Science and Cooking
Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine
Professor Michael Brenner, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics and Physics, will tickle our brains and tempt our palates with insights from his recent book, Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, From Homemade to Haute Cuisine, on Zoom at this link on Thursday, November 18 at 6:00 pm.
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What could be more delicious than a chocolate chip cookie, still soft and warm after being pulled straight from the oven?
It’s a safe bet that most people have eaten a chocolate chip cookie (7 billion are consumed in the U.S. alone each year, according to Yankee Magazine). But how many people stop to think about the invisible yet indispensable principles of physics and chemistry that spring into action to turn those pale balls of dough into golden brown goodness? Curious home cooks, world class chefs, and everyone in between can find answers to the questions of why recipes work within the pages of the new book “Science and Cooking: Physics Meets Food, from Homemade for Haute Cuisine,” based on the perennially popular Harvard College course. The undergraduate course has since spawned a massively popular public lecture series, where celebrated chefs demonstrate scientific and culinary techniques for a live audience (though the series was held virtually this year), and two online edX courses (part one and part two) that bring Science and Cooking to a global audience.
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Professor Brenner is a faculty member in SEAS and Physics at Harvard University. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago, where he worked with Professor Leo Kadanoff. His first faculty position was at MIT in the Mathematics Department before joining the faculty of Harvard University in 2002.
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Please join us via Zoom at this link on Thursday, November 18 at 6:00 pm.