This Year's Harvard Science & Cooking Lectures Lineup

Harvard has posted the schedule for this year's Science & Cooking Lecture Series, wherein a bonanza of renowned chefs drop by to give lessons on topics ranging from "viscosity and heat thickeners" to "dessert." Like last year, the lectures happen alongside the coveted student course, "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter."

The season's first outing is September 6, and features writer Harold McGee and Eater answerer Dave Arnold. Other lecture highlights include José Andrés speaking on gelation, Modernist Cuisine's Nathan Myhrvold on heat transfer, and Alinea chef Grant Achatz on food texture and mouth feel. Other chefs slated to appear include Dan Barber, Joan Roca, Wylie Dufresne, David Chang, and Ferran Adrià.

Here's the full lineup:

September 6: Historical Context and Demos Illustrating the Relationship of Food and Science. Speakers: Dave Arnold (Food Arts magazine’s Contributing Editor for Equipment & Food Science), Harold McGee (author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen and columnist for The New York Times) and David Weitz (Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard)

September 12: Sous-vide Cooking: Phases of Matter. Speaker: Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca).

September 19: Heat and Temperature Flux in Chocolate. Speaker: Ramon Morató (Aula Chocovic)

September 26: Viscosity and Thickeners. Speaker: Carles Tejedor (Via Veneto), Fina Puigdevall and Pere Planagumà (les Coles)

October 3: Food Texture and Mouth Feel. Speaker: Grant Achatz (Alinea)

October 10: Gelation. Speaker: José Andrés (ThinkFoodGroup, minibar, Jaleo).

October 17: Emulsions: Traditional and New Emulsions. Speaker: Nandu Jubany (Can Jubany) and Carles Gaig (Fonda Gaig).

October 24: Proteins & Enzymes: Transglutaminase. Speaker: Wylie Dufresne (wd~50).

October 31: Browning Reactions: Culinary Examples. Speaker: Carme Ruscalleda (Sant Pau, Sant Pau de Tòquio).

November 7: Molecular Differences Between Production Methods. Speaker: Dan Barber (Blue Hill).

November 14: (Title to Come) Speaker: David Chang (momofuku)

November 21: Heat Transfer. Speaker: Nathan Myhrvold (former Microsoft CTO; co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; and author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking)

November 28: Dessert. Speaker: Bill Yosses (White House)

November 30: Technology and Cooking. Speaker: Ferran Adrià (elBulli)

· Science & Cooking Public Lecture [Harvard via Khymos]
· All Harvard Science & Cooking Lecture Series Coverage on Eater [-E-]