Heston's sage advice...

How do you take the hassle out of making ice cream?
Making ice cream is a labour-intensive job, requiring lots of stirring to prevent ice crystals making it gritty. If they form slowly, one gets a small number of large crystals; if they form quickly, one gets a large number of small crystals. So, if you make your ice cream by pouring liquid nitrogen (extremely cold, at - 196C) into the custard, it freezes in seconds; lovely and smooth.

Why do pans stick?
Proteins cause the problem when chemical bonds form between the food and the metal of the pan. Protein-rich foods such as egg, cheese and meat are the chief offenders because the proteins can form complexes with metal atoms in the pan.

How hot are chilli peppers?
Very hot, as anyone who has ever eaten a vindaloo can testify. But why? The chemicals that give chillis their poke have been identified as compounds called capsaicinoids. There is even a test - the Scoville test - to measure how hot they are. Sweet peppers are about 1,000 Scoville units, Habanero peppers are about 100,000 and pure capsaicin about 350,000.