There is a class at Harvard — Science of the Physical Universe 27: "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science" — where students, instructed by math and physics professors as well as professional chefs, apply scientific principles to the culinary arts. As much as we hate to toot Harvard's horn, we can't help it. This class sounds awesome.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the class is taught by an applied math professor, a physics professor and a host of well-known chefs, including Ferran Adria, whose restaurant in Spain is considered by many to be the best in the world. On Thursday, the Harvard professors take turns explaining scientific concepts, and on the following Tuesday, the chefs speak about the practical implications of the scientific principles in the culinary arts. And of course there's lab, where students get to taste the science themselves, making ceviche, spherified chocolate syrup and molten chocolate cakes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the class has been very popular. More than 700 students tried to sign up for the class, forcing a lottery to fill the class's 300 seats, the Boston Globe reported.
The class is part of Harvard's General Education program, which seeks to connect a liberal arts education to life beyond college, according to Harvard Magazine. The class will finish with a science fair, where a panel of local chefs will judge the students' final projects. The winning group gets a free trip to Barcelona to work on a project with Adria at the Alicia Foundation, a nonprofit organization that studies food and science. This part seems a little Project Runway to us — but maybe we're just jealous.
While we don't expect to be flown to Europe, we do think Harvard is on to something with their hands-on food science class. After all, what better way to learn about abstract scientific processes than to eat them?
Given some of our current course offerings, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Brown to introduce a science of food class. We already have a number of similar classes, and some that encourage reflection on food and cooking — this year Brown offers BIOL 0190H: "Plants, Food, and People," HIST 1975C: "Eating Cultures: Food and Society," ENVS 1560: "Sustenance and Sustainability: Exploring the Nexus of Agro-Food Systems, Society, the Environment," ANTH 1680: "Foragers, Farmers, Feasts, and Famines: An Anthropology of Food" and POLS 1740: "Politics of Food." But we love that Harvard's class mixes hard science with a practical, edible theme and would really like to see Brown do the same.
We also think a class like this might ease the divide between science and humanities. Many students go four years without taking a single science or math class — arguably a serious problem in an economy that greatly values graduates skilled in science and technology. A class like Harvard's that takes an interdisciplinary approach to the hard sciences might help to bridge the gap, encouraging both science and humanities students to step outside their comfort zones. We hope the trend catches on.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials (at) browndailyherald.com.
