Fun with puns turns into ‘Bob’s Burgers’ cookbook

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Cole Bowden ’13 (mechanical engineering) showcases one of his intricate burger creations.

Mix together a love of puns, a dash of culinary curiosity and some engineering know-how, and what do you get? In the case of Cole Bowden ’13 (mechanical engineering), you might just get your very own Bob’s Burgers cookbook.

Bob’s Burgers is an animated sitcom on Fox revolving around Bob Belcher and his family, who attempt to run a successful burger joint but often run into comedic misfortune. Each episode of the show also features a pun-laden daily burger special written on the chalkboard behind the restaurant’s counter, such as the “Sympathy for the Deviled Egg Burger,” the “Blue Is The Warmest Cheeseburger” and the “Human Polenta-pede Burger.”

A self-described “obsessed” fan of the show, Bowden decided to make the imaginary burgers a reality and started a cooking blog called the Bob’s Burger Experiment. The patty-grilling prodigy has been running the passion project since he was a senior at RIT and posts a new burger creation practically every week. And now, the engineer-turned-chef is in early talks to have his work published in an official cookbook.

“Loren Bouchard, the show’s creator, emailed me last year and told me he was a huge fan of the blog and he encouraged me to keep going,” said Bowden, who works full-time as an engineer for Honda. “We stayed in touch and later on, he mentioned that he wanted to publish a cookbook with my involvement. I was floored, I couldn’t believe it.”

Bowden and Bouchard are still finalizing the details of the project, but Bowden is already working on some fresh ideas.

“The recipes in the book won’t be exactly the same as the blog because I want to make them even better based on my previous experience,” Bowden said.

The Bob’s Burger Experiment has also helped Bowden learn his way around the kitchen and sparked his interest in cooking. For Bowden, the process of cooking draws many parallels to engineering.

“I like to see how things are made,” he said. “Anything that I can make myself, I would rather make myself.”

To learn more

To read Cole Bowden’s cooking blog, go to the Bob's Burgers experiment webpage.