Science of Cooking: An evening of physics with Spike Gjerde

The dishes created by great chefs not only please the palate of the patrons of their restaurants, but can also serve as a marvelous motivation for conveying many principles of fundamental physics to both physicists and non-physicists. This concept has formed the basis of a popular course at Harvard, where distinguished chefs collaborate with Harvard professors to teach an introductory course that uses cooking as a theme to teach science to non-science students. This lecture will use this model to illustrate how this can be accomplished. Spike Gjerde, the distinguished chef at Woodberry Kitchen, a local Baltimore restaurant, will participate in this lecture. Together, we will demonstrate some principles of cooking and discuss the underlying science that can be taught using this. The lecture will include discussion and demonstrations to teach both cooking and science. The demos will include cooking eggs in different ways, making foams, cooking with a wood-fired oven and making cocktails.