At first sight I’d assumed this was going to be a book full of recipes for kleftikos, dolmades and moussakas. Only when I looked more closely did I realise that the cooking on offer is not for Greeks with an ‘r’ but for Geeks without.

You might think that the whole idea of geeks who cook is a bit of a contradiction. Geeks, almost by definition, don’t cook. They slave over hot keyboards while boxes of take-away pizzas and decaying fast food lie forgotten in odd corners. Or then again, maybe not. After all, I cook and I guess some people would say that I have a pretty good claim to geekdom. So, I suppose this book must be written for people just like me!

Written by Jeff Potter who studied (a curious combination) of computer science and visual art, Cooking For Geeks aims to examine the science and the myths behind cooking. It also contains some interviews with specialists such as Martin Lersch (PhD in organometallic chemistry) and Hervé This (researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique in Paris). Oh, and there are lots of recipes too.

In spite of a certain amount of computer jargon and a few graphs and tables that look more like the sort of thing you’d find in a book on programming than on baking, this book is really more aimed at cooks than at geeks. Or, to put it another way, it assumes the reader is a cook who may have some curiosity about the whys and wherefores of making good food rather than a geek who wants to learn to cook.

So whereas other cookbooks just tell you to caramelize something and leave it at that, this book goes on to tell you that caramelization “is the result of the breakdown of sugars, which, like the Maillard reaction, generate hundreds of compounds that smell delicious”. Whereas other cookbooks tell you to cook meat till done, this one describes the process of protein denaturization and helpfully explains that “Most people prefer meat cooked such that myosin is denatured while keeping the actin native.”

There are lots of tips on how long and at what temperature to cook food to ensure that it not only tastes nice but also that any nasty bugs are killed; it describes the amount of alcohol that remains in your food after it’s boiled, flamed or baked; it lists the chemicals that produce various characteristic smells (almond, banana, strawberry) and so on.

This is an intriguing and entertaining book and it would make a great present for any cook with a technical turn of mind. But will it replace a more traditional cookbook – will the Larousse Gastronomique, the works of Delia Smith, Elizabeth David and Julia Child be consigned to the kitchen bins of culinary history? Well, the short answer is: No. There are some pretty decent recipes in this book but, even at the risk of some scientific inaccuracies, when it comes to cooking my steaks, cakes, and bakes I think I’ll be sticking to more traditional cookbooks. But I shall keep Cooking For Geeks close at hand whenever I feel the need for an informed second opinion!