Course Syllabus
PHYS E-27
Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science
Spring 2016
At the end of the course, students will be able to explain how a range of cooking techniques and recipes work, in terms of the physical and chemical transformations of the food.
Instructors
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Michael Brenner brenner@seas.harvard.edu Pierce Hall 313 Office Hours: TBA |
Pia Sörensen sorensen@seas.harvard.edu Pierce Hall 206A Office Hours: TBA |
Teaching Fellows
| Head-TF | Tim Roth | troth@fas.harvard.edu |
| TF |
Mai Nguyen |
mainguyen01@g.harvard.edu |
Prerequisites
High school physics and chemistry is strongly recommended. Background material will be available in video format on the course website.
Expectations
You are expected to watch all online lectures, complete the at-home labs, submit weekly problem sets and lab worksheets, take two midterm exams, and write and present a final research project. The class will have no final exam.
Lectures
Lectures will be available in video format on the course website. Some of the lectures were recorded in the Harvard College class and begin with a 20-minute introduction about the relevant scientific topics, followed by a presentation by a visiting chef to discuss the culinary application. Most of the lectures, however, are a series of ~10 min video segments mixing science and cooking. These videos were recorded by the course instructors as part of the development of the HarvardX class.
Section
Section is recommend but not required. If there is enough interest, we will try to offer on campus sections for local students. All students can also attend section via web-conferencing (the platform is Blackboard Collaborate). Sections provide an opportunity to review the weekly material, solve additional problems, get help with homework and labs, discuss final projects, etc. Section preferences will be made available via a survey tool on the course website, and we will try to find times that work for everyone. If not, the course staff will also be available for online office hours.
- To access the online section tool while the section is LIVE go to this link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.D67255F7AF2D5945140ED1CF0B07A4&sid=2007009
- The sections will be recorded. For playback of the latest section recording you can go to this link: TBD
- And for a list of all section recordings you can go to this link: TBD
The course includes 5-7 at-home labs that you will complete in your very own laboratory – your kitchen.
In the past, students have found this to be the highlight of the course—you will make measurements on recipes that you can then eat! The labs were designed for the HarvardX class and have been adapted to fit the equipment and ingredients found in most kitchens. Usually a choice between two or more lab versions will be offered: a simpler lab involving very common ingredients and equipment, and a more involved lab for students who enjoy more advanced cooking. In both cases you will prepare an edible recipe and make measurements along the way to illustrate the concepts discussed in lecture. For most labs, no special equipment is necessary, though you may find that a thermometer and a simple scale are useful both for the cooking done in this class and beyond.
Each lab has an accompanying lab worksheet, which is a brief but integral part of the lab and contains questions about the experiments, your results, and data analysis. The worksheet is due to be uploaded on the course website by 11 pm EST on the day they are due, indicated on the weekly schedule.
Homework
There are 4 homeworks. They should be uploaded to the course website by 11pm EST on the day they are due. No late homeworks are accepted.
Exams
There will be two midterm exams of approximately 1.5 hours each. The exams are given online, and will be offered in any 3 hour window from Thursday 4 pm to Saturday 4 pm. The two exams take place starting Thursday March 3rd and April 14th. The class has no final exam.
Final Projects
All students will carry out a practical project to connect some aspect of cooking to science. You will be required to write a 3-page report describing your project, as well as make a brief video that will be shared with your classmates and the course staff in an online Science Fair.
Grading
The final course grade will take into account the following components:
| Homework | 15% | 6-8 weeks (drop lowest score) |
| Lab worksheets | 20% | 5-7 lab worksheets (drop lowest score) |
| Midterm exams | 2x20% | 2 midterm exams |
| Final project | 25% |
Proposal, progress reports, final report, science fair video |
HarvardX videos
Substantial material for this class has been developed in the form of videos for the HarvardX class. In addition to the science videos that will constitute the majority of the second lecture every week, there is a large repository of cooking videos with visiting chefs, as well as advanced science materials, review materials etc. A small number of these videos will occasionally be assigned as part of solving homework problems, but other than this, watching of the additional videos is optional, and we recommend that they be used as review and supplementary materials.
Textbooks
Two texts will be useful for this course. Each week, recommended, but not required, readings will be drawn from these books.
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On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee, Scribner, 2004 (2nd edition) On Food and Cooking will significantly enhance your understanding of this subject and serve as a truly invaluable resource and reference, both for this class and beyond. It is available in hard copy at the Coop (new $40, used $30) and as an eTextbook ($25). |
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Science and Cooking: A Companion to the Harvard Course, 2015 Science and Cooking: A Companion to the Harvard Course is based on the transcripts from the HarvardX science videos. This text serves as a summary of all of the science that is covered in the course. It is available as an e-book and is available on Amazon (kindle) and the iBook Store. The iBook version is slightly "better" in that it contains ~35 short embedded videos. The kindle format does not support video embedding and thus links out to the videos instead. In every other way the two versions are identical. |
Additional Texts
More specific texts covering the scientific aspects of cooking, and the basic science, are listed below. Most of these are on reserve in Cabot library – for a complete list see the course website.
The following books cover various aspects of the science contained in the course:
The Science of Good Cooking, America’s Test Kitchen
The Science of Cooking, Peter Barham
The Science of Chocolate, Stephen T. Beckett
The Science of Ice Cream, C. Clarke
Cookwise, Shirley Corriher
Keys to Good Cooking, Harold McGee
The Curious Cook, Harold McGee
Modernist Cuisine, Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Billet Ratio, Michael Ruhlman
Several of the guest lecturers have written cookbooks, which may be of interest:
A Day at El Bulli, Ferran Adrià
A Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion, Bill Yosses
Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara
Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Café, Joanne Chang
Flour, too: Indispensable Recipes for the Café’s Most Loved Sweets and Savories, Joanne Chang
I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara
In the Hands of A Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant, Jody Adams and Ken Rivard
Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail, Dave Arnold
Metamorphosis of Taste, Dominique Crenn
Momofuku Milkbar, Christina Tosi
Sous vide Cuisine, Joan Roca
For a more advanced discussion of the scientific topics in the course:
Physical Chemistry of Foods, Pieter Walstra
Academic Integrity
Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to doing academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates as you work on problem sets and labs. However, after discussions with peers, make sure that you can work through the problem yourself and ensure that any answers you submit for evaluation are the result of your own efforts. In addition, you must cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc that have helped you with your work using appropriate citation practices. Similarly, you must list the names of students with whom you have collaborated on problem sets.
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability must complete the request-for-accommodation form available from the Harvard Extension School Disability Services and speak with one of the instructors by the end of the second week of the term, February 5th. Failure to do so may result in the Course Head's inability to respond in a timely manner. All discussions will remain confidential. (http://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources/disability-services)
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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