Re: [Phys-L] physics and potatoes

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 12/3/18 6:33 PM, Anthony Lapinski asked:

>  Or did
> restaurants cook the potatoes first and then wrap them in foil to keep them
> warm (since restaurants never cook potatoes to order as it takes too long)?

That's the right answer.  You figured the physics correctly.

  https://idahopotato.com/dr-potato/foil-baked-potatoes

Typical chefs (and typical customers) want the skin to
be crispy.  Any kind of wrapping during cooking would
essentially give you a steamed potato, which might be OK
or might be unduly soggy.  It's not what you bargained
for when you ordered a baked potato.

It's nontrivial to cook a gourmet baked potato.  Much
depends on the details of the potatoes you started with,
and when you're only doing a few at a time you might
not know the details until it's too late.  Professional
chefs can sacrifice one or two to monitor the progress.

Note the paragraph at the end about clever use of a
microwave.  Classically trained chefs tend to despise
the mere mention of microwaves, but there are in fact
perfectly reasonable things you can do with them.