The ancient Greeks cooked their flat breads called plankuntos outdoors on hot stones and topped them with fruits, nuts, and other vegetation for seasonings. From the first time I ate there, I noticed that she took a lot of care in cooking and presenting the dishes, making sure there was a good balance of colors. It was extra glorious right out of the oven (I caught my mom and uncle picking pieces off far before it was ready to be cut!), but I bet it it would be just as good toasted and spread with some butter or cream cheese.

But however informative they are, the handful that I encountered more than anything prove the difficulty of writing about kitchen science in a way that both grabs the reader and feels relevant to actually developing better cooking instincts. Somehow the flavors of the food weren’t well-developed during the cooking process.…