1) The course Science and Cooking brings together Harvard faculty, renowned chefs, and students to apply scientific principles to cooking. 2) Topics covered include phase transitions, food components, elasticity, polymers, diffusion, emulsions, proteins, sensation, production methods, and experimental design. 3) Recipes demonstrate these concepts, such as an orange sauce using carbohydrates as thickeners, and yogurt spheres made through spherification using alginate and calcium ions.

1. Science and Cooking
From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science
Chocolate cake
with raspberry-yogurt spheres,
orange sauce and jelly

2. Creation of the course
Cast of characters

4. Dave Weitz Otger Campas

5. Ferran Adrià

6. Michael
Brenner

7. Amy Rowat

9. Highlights from 2010
Using Science to Teach Science

24. Science and Cooking 2011
New and Improved

25. Weekly schedule
List of topics
1 Introduction
2 Phase Transitions
3 Food Components
4 Elasticity and Viscosity
5 Polymers and Gelation
6 Diffusion and Entropy
7 Emulsions and Foams
8 Proteins and Enzymes
9 Molecular Basis of Sensation
10 Production Methods
11 Beverages
12 Experimental Design
13 Desserts

26. Week 1. Harold McGee
The Curious Cook

27. Week 1. Dave Arnold
Cooking Issues

28. Week 1. Introduction
Scientific rigor, historical context

29. Week 2. Joan Roca
El Celler de Can Roca

30. Week 2. Phase Transitions
Solid, liquid, gas; phase transitions

31. Week 3. Ramón Morató
Aula Chocovic

32. Week 3. Food Components
Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

33. Week 4. Carles Tejedor
Via Veneto

34. Week 4. Fina Puigdevall & Pere Planaguma
Les Cols

35. Week 4. Elasticity and Viscosity
Elasticity and viscosity measurements

36. Week 5. Grant Achatz
Alinea, Next, Aviary

37. Week 5. Polymers and Gelation
Thickeners, spherification

38. Recipe #1
Orange sauce and jelly
Thick
sauce
Orange
Juice
Firm
gel

39. Carbohydrates as thickeners
Table sugar is not very effective
s
s
s s
water
s s
s
sugar

40. Flour as a thickener
Long chains can form a network
sugar sugar
sugar sugar

41. Xanthan gum
Very long chains of sugars
• Derived from the fermentation of sugars by a
particular species of bacteria (Xanthomonas
campestris)

42. Locust bean (carob) gum
Very long chains of sugars
• Derived from the seed of the carob tree.
– Slightly sweet and tastes a little like cocoa
– Often used as a chocolate substitute

43. Locust bean + xanthan gum
Carbohydrates for carob tree seeds

44. Week 6. José Andrés
ThinkFoodGroup

45. Week 6. Diffusion and entropy
Diffusion of ions and heat

46. Recipe #2
Yogurt spheres
Yogurt sphere

47. Spherification
chemically induced gelation using alginate
• In 1881, E.C. Stanford
discovered alginate
• Aglinate is
– A carbohydrate found in
brown seaweed cell walls
– Thickener and gelling agent
• Industrially produced
since 1927
– ~30,000 tons annually
– ~10,000 tons used for food

48. Alginate is a block copolymer
Alternating sequence of two sugars
and
α-L-Guluronate β-D-Mannuronate
G G M M G

49. G-block regions can bind calcium
G G M M G

50. Calcium cross-links aglinate strands
+ Ca+2

51. Forward Spherification
Add alginate solution to calcium bath
Alginate-Flavor
solution
Calcium
Bath

52. Week 7. Nandu Jubany
Can Jubany

53. Week 7. Carles Gaig
Fonda GAIG

54. Week 7. Emulsions and Foams
Elasticity of emulsions, stabilization of foams

55. Week 8. Wylie Dufrense
wd~50

56. Week 8. Proteins and Enzymes
Enzymatic browning, transglutaminase

57. Week 9. Carme Ruscalleda
Sant Pau

58. Week 9. Molecular Basis of Sensation
Aroma, taste perception

59. Week 10. Dan Barber
Blue Hill

60. Week 10. Methods of production
Agriculture and sustainability

61. Week 11. Beverages
Fermented beverages, thermodynamics of cocktails

62. Week 11. Local chefs
a panel of renowned chefs from the Boston area

63. Week 12. Nathan Myhrvold
Modernist Cuisine

64. Week 12. Experimental Design
Science in the kitchen, computer modeling

65. Week 13. Bill Yosses
White House Pastry Chef

66. Week 13. Desserts
Review of concepts with pastry applications

67. Recipe #3
Chocolate cake
Flour
Cocoa
Sugar Foam
Eggs

68. Week 14. Ferran Adria
el Bulli

69. Public Lecture Series
seas.harvard.edu/cooking
• Runs parallel to the GenEd class
• Mondays at 7 pm at Science Center C
• Also on iTunes and YouTube

70. Questions?

71. Science Lesson #1
Polymers can thicken liquids or turn
them into gels.

72. Foams are stabilized by the lecithin
molecules, which collect at the air-water
boundaries.

73. The energy required to form the bubbles
depends on their size and the surface tension.
U = 4sp R 2

74. Highlights from 2010
Students, chefs, and science

89. Science Lesson #2
How to turn oils into powders

90. Tapioca maltodextrin is made of chains of sugar
molecules, called glucose.

91. The sugar chains bind to oil, but dissolve rapidly
in the presence of water.

92. Science Lesson #3
Applications to beverages…

94. Spherification:
Biology, chemistry and physics
• Derived form brown seaweed cell walls
• block copolymers composed of repeating units
of mannopyranosyluronic and
gulopyranosyluronic acids.

95. G-block regions can bind calcium
G G M M G

97. Alginate production

98. Calcium ions cross-links the aglinate

99. Calcium ions cross-links the aglinate

100. Calcium ions cross-links the aglinate
+ Ca+2