kind of sitting there.

大部分时间只需要坐在那里

The point of this cutaway

这种切面的意义就在于

is to show people a view of hamburgers they haven't seen before

让人们从一种全新的视角观看汉堡

and to explain the physics of hamburgers

同时解释有关汉堡的物理学

and the chemistry of hamburgers,

以及有关汉堡的化学

because, believe it or not, there is something to the physics and chemistry --

因为，无论你信不信，这些都是物理和化学

in particular, those flames underneath the burger.

尤其是这块汉堡下的那些火苗

Most of the characteristic char-grilled taste

大部分碳烤口味

doesn't come from the wood or the charcoal.

并非真的来自木材或木碳

Buying mesquite charcoal will not actually make that much difference.

买最好的梅斯基特Mesquite木炭也不会有任何区别

Mostly it comes from fat pyrolyzing, or burning.

这些口味主要是来自于脂肪的热化，另称为燃烧

So it's the fat that drips down and flares up

因此脂肪滴落下来，再燃烧

that causes the characteristic taste.

才形成了独特的口味

Now you might wonder, how do we make these cutaways?

现在你可能会好奇，我们是怎样得到这些横切面的

Most people assume we use Photoshop.

大部分人会想当然认为我们使用Photoshop

And the answer is: no, not really;

但答案是否定的

we use a machine shop.

我们有一个机器工厂

And it turns out, the best way to cut things in half

事实证明，把东西切成一半的最佳办法

is to actually cut them in half.

就是实实在在地把它们对半切开

So we have two halves of one of the best kitchens in the world.

所以我们有了两半的世界上最棒的厨房

(Laughter)

（笑声）

We cut a $5,000 restaurant oven in half.

我们一共切了5000美金的餐厅用烤炉

The manufacturer said,

制造商说

"What would it take for you to cut one in half?"

“你到底为了什么把它切成这样？”

I said, "It would have to show up free."

我说，“为了能免费展出。”

And so it showed up, we used it a little while,

于是我们用了一段时间后

we cut it in half.

把它对半切了

Now you can also see a little bit how we did some of these shots.

现在你还能看看我们是如何做到这一切的

We would glue a piece of Pyrex

我们会在前部粘上一片耐热薄膜

or heat-resistant glass in front.

或者隔热玻璃

We used a red, very high-temperature silicon to do that.

我们用一种红色的、耐高温的硅胶

The great thing is, when you cut something in half,

令人高兴的事儿是，当你把东西对半切的时候

you have another half.

你还有了另一半

So you photograph that in exactly the same position,

所以你用Photograph把另一半放到一样的位置里

and then you can substitute in --

去代替原来的那一半

and that part does use Photoshop -- just the edges.

这一部分我们确实是用了Photoshop -- 只是在边际处

So it's very much like in a Hollywood movie

所以这就跟好莱坞电影很像

where a guy flies through the air, supported by wires,

一个男人佩戴保护线从空中飞过去，

and then they take the wires away digitally

然后用数码技术把保护线移除

so you're flying through the air.

你就看到他确实在空中飞翔

In most cases, though, there was no glass.

虽然在大部分情况下并没有玻璃

Like for the hamburger, we just cut the damn barbecue.

譬如这个汉堡，我们好歹把这个烧烤台切开了

And so those coals that kept falling off the edge,

这些煤炭一直从边角处掉出来

we kept having to put them back up.

我们不得不一直把它们放回去

But again, it only has to work for a thousandth of a second.

不过再申明一次，我们只需要千分之一秒

The wok shot caught fire three times.

这个灶台闹了三次火灾

What happens when you have your wok cut in half

当你把你的灶台对半切

is the oil goes down into the fire

油就会一直滴到火里

and whoosh!

然后“哄”

One of our cooks lost his eyebrows that way.

我们有一个厨师就是这样丢掉了眉毛

But hey, they grow back.

不过幸好他们又长回来了

In addition to cutaways,

除了横切

we also explain physics.

我们还解释物理学

This is Fourier's law of heat conduction.

这是热传导的傅里叶定律

It's a partial differential equation.

这是偏微分方程

We have the only cookbook in the world

我们是世界上唯一一本

that has partial differential equations in it.

有偏微分方程的烹饪书

But to make them palatable,

为了让这些东西变得“可口”

we cut it out of a steel plate and put it in front of a fire

我们把它从一个金属板上剪下来放到火焰前面

and photographed it like this.

用Photograph做成了这样

We've got lots of little tidbits in the book.

这本书里，有我们许许多多这样的袖珍趣事

Everybody knows that your various appliances

我想大家都知道所有设备

have wattage, right?

都有不同的瓦数，对吧？

But you probably don't know that much about James Watt.

但你可能不知道James Watt（詹姆斯瓦特）

But now you will; we put a biography of James Watt in.

但现在你知道了；我们加入了一段James Watt的生平简历

It's a little couple paragraphs

只是几小段

to explain why we call that unit of heat the watt,

解释我们为什么会称这些热单位为瓦特

and where he got his inspiration.

