Application

[by Mike]

Despite being an aspiring scientist, my interest in food science has always been a casual endeavor.  Nuclear and particle physics just doesn't have any applications to modern gastronomy, so time spend reading and learning about food is entirely separated from research.  So you can imagine my surprise to see nuclear physics having a direct application to the world of spirits.

Now it's just a matter of time before chefs start looking to quantum chromodynamics for inspiration.

Science!

[by Mike]

Thanks to a tip by Naveen, I had the luxury of spending the day (literally, the seminar ran from 9 to 5) over at Boston University listening to Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher talk food.  In addition to taking the torrent of questions from the audience, the two eminent food writers covered the history of food science, heat in the kitchen (including the infamous sous vide), the intricacies of flavor and aroma (with the supertaster test), and finally a discussion on molecular gastronomy that may have actually killed my distain for the field.   McGee is an incredibly charming speaker, each presentation engaging and dense with information, while Corriher featured a boisterous Southern personality complete with a knack for storytelling and a dissonant fondness for the word "shit".

Particulars will have to be reserved for personal conversations, except for one fact that simply must be shared.  Where did the term "molecular gastronomy" originate?  It was devised to help garner funding for one of the first food science conferences.  As Corriher so eloquently put it, bullshit.

Awesome.