This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
A few years ago, social scientist Francesca Gino was browsing the shelves at her local bookstore.
She came across an unusual looking book in the cooking section, this recipe book.
That looked a little bit different.
And the title said, never trust a skinny italian chef.
And being italian, I was very intrigued.
And as I flipped through the pages, it became clear that this was not your typical recipe book.
The dishes were playful, quirky, improbable.
Snails were paired with coffee sauce, veal tongue with charcoal powder.
The recipes had titles like how to.
Burn or sardine, and oops, I dropped the lemon tart.
There were pictures of beautiful dishes.
Who could resist a dish called the crunchy part of the lasagna?
Now, if you know anything about Italians, first of all, we have lots of rules when it comes to cooking.
And second, we really cherish our traditional dishes, especially because they've been passed on for generations.
But this chef, one of the most successful in the world, couldn't resist circling back to one big existential question.
Why is it that we cook the dish in this way?
Why is it that we cook the dish in this way?
It's the kind of question Francesca loved.