Is there a decent source for kitchen tech support, beyond one’s mother?

For example, my focaccia always turns out to be bread of some sort. My ancestors were not always so lucky. Still, it is never the light and airy sort of focaccia you get at Iggy’s. The same dough makes ciabatta with a nice crust, but it’s dense and fine-grained, too.

What am I doing wrong? Not enough liquid? Not enough rising time? Wrong kind of yeast? Too much or too little of something else?

OK: Cook’s has shown us that a little systematic lab work will solve problems like this. But I don’t want to do the research: this has got to be common knowledge, but who are you going to call?

Update: See cooking.stackexchange.com