Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science (chemistry)
Top chefs and Harvard researchers explore how everyday cooking and haute cuisine can illuminate basic principles in chemistry, physics, and engineering. Learn about food molecules and how chemical reactions can affect food texture and flavor.
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Learner testimonials
“I really enjoyed the course and have a new appreciation for food and cooking. I now make better scrambled eggs and French fries, a great molten chocolate cake and flan, and I love my new way of preparing salmon, using the Maillard reaction!”
“Thank you to the course staff and the chefs who contributed! It was a great experience to delve back into science and math, and a lot of fun to combine it with cooking. I very much enjoyed the content, and the exercise that my brain got in the homework!”
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know physics and chemistry in order to take this course?
Not at all - while some familiarity with these subjects could be helpful, we start each module thinking about how we experience food, then use that to explore the science behind it. The scientific principles are discussed in the videos, and practice problems give you an opportunity to apply them. If you have a desire to understand how physics and chemistry affect food and a willingness to think, you'll learn all the physics and chemistry that you need in the course.
What background knowledge is assumed?
We provide review materials that discuss some fundamental principles in math and science, and familiarity with arithmetic and high-school algebra is assumed.
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