FRS 002CC — Sec. 001 — (2 unit) — CRN 65521 — W 3:10-6:00pm— 150F Cruess
The Science of Cooking

Instructor: Angelique Louie, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering

Description: The course will be a lab/lecture format where every week we cook something in the food science cooking lab and talk about the chemistry behind the cooking process. The course will be based upon the book "The Science of Cooking" by Peter Barham and the website "The Accidental Scientist: Science of Cooking" by the Exploratorium. Both resources include recipes to try as laboratories so are well suited to classroom adaptation. I have permission from the chair of Food Science, Charles Shoemaker, to use the cooking lab in 150F Cruess for the course so that small groups of students can prepare recipes at stations (there are 7 in the lab) and we can discuss the science before/during/after the cooking is taking place. I have only just placed the order for the book, after learning that the room would be available to us, so I do not have precise course content, but the format would be to meet for 3 hours per session for ~7 sessions. During each class the students would prepare something: flan, bread, candy etc. and we could discuss the science behind what they are doing. For example, with flan we would talk about gels—what they are, how the egg protein forms one as it cooks, why you need water to bake it, etc. Then of course we would EAT THE EXPERIMENTS!

Format: The seminar's goals are to expose students to interesting aspects of chemistry and physics that they see in everyday life and perhaps give them a greater appreciation of how fascinating these fields are. It will give non-scientists a glimpse into what science is good for, and why it is useful to understand the science behind what you do. The course will meet for one 3 hr session per week for 7 weeks. The first week the cooking lab is not available, so laboratory sessions would not meet until the second week. During the first week we could meet for orientation. Students will prepare a written report describing each experiment. As a final project, each student will prepare a 10-15 minute talk describing a "science in cooking" observation that we have not discussed in lab yet I will coordinate with the students a list of possible topics, or they may choose their own. Grading: Grading plan not yet available.

About the Instructor: Professor Louie is a member of the faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Her research interests are in molecular imaging, visualizing the location and function of specific molecules in vivo. Current projects involve development of targeted or activatable imaging agents for studying both the aging eye and the development of heart disease. Her interest in cooking comes from a lifelong adoration of sweets and addiction to wanting to know how things work.