2 . Long before metal oven racks (架子) were invented, many people would place the things that they wanted to bake onto stones to keep them from burning in ovens or even directly on heat.     1     However, there are actually many applications for its use in baking.

Typical baking stones can be made of various materials, and tend to be either round or rectangular in shape. The clay stone is popular, but some people like marble. Some have a shiny surface and others don’t have.     2     Some people suggest that heading to the local kitchen supply store to purchase a baking stone is a waste of time and instead they purchase tiles (瓦片) from kitchen or gardening stores.     3     They may contain high amounts of lead and cooks would need to test them for the presence of lead before using them to cook.

    4     Baking stones absorb and keep heat very well, so when you put them in the oven and allow the oven to run for a while, the stones heat up. They transfer heat directly to the bottom of your bread or other goods, as the goods can be placed directly on the stone so they never start out on a cold surface. This allows bread to bake more evenly all over, resulting in a much nicer crust (酥皮)—particularly for artisan bread.

There are many benefits of using a baking stone to cook pizza or bread.     5     For another, the stone is also praised for its ability to evenly heat the crust and lessen chances that pizza or other bread will burn.

4 . Tomorrow’s menus could feature items prepared with complex cooking techniques and presentation — all at the push of a button. Columbia University mechanical engineers have designed a 3 - D printer that can produce and cook dishes at the same time with details at the millimeter scale.

The design combines a multiwavelength laser (激光) cooker, roughly the size of five smart phones piled together, with a microwave - oven - sized food printer. The system uses various light wavelengths to cook in different ways: a short - waved blue laser goes deep inside meat, for example, while infrared beams (红外线光束) brown the surface. As the device’s robotic arm places fine layers of chicken puree (酱, 糊), a high - powered beam moves over them and cooks the meat — with literally laser - focused precision. Thus, users can achieve perfect results — say, a machine - made burger that varies between rare and well done in a checkerboard pattern.

“It gives you a lot more control and customization,” says Jonathan Blutinger, lead author of the paper and a digital - cooking researcher at Columbia. The researchers tested only chicken for this study, but the system can work with other foods as well.

Beyond applying diverse materials and presentation patterns, this type of software - controlled setup could someday scan a QR code to automatically prepare dishes tailored to individual eating habits and dietary restrictions, Blutinger says.

The new technology is “astonishing”, says Megan Ross, a food scientist who studies 3 - D printing at Ireland’s University College Cork. Ross notes that the design is still at a beginning stage and that many technical challenges remain, such as preventing cross pollution between layers of raw and cooked meat. Still, Ross is impressed by the device’s ability to produce foods outside the field of conventional cooking. “Is this going to be sold in shops everywhere in the next few years? No,” she says. “But everyone has to start somewhere.”

6 . “We are what we eat”—or so the saying goes. From high-calorie meals to low-fat lunches, much of our health depends on what we eat. We know about the benefits of eating properly for our physical well-being, but food and cooking it is proving to be good for our mental well-being as well.

Some people are now advocating the therapeutic (治疗的）value of cooking food. It’s not just about the end result but the experience someone goes through.

TV chef and author Nadiya Hussain agrees that cooking is great for helping our mind. She loves to bake and became the champion of the TV show, The Great British Bake Off. She says that “Baking’s always been about therapy... It’s never really been about the cake.” And she thinks that baking is an important tool for our socialisation and mental health.

Certainly, creating some delicious food has helped some of us get through the recent lockdown; it’s helped take our mind off things and given us something to do. People have said that kneading dough (面团) to make bread, for example, has given them a sense of calm and control. Research has shown that doing creative tasks, like cooking, makes us feel happier.

Nicole Farmer, who studies how food impacts our biology, behavior and mental health, told BBC online that “cooking represents the shared human experience of food, and nurturing people through food, so I think that’s where it integrates opportunity into immediate positive emotions”.

Of course, cooking can be a very sociable activity and sharing the end result, a rewarding experience. Hopefully, as we start to mix with friends and family again, we can enjoy the benefits once more and put us all in the right frame of mind.