Next seminar in Paris

I am happy  to announce that the Ecole supérieure de cuisine française of the Centre Jean Ferrandi from the Chambre de commerce de Paris will again host the Parisian Seminar on Molecular Gastronomy (investigating culinary precisions).
The next meeting will be the  17 September,  4.00-6.00 PM, at28 bis rue de l'abbé Grégoire.

The chosen topic will be  :

Are green beans greener when cooked in sparkling water ?

See you then if you want/can.

A table of content

For days of podcasts, some in English :

http://podcast.agroparistech.fr/users/gastronomiemoleculaire/weblog/b4ec0/Sommaire_du_podcast_de_Gastronomie_Moleculaire.html

From our Argentinan friends

Curso Intensivo de Introducción a la Gastronomía Molecular

19, 20 y 21 de Octubre 

Durante 3 jornadas intensivas desde el viernes 19 de octubre al domingo 21 de octubre del 2012, desarrollaremos los temas claves de introducción a la Gastronomía Molecular buscando la  “explicación científica de los fenómenos y transformaciones culinarios” (Nicholas Kurti y Hervé This 1988).

El curso será teórico práctico permitiendo a los participantes experimentar cada uno de los temas mediante la participación activa (manos a la obra).

 

Más información aquí

A seminar in NYC

From our American friends :

Hello all,     We hope that you are having a good summer, and look forward to seeing you at our meetings beginning in September. Dates and topics for the fall are now posted at experimentalcuisine.org.      Before we gather back in New York, however, we are happy to announce a special ECC event: On Monday, September 10, the Experimental Cuisine Collective will go on the road to the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. There, Monell scientists will take part in a panel moderated by ECC co-founder Kent Kirshenbaum, on the topic of Salt, Fat, and Sweet Taste---and Diet.    The panel will start at 3 p.m. and run until 4:30 p.m. Please RSVP by clicking here or the link below, and meet directly at Monell, which is a short walk from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, at 3500 Market Street.    For more information on the Monell Chemical Senses Center, the world's only independent, non-profit scientific institute dedicated to basic research on taste and smell, visit  www.monell.org. Please RSVP at eccmonell.eventbrite.com. All my best, Anne  ---- Anne E. McBride Director, Experimental Cuisine Collective

ABOUT THE EXPERIMENTAL CUISINE COLLECTIVE The Experimental Cuisine Collective is a working group that assembles scholars, scientists, chefs, writers, journalists, performance artists, and food enthusiasts. We launched in April 2007, as a result of the collaboration of Kent Kirshenbaum of the chemistry department and Amy Bentley of the nutrition, food studies, and public health department at New York University with Chef Will Goldfarb of WillPowder. Our overall aim is to develop a broad-based and rigorous academic approach that employs techniques and approaches from both the humanities and sciences to examine the properties, boundaries, and conventions of food. Visit the ECC online at www.experimentalcuisine.com.

Calculation and mayonnaise

Dear Friends
Two new podcasts at : http://podcast.agroparistech.fr/users/gastronomiemoleculaire/weblog/f0e13/How_much_mayonnaise_sauce_can_you_make_from_only_one_egg.html (version longue)

http://podcast.agroparistech.fr/users/gastronomiemoleculaire/weblog/4fef7/How_much_mayonnaise_sauce_can_you_make_from_only_one_egg.html
(version courte)

The short one is to give the result, and the long one wants to teach calculus and Maple use at the same time

Cheers, celebrate Chemistry ! 

From our US colleagues

Hello all,   After our May break, we are back for the final session of the Experimental Cuisine Collective's 5th year---yes, it's already been that long! The ECC's June meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 20, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Chemistry Department at NYU, room 1003 (31 Washington Place, between Washington Square Park and Greene Street). You will need a photo ID to enter the building.    In his talk, "Bev-O-Metrics: Spinning the Bottle to Profile Drinks," Subha Das, assistant professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, will show how chemistry and food collide in his research by discussing the flavor profiles of liquids, from morning java to cooling afternoon soda to crisp evening wine. Spectral data such as nuclear magnetic resonance offers a window into the profile of these drinks. The presentation will examine how these profiles relate to genomics and metabolomics and how these complex profiles can be determined and used under real world conditions for education and enjoyment. And to deliciously put theory to practice---if time allows---we will conclude with taste tests. Please RSVP at ecc062012.eventbrite.com. A link is also posted on our website. If you RSVP and can no longer make it, please let me know so that your seat can be released. Thank you.    We will then be on summer break July and August, back in September. We will post meeting dates and speakers for 2012-2013 as we confirm them at experimentalcuisine.org.   All my best, Anne  ---- Anne E. McBride Director, Experimental Cuisine Collective

ABOUT THE EXPERIMENTAL CUISINE COLLECTIVE The Experimental Cuisine Collective is a working group that assembles scholars, scientists, chefs, writers, journalists, performance artists, and food enthusiasts. We launched in April 2007, as a result of the collaboration of Kent Kirshenbaum of the chemistry department and Amy Bentley of the nutrition, food studies, and public health department at New York University with Chef Will Goldfarb of WillPowder. Our overall aim is to develop a broad-based and rigorous academic approach that employs techniques and approaches from both the humanities and sciences to examine the properties, boundaries, and conventions of food. Visit the ECC online at www.experimentalcuisine.com.

I receive a letter

Here is an email that I got and the answer that I made :


1. The email :
Hello Dr. This,
 I am currently a 22 year old career student, and my background is in Chemical Engineering. I fear that I have had difficulty finding a passion in a lot of areas of research in Chemical Engineering, and am seeking a new direction in my life.

I've come across your name in articles on Molecular Gastronomy, and have become a big fan of your journal publications. I am particularly interested in the way you have developed a scientific nomenclature to describe the chemistry of food, and admire your passion for bringing food science to a modern standard.

I was wondering if you had any recommendations for research programs that a young student could pursue in this field. Or things that I could do to make myself more desirable for said programs. I feel that my background in Chemical Engineering gives me a unique perspective from the fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, and kinetics.

2. The answer :
Thanks, but please be rather fan of yourself, making everything to be worth having a fan. Indeed, you put a lot of pressur on me... because I shall merit your trust.
By the way, do you know that there is a good thing to make if you want to get ennemies, i.e. giving advices ? If the friends follow it and it fails, the are angry at you. And if it works, they are frustrated not to have decided by themselves (an idea probably from Oscar Wilde ; to be checked).

More seriously, I am very happy that you recognized that Molecular Gastronomy is clearly a scientific activity.

Concerning "research programs", I have thousands of questions, and we study here a very small number of them. Indeed, collecting "culinary precisions" and testing them can lead to scientific results... if you apply the right method of science. Your background is fine. Just play on !

PS. Do you know the FIPDes Erasmus Mundus Master programme ? www.fipdes.eu