I used to help research patents on food processes decades ago. One of them was reclaiming barley bran from the brewing process for baking. It was very low calorie, but also tasteless! But it was granted! Other joys of food research was all the free samples we accumulated filled the kitchen and another room. Three pallets of chocolate, dark, milk, white, etc, thousands of concentrated natural flavorings, etc... My ramen noodles tasted so good...

Sounds like interesting work, at least...

One of the people I work with loves to experiment with food. Blueberry cream cheese stuffed crust pizza? Oh yes, it was really good! Every night, it's something different!

Well there is room for innovation there.

Cooking is like jazz, baking is like chemistry.

I've recommended The Flavor Bible (Page & Dornenberg) before, an index of what goes well with what ... but I also recommend Karen Page's Kitchen Creativity, where she talks about 'templates'.

"Cheese + Pasta" is a template that yields Mac & Cheese, Cacio e Pepe, and Fettucine Alfredo. So, like the above example of blueberry cream-cheese stuffed crust pizza, it's 'Cream Cheese + Bread,' and both a bagel with cream cheese or a stuffed-crust pizza will work.

Food Engineering: free downloads.

Ebooks library. On-line books store on Z-Library

https://b-ok.cc/s/food%20engineering?order=filesize

And if you really want to go off the deep end, there's On Food & Cooking by Harold McGee, which goes into the science of food, topics like, 'why does starch thicken sauce,' and 'why does cutting onions make me cry?'

@Bob Lai

The Flavor Bible Page & Dornenberg: free downloads.

Ebooks library. On-line books store on Z-Library

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs
Little, Brown and Company
Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg

https://b-ok.cc/s/The%20Flavor%20Bible%20page%20Dornenberg?order=filesize

Karen Page Kitchen Creativity: free downloads.

Ebooks library. On-line books store on Z-Library

Kitchen creativity: unlocking culinary genius--with wisdom, inspiration, and ideas from the world's most creative chefs
Little, Brown and Company
Page, Karen

https://b-ok.cc/s/Karen%20Page%20Kitchen%20Creativity?order=filesize

Enjoy.

@Bob Lai

On Food & Cooking by Harold McGee: free downloads.

Ebooks library. On-line books store on Z-Library

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Scribner
Harold McGee

https://b-ok.cc/s/?q=On+Food+%26+Cooking+by+Harold+McGee&order=filesize

️❤️ @Clara Listensprechen

Warning: McGee is close to 1,000 pages.

Ratio Michael Ruhlman: free downloads.

Ebooks library. On-line books store on Z-Library

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Scribner
Michael Ruhlman

https://b-ok.cc/s/Ratio%20Michael%20Ruhlman?order=filesize

[I'll have to get that one for my self tomorrow, already downloaded my 5 for the day]

You might also enjoy Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, which is about the ratios that drive cooking. You don't need to memorize a recipe for a vinaigrette dressing, you need to know the ratio, 3:1 - oil to vinegar, and you can make enough for a personal salad or a dinner party.

Michael started as a food writer who talked his way into a great assignment, attending the Culinary Institute of America, which became The Making of a Chef. Since then, he's written a number of cookbooks including:

Ratio
Twenty (20 techniques every chef should know ... this one's going OOP, according to Michael)
From Scratch (several recipes broken down into their components)

He's also worked with chefs Thomas Keller (French Laundry) and Michael Symon (Lola) on their cookbooks.

Thanks, @Azure Cerulean - I've added it to my library.

@Bob Lai @Clara Listensprechen @Whuffo
you may also what to check out:

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking | Samin Nosrat | download

New York Times Bestseller and Winner of the 2018 James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook and multiple IACP Cookbook Awards
Named one of the Best Books of 2017 by: NPR, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Rachel Ray Every Day, San Francisco Chronicle, Vice Munchies, Elle.com, Glamour, Eater, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Seattle Times, Tampa Bay Times, Tasting Table, Modern Farmer, Publishers Weekly, and more.
A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman declared "America's next great cooking teacher" by Alice Waters.
In the tradition of The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything comes Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, an ambitious new approach to cooking by a major new culinary voice. Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements--Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food--and anything you cook will be delicious. By explaining the hows and whys of good cooking, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will teach and inspire a new generation of cooks how to confidently make better decisions in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients, anywhere, at any time.

https://b-ok.cc/s/salt%20fat%20acid%20heat

It's on my shelf. There's a matching series on Netflix.

This is how you become a chef without going to culinary school. ;D

You read a lot. You read pretty much everything on technique and food history you can find. You read the biographies of notable chefs like Jacques Pepin (The Apprentice) and Eric Ripert (32 Yolks), and first-person accounts like Ruhlman's Making of a Chef, and the late Anthony Bourdain's essays (Kitchen Confidential).