以及他是从哪里得到的灵感

It turned out he was hired by a Scottish distillery

事实是他为了了解

to understand why they were burning so damn much peat

人们为什么为了蒸馏威士忌要耗费如此之多的泥碳

to distill the whiskey.

特地在苏格兰酿酒厂工作

We also did a lot of calculation.

我们也做了很多计算

I personally wrote thousands of lines of code

我自己为了这本书

to write this cookbook.

就写了数千行程序

Here's a calculation

这里就是计算

that shows how the intensity of a barbecue,

这里显示烧烤的强度

or other radiant heat source, goes

或者其它辐射热源

as you move away from it.

随距离长短的变化

So as you move vertically away from this surface,

当你在垂直方向远离热源时

the heat falls off.

热度降低

As you move side to side, it moves off.

当你从水平移动时，热度会消失

That horn-shaped region

这个喇叭状的区域

is what we call the sweet spot.

我们称之为最佳地点

That's the place where the heat is even to within 10 percent.

这个区域的温度很均匀，差别在10%以内

So that's the place where you really want to cook.

这个区域是你真正想用来烹饪的

And it's got this funny horn-shaped thing,

这里这个有趣的喇叭状的东西

which as far as I know, again,

是就我所知的，

the first cookbook to ever do this.

全世界第一本烹饪书

Now it may also be the last cookbook that ever does it.

当然也可能是最后一本有这玩意儿的烹饪书

You know, there's two ways

你们知道，

you can make a product.

推出一个产品有两种办法

You can do lots of market research

你可以做大量的市场调研

and do focus groups

以及目标客户群

and figure out what people really want,

去看看人们到底想要什么

or you can just kind of go for it

或者你可以试着推出

and make the book you want and hope other people like it.

你想要的书，再看看人们是不是喜欢

Here's a step-by-step that shows grinding hamburger.

这里手把手地教你怎样制作汉堡

If you really want great hamburger,

如果你真的想要特别棒的汉堡

it turns out it makes a difference if you align the grain.

如果你调整配方，结果确实会与众不同

And it's really simple, as you can see here.

真的很简单，就如你在这儿看到的

As it comes out of the grinder, you just have a little tray,

当肉从磨子里出来的时候，就用一个小盘子接着

and you just take it off in little passes,

然后你把这些肉取出来

build it up, slice it vertically.

堆好，再纵切

Here's the final hamburger.

这就是最后的成品汉堡

This is the 30-hour hamburger.

这是一个30小时的汉堡

We make every aspect of this burger.

我们亲手制作了这个汉堡的每一个细节

The lettuce has got liquid smoke infused into it.

生菜这儿有液状烟雾

We also have things about how to make the bun.

我们还展示了如何做面包

There's a mushroom, ketchup -- it goes on and on.

有蘑菇，番茄酱，以及其它各种材料

Now watch closely. This is popcorn. I'll explain it here.

现在仔细看，这是爆米花，我来做些解释

The popcorn is illustrating

这个爆米花显示了

a key thing in physics.

一个物理学里的关键点

Isn't that beautiful?

是不是非常美丽

We have a very high-speed camera,

我们使用了超高速照相机

which we had lots of fun with on the book.

我们从这个照相机那儿得到了不少乐趣

The key physics principle here

这里的主要物理学原理

is when water boils to steam

就是当沸水变成蒸汽时

it expands by a factor of 1,600.

会扩张1600倍

That's what's happening to the water inside that popcorn.

这就是玉米粒中的水发生的事

So it's a great illustration of that.

这个照片是个完美的诠释

Now I'm going to close with a video that is kind of unusual.

现在让我用一段不一般地视频做个结尾。

We have a chapter on gels.

我们有一章是讲胶状物的

And because people watch Mythbusters and CSI,

因为大家都看Mythbusters和CSI

I thought, well, let's put in a recipe

我想，那就让我们加一个

for a ballistics gelatin.

弹道明胶的菜谱

Well, if you have a high-speed camera,

好吧，如果你有一个高速相机

and you have a block of ballistics gelatin lying around,

还有一块弹道明胶

pretty soon somebody does this.

然后这样做

(Gasps)

（惊叹）

Now the amazing thing here

现在令人惊讶的是

is that a ballistics gelatin is supposed to mimic

弹道明胶实际上是模仿

what happens to human flesh when you get shot -- that's why you shouldn't get shot.

遭受枪击时人体发生的状况 -- 正因此你一定不可以被击中

The other amazing thing is, when this ballistics gelatin comes down,

另一件令人惊异的事是，当弹道明胶落回原处时

it falls back down as a nice block.

能够完全恢复到原本完美的块状

Anyway, here's the book.

好吧书在这儿

Here it is.

这个就是

2,438 pages.

2438页

And they're nice big pages too.

而且也很漂亮

(Applause)

（掌声）

A friend of mine complained

我一个朋友抱怨

that this was too big and too pretty to go in the kitchen,

这本书太大太美带入厨房很不方便

so there's a sixth volume

所以我们就退出了六册

that has washable, waterproof paper.

是可洗防水纸质的书

(Applause)

（掌声）