Blog Post for 4/7

Recursion is the method where the solution of a problem depends on the solutions to smaller instances of the problem. Although I don't relate coding to food much, I recently watched an episode of Masterchef where the contestants were required to produce a lemon meringue pie from scratch, and it strangely reminded me of the recursive method. In order to get the whole pie to work, the contestants needed to make sure that they had all three parts of the pie nailed, including the crust, the lemon curd, and the meringue on top. The two contestants who were required to make this pie did not impress the judges with their final product because their pies always had one or two components that were subpar. The first contestant's pie had a soggy crust because she didn't give it enough time in the oven, and while her lemon curd was very good because she had been "tasting it constantly" as she made it, her meringue was sparse and raw because she did not torch the egg whites enough before serving it. The overall presentation of her pie was criticized as well by the judges because it lacked the aesthetics. The second contestant's pie had a good crust, and one of the judges commented that the pie "held together well and had good structure." His pie also had a good lemon curd because he had been tasting his as well throughout the process. Unfortunately, his meringue turned out to be airy because the egg whites had separated throughout the cooking process, and therefore his meringue was not as crisp and creamy as it could have been. In the end, the second contestant won because 2/3 of his pie was well-executed, while the first contestant only had 1/3 of her pie that was well-executed. I thought of the recursive method because each part of the solution depends on smaller solutions of the problem, and each solution has a specific recipe to its success. The whole method will only work if each solution turns out to be well-executed like the three stages of a lemon meringue pie, and each stage has specific steps to acquiring the perfect taste and texture. Baking is as precise as using recursion in a code, and the idea of building up layers in a recursive statement can be compared directly to building up the layers of a pastry. The overall effect of recursion relies on the parts that create it just as the success of a pie can rely on the whipping of egg whites, the proper baking time in the oven, and the visual aspects of the pie.