Michael selected the name "Cooking For Engineers" on a whim. He has no idea if it means "To cook for the purposes of providing engineers with food" or "To instruct engineers in the science and art of cooking". He likes the ambiguity, and other people seem to find the name intriguing and even interesting. He regrets that the name can be misread (when in a rush) to be "Cooking Foreigners".

Before starting Cooking For Engineers, Michael had been looking for a way to store his recipes for some time. Michael used to store his recipes (some of which were laboriously tested and perfected over many trials) on his Palm handheld device. For backup purposes, Michael began to synchronize his Palm handheld to the Outlook service at his work. Due to a misunderstanding on server storage policies, three months after the first synchronization, the server deleted all his recipes (except for Tuna Noodle Casserole). Since then, Michael looked for a way to permanently store his recipes and notes.   More detail...