Food Comma

I’m in a food comma (yes, that comma, as in separating a number of related elements in a series). This week I coordinated the announcement of a new undergrad Gen Ed course on science and cooking (technically known as the more cumbersome sounding, Cooking and Gastronomy: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter).

An “air” of honey created by world famous chef Ferran Adrià, who is collaborating on a course with Harvard faculty members on science and cooking. It turns out that modern chefs like Adrià are turning to the lab for inspiration. (Image thanks to Francesc Guillamet/elBulli).

Leave it to the SEAS faculty to take some wind out of the PR sails and make things sound all “techy”. Then again, what is cooking, but applied chemistry? More broadly, faculty and students at SEAS strive to find usual but powerful connections to highlight how engineering underlies everything (from robotic bees to quantum levitation). Okay, I’ve switched into my spin cycle---but day-in and day-out folks at SEAS always surprise me: “Hey, we just did a study on the mathematics behind the beaks of Darwin’s finches …” (Otger Campas, a grad student) … “I don’t know if this is worth promoting, but we found a way to embed unwanted CO2 in concrete.” (faculty member Mike Aziz) … and “look, we just invented a soccer ball that creates and stores energy.” (Jessica Lin ’09).

Dave Weitz, one of the faculty members coordinating the engineering side of the cooking course (warning, real physics content ahead), explores wild substances and materials such as emulsions (above) and colloids (for use in a variety of everyday products like shaving creams and for novel drug delivery). In fact, everything from Jello to exotic culinary foams relies on the same technical principles (and sometimes even requires the same equipment to make).

The ingredients for the science and cooking course are simple---and simply amazing: 12 celebrity chefs, 2 SEAS faculty, and 150 lucky College students. I have received calls from around the world (and in some cases, what amounts to friendly bribes of free meals) from chefs and interested amateurs alike eager (um, desperate?) to take the course. Alas, that privilege is strictly for Harvard undergrads (meaning possibly some of you). A response I overheard by an associate dean sums up my own feelings: “I absolutely love this place! Where else could you pull this off?” And this is no flash in the pan (that pun was begging to be used), as plans are to create more and more science and engineering courses like this.

The chef-research class sprung to life after a visit to Harvard by chef Ferran Adrià and Jose Andres (I highly recommend his DC-area bistros, as he uses Corn Nuts with raw tuna) in 2008---an event that a former dean calls the “food riot,” and when he is less generous, “Michael’s food riot”. The first-come first served seating was, in retrospect, not a good idea  … and we had to turn away about 500-1,000 people with the help of the Harvard police.

In 2008, Ferran Adrià toured labs, taught a course, and gave a popular public lecture. Thanks to members of the Harvard police (like Matthew Ferazzi, who even took time out to take a photo), the massive crowds were held at bay.

So less than two years after Adrià’s visit, a scribble of an idea has become a rich realty. I heard from Michael Brenner, one of other faculty organizers, that the chefs who will guest lecture are so eager to participate, all 12 have already bought their plane tickets and begun to think up how best to present their demos and lectures to match the science and engineering content. Harvard is one heck of a magnet for motivation.

Jose Andres (right, in the scarf) during his visit to Harvard. Amy Rowat (behind and left, in blue and red shirt) is one of the TFs for the course (a brilliant applied physicist and an amazing cook---I’ve experienced her culinary wizardry first hand).

As for Adrià, while he’s known for his exuberance in the kitchen, he seems sincere rather than hyperbolic about what the collaboration means to him and for cooking: “This collaboration with Harvard is the first work of my new life … 2010 will make a change to the relations between universities and the world of the kitchen. It will be a revolution.” Let them eat cake, indeed.

Okay, so back to the comma I mentioned at the start of this entry. The science and cooking course is mere amuse-bouche to a multi-course meal. Bioengineer and Afghan war vet Kit Parker, known for his turducken (look it up), will appear as a guest judge on Food Network Challenge (dude, you owe me one for getting you that gig). In April 60 Minutes will broadcast a segment on Jose Andres’ visit to SEAS in the fall of 2009. And don’t snort at this: two weeks ago, innovator David Edwards introduced his Le Whif (a way to inhale foods) to the U.S. market at a party held in Harvard Square’s Tory Row. If you visit Harvard, you can pick up a pack of this Willy Wonka-like wonders at Cardullo’s.

Le Whif, invented by Harvard faculty member David Edward, relies on the same technology used to deliver certain vaccines. Instead of medicine, users receive a shot of chocolate or coffee. What’s it like? You really have to try it yourself. (Photo courtesy of the Crimson.)

Finally, as I am a student of the history of science (at night) and because Harvard is deep into tradition (you’ll learn that right away if you attend), I offer this one final food fact. A major 19^th century discovery stemming from the original engineering program at Harvard (called the Lawrence Scientific School) was the invention of baking powder.

Rumford Baking Powder (the one in the red can) was named after Count Rumford (the silhouetted figure on the label), in honor of an endowed professorship the count gave to Harvard faculty member and chemical engineer Eben Horsford, who eventually left Harvard to create the Rumford Chemical Works.

For someone in communications like me, Harvard/SEAS offers numerous “gifts.” With just a bit of digging into the archives, I am amazed how readily I can trace up-to-the-minute engineering findings back to earlier revolutions that happened a few feet away from where my office stands. That’s Harvard for you.

And if you couldn’t tell, I am a major foodie (so this is a week where all my stars aligned). As I write this, I am, in fact, recovering from a food coma from last night. I tried out East by Northeast, about two miles from campus in Inman Square. The menu: pickled veggies; fatty pork belly on a steamed buns; hand cut noodles with spiced pork topped with a poached egg; breaded trotters; and house-made ginger soda. All local ingredients; all made right on the premises. Wow.

The pork belly buns at East by Northeast. Savory, sweet, meaty, and fatty --- and lovely. (Photo from tinyurbankitchen, a food blog).

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Michael Patrick Rutter is the Communications Director at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (or SEAS, as it is called). He has been in his current role for over 7 years (during the fateful transition from a Division to a School) and at Harvard for a decade. Previously, he worked at that “other” school in Cambridge, MIT. And to boot, his wife Amy is a Harvard alum (class of 1996). A graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio, he serves as a freshman adviser (sometimes cooking for his advisees), studies the History of Science at Harvard Extension School, and is very pleased that the current dean of SEAS, Cherry A. Murray, gets all of his geeky references to science fiction and pop culture.