While working on his upcoming cookbook, The Flavor Equation, food writer Nik Sharma packed up an array of salt, sugar, and spices and headed to the University of California, Berkeley. At the Biological Imaging Facility, he trained an AxioImager M1 microscope down at slides covered with brown sugar and kala namak, Indian black salt. With a ZEISS confocal laser scanning microscope, he peered down at bonito flakes and yeast suspended in vinegar. These powerful microscopes revealed the razor-like ridges of Maldon salt and the fat, gem-like grains of brown sugar….
