Science and Cooking 2023

SCIENCE AND COOKING
LECTURE SERIES 2023

Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes on HarvardX, New online course

Teacher Outreach - Science and Cooking for Secondary Teachers

2023 SCIENCE AND COOKING LECTURE SERIES CELEBRATES WORLDWIDE CULINARY TECHNIQUES AND FLAVORS

Popular series pairs Harvard Professors with Chefs and Food Experts

The Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series at Harvard University returns this 2023. Presenters this year include Harold McGee (On Food and Cooking), Dave Arnold (Booker and Dax, Liquid Intelligence, Cooking Issues), Luciana Bianchi (MUYU restaurant, Galapagos) Jason Doo (Wusong Road Tiki Bar, Cambridge), Joanne Chang (Flour Bakery and Café, Myers + Chang, Boston), Mauro Colagreco (Mirazur, France), Bryan Furman (Pitmaster, Georgia), Betty Petrova (Petrova Chocolates, Boston), and Rich Shih (Koji Alchemy, Boston).

The lectures pair Harvard professors with celebrated food experts and renowned chefs to showcase the science behind different culinary techniques.

The series, organized by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is based on the Harvard course “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter”.

All talks will be on Mondays at 7 pm E.S.T. and take place in the Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA., Hall C), except Bryan Furman’s lecture, which will be outdoors at the LISE Patio (11 Oxford St, Cambridge)
Each presentation will begin with a 15-minute lecture about the scientific topics from that week’s class by a faculty member from the Harvard course
The lectures are free and open to the public
Seating for all lectures is first come, first seated
Lectures will be posted on YouTube after each event
Contact: science_cooking@seas.harvard.edu

2023 Chef Lecture Dates

Monday, Sept 11

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“Progress Reports: Some Common Cooking Issues Revisited”
Dave Arnold (@CookingIssues), Booker and Dax (NYC), author of “Liquid Intelligence”, host of “Cooking Issues,” founder of the Museum of Food and Drink
Harold McGee (@Harold_McGee), author of “On Food and Cooking”, “Curious Cook”, “Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells”

Monday, Sept. 25

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“Phase Transitions at Wusong Road”
Jason Doo (@wusongroad), Chef and Owner of Wusong Road Tiki bar, Cambridge

Monday, Oct. 2

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“The Science of Sugar”
Joanne Chang ’91 (@jbchang), Flour Bakery and Café, Myers + Chang, author of “Flour”, “Flour Too”, “Myers + Chang at Home”, and “Baking with Less Sugar”

Monday, Oct. 9

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“How Koji Builds Community”
Rich Shih (@ourcookquest), Co-author of Koji Alchemy, one of the key culinary explorers of mold-based fermentation in the United States

Monday, Oct. 16

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“The Science of Chocolate”
Betty Petrova (@petrovachocolates), Petrova Chocolates, Boston

Monday, Oct. 23

LISE Patio, 7 PM
“The Thermodynamics of BBQ”
Bryan Furman (@bs_pitmaster), 2019 & 2020 James Beard Semifinalist, the first Pitmaster to win F&W Best New Chef (class of 2019), Chef in Residency @ Stone Barnes Center for Food & Agriculture

Monday, Oct. 30

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“The Science of Valuable Waste Fluids in Galapagos”
Luciana Bianchi (@lucianabianchi), Chef, humanist, writer, social entrepreneur. Director of the Galapagos Foundation focused on gastronomy and Founder of MUYU restaurant, the first farm, forest and sea to table restaurant in the Galapagos islands

Monday, Nov. 27

Science Center Hall C, 7PM
“Moon to Table, Cosmic Influence on Gastronomy”
Mauro Colagreco (@maurocolagreco), Chef and Owner of Mirazur (France)

Videos

Videos of the past public talks are available on iTunes and YouTube

The Harvard College Course

The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Alícia Foundation developed the General Education science course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” which debuted in the fall of 2010. The course uses food and cooking to explore fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering. (Watch a video about the course.)

While limited to currently enrolled Harvard undergraduates, the class, which brings together Harvard researchers and world-class chefs, is available to others on-campus through the Harvard Extension School and online through the HarvardX platform (details below).

Faculty Lead

Pia Sörensen, Senior Preceptor in Chemical Engineering and Applied Materials

Instructors

Michael Brenner, Michael F. Cronin Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and Professor of Physics; Harvard College Professor
Pia Sörensen, Senior Preceptor in Chemical Engineering and Applied Materials
David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics

Lecture Coordinator

Alejandra Touceda Súarez

Online Science and Cooking Courses on HarvardX

In HarvardX’s “Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science,” top chefs and Harvard researchers explore how everyday cooking and haute cuisine can illuminate scientific principles in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Both part 1 and part 2 of the online course are currently open for enrollment.

The online course “Food Fermentations: The Science of Cooking with Microbes” explores the role of microbes in food production, from history to preservation to flavor.

Science and Cooking Workshops for Grades 6-12 Science Teachers

Become part of a growing teacher community using food to engage students in science. In these hands-on workshops, teachers will explore food-based lessons from a student’s point of view. Each lesson is rooted in a single food, which is framed as an anchoring phenomenon to be investigated through science concepts and practices. Lessons align with NGSS standards and include a coherent sequence of hands-on activities, labs, videos, and readings intended to progressively build student understanding of content and engage them in science practices. Find here some of our available resources. Please share your contact information in this form to be notified of future opportunities.

Science and Cooking:

Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine
Order now! (see retailers below)

Based on the popular Harvard University and edX course, Science and Cooking explores the scientific basis of why recipes work.

The spectacular culinary creations of modern cuisine are the stuff of countless articles and social media feeds. But to a scientist they are also perfect pedagogical explorations into the basic scientific principles of cooking. In Science and Cooking, Harvard professors Michael Brenner, Pia Sörensen, and David Weitz bring the classroom to your kitchen to teach the physics and chemistry underlying every recipe.

Why do we knead bread? What determines the temperature at which we cook a steak, or the amount of time our chocolate chip cookies spend in the oven? Science and Cooking answers these questions and more through hands-on experiments and recipes from renowned chefs such as Christina Tosi, Joanne Chang, and Wylie Dufresne, all beautifully illustrated in full color. With engaging introductions from revolutionary chefs and collaborators Ferran Adria and José Andrés, Science and Cooking will change the way you approach both subjects―in your kitchen and beyond.

Find “Science and Cooking” in any of these retailers or in your preferred local independent store: