87821 - MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide a physical and chemical description of the fundamental processes underlying the domestic food preparation practices. The lectures follow a top-down approach from a phenomenological description towards a molecular level explanation of how (and why) common foods like bread, meat, eggs, milk and ice cream, chocolate, or jam are prepared/transformed during the common culinary practices. At the end of the course the students will know how macroscopic food properties are connected to: transport and surface phenomena, heat transfer, chemical transformations, denaturation and self-assembling of biopolymers.

Course contents

Prerequisites: basic knowledge of organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and physics. A detailed description of the course, including references, and final assessment methods are given in the syllabus provided at the start of class. The food systems used as working examples for showing how physics and chemistry affect preparations and properties include: flour, gluten and seitan, bread, meat, eggs, egg white foams, cream, mayonnaise, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, soy milk and tofu, chocolate, jam. The lectures will provide a general introduction of disperse systems, gels, colloids, emulsions, foams, surfactants, surface tension, rheology and viscosity of disperse systems, viscoelasticity, fermentation, Maillard reactions, denaturation coagulation and self-assembling of carbohydrates and proteins, transport phenomena, heat transfer and cooking methods, cooking with acids and bases, water activity and preservation, nucleation, crystallisation, glass transition and freezing, perception of aromas and flavours. Notice: this IS NOT a course on cooking; potential students wishing to learn how to cook may feel disappointed by the topics of this course: they are strongly advised to look elsewhere for practical and effective means of filling this gap. On the other hand, those already feeling comfortable with saucepans and skillets could benefit from a deeper (i.e. molecular level) knowledge of what is going on during the preparation of a dish, and possibly achieve better control of their cooking skills by changing perspective.

Readings/Bibliography

--- Handouts, notes and free ebooks provided via mailing list.

--- Pieter Walstra, ``Physical Chemistry of Foods'', (CRC Press, 2002), ISBN-10 100824793552, ISBN-13 9780824793555,

--- Harold McGee, ``On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen'', Rev. and Upd. Ed., (Scribner, 2004), ISBN-10 0684800012, ISBN-13 9780684800011,

Teaching methods

Lectures.

Assessment methods

The final assessment consists in a written examination with questions on the course topics.

Teaching tools

The class is organised with a standard lecture format. Resources: video projector, interactive display, and online audience/student response system (clickers replacement).

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Berardi