Posts Tagged ‘food’
El bulli + Harvard = sant!
Harvard University
In the online version of Technology Review, I found an article detailing a collaborative effort between Ferran Adrià, head chef of the renowned elBulli restaurant in Spain. Ferran was recently at Harvard University to meet his new collaborator, physical chemist Laurent Courbin, an expert in non-Newtonian fluids.
Courbin expects the collaboration to be mutually beneficial. He hopes to help Adrià’s team achieve new textures by tweaking foods at the molecular level. Yet he is also keen to explore the physical properties of foods from the kitchen of elBulli. “It’s really an interaction to try and improve our understanding of a problem,” Courbin says. “In the end we would get an understanding of something, he will get an improvement in a product.
This is totally in line with my ideas for a laboratory exercise in the project. I’m putting together a letter to Courbin right now. I’ll get back to you when/if I receive an answer. The article can be found at
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23191/
That article is based on a Q&A in New Scientist magazine.
Books on food…
The Science of Cooking by Peter Barham
After meeting to discuss the idea of a gastronomic laboratory exercise, my friend Malin recommended three books that cover the basics of the science of cooking. The first is The Science of Cooking by Peter Barham. Peter Barham is a professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, UK and visiting Professor of Molecular Gastronomy at the Royal Veterinary University in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The second is On Food and Cooking : The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. Harold is a journalist with a background in science and writing at Yale University and Caltech. After his undergradute studies, he wrote a doctoral thesis with the title “Keats and the Progress of Taste.”
The third book wasn’t an actual recommendation, but I found it while trying to find the other two on Amazon. The book Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor is written by Hervé This, who is recognized as the father of molecular gastronomy.
All of the books look pretty good. I should be receiving them within the next week or so, so I’ll get back to you with a few reviews after I’ve glanced through them.
Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé This
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
nano-food?
After our initial meeting before Christmas, I started thinking about
the laboratory exercises that we are going to perform this spring. I’m nothing if not predictable, in that I immediately started to ponder fluid mechanics. There are nanosuspensions, nanofluidics, et cetera. There is no lack of phenomena, but connecting them to our senses is tricky. That’s when I hit on nanoemulsions.
Nanoemulsions might sound complicated, but it’s essentially just a mixture of very small droplets of different fluids. Mayonnaise is an example of an emulsion of oil and egg white. Hmmm… haptic and tactile experiences are present at every meal we eat, so why not use this as an angle of attack for one of the labs?
I discussed the idea with my friend Malin Sandström who, apart from being a PhD student at KTH, is involved with a book/blog project concerning food and chemistry together with Lisa Förare Winbladh. She thought it was an exciting idea, especially now that Cheryl is establishing ties to Örebro University in general and Grythyttan in particular. I’ll keep you updated as my thoughts gain lucidity. 