Culinary Chemistry as a Platform for Interfacial Materials Design
Abstract
ABSTRACT This Review examines culinary systems as experimentally accessible models of interfacial materials design. Culinary operations, including emulsification, foaming, gelation, spherification, controlled heating, smoking, and dehydration, govern gas‐liquid, oil‐water, solid‐liquid, polymer‐nanoparticle, and hydrogel‐analyte interfaces, thereby coupling microstructure to transport, mechanics, optical response, and sensory performance. We then analyze how programmable heated high‐shear mixers, pressure cookers, food‐derived hydrocolloids, protein fibrils, metal‐phenolic networks, anthocyanins, and plasmonic nanostructures can support functional materials, sensing, and potentially more sustainable processing. Original Au/agar‐agar and Ag/agar‐agar experiments are presented as bounded proof‐of‐concept demonstrations of this translation. The Review closes by identifying constraints in safety classification, regulatory acceptance, reproducibility, stability, scale‐up, and end‐of‐life assessment. This interface‐centered framework positions culinary chemistry not merely as applied chemistry, but as a source of processing concepts and structure‐property relationships for advanced materials.
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Authors: Josep Moreno, I. Brian Becerril‐Castro, Irene Calderón, Jaslyn Ru Ting Chen, Zhiming Wang, Alexander O. Govorov, Jose Manuel Romo-Herrera, Neus Feliu, Wolfgang Johann Parak, Miguel A. Correa‐Duarte, In Yee Phang, Xing Yi Ling, Ramón A. Álvarez‐Puebla
Institutions: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ohio University, Universidade de Vigo, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Universität Hamburg, Jiangnan University, Xihua University, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Nanyang Technological University, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California