Harvard Food Lectures

[iHEARTalbany]

So I was just wondering if any (other) egulleteers (sic) were part of the lecture at Harvard University last night with Ferran Adria? And if anyone had any insight into what his role with the school would be in developing texts to better translate the relationships between food and science?

I think this is pretty miraculous stuff, considering that I really see this as a better more documented and orderly attempt at trying to decipher what clearly is infatuating Ferran, and hes coming right here to figure it out. The lecture, while spent a bunch of time displaying some of the techniques used at el bulli, was also a pretty interesting insight into the animal that is Ferran, who was at times nothing short of hilarious and animated.

Just curious to open this up to discussion...

Greg K-C

[s0rce]

I would have loved to go, if only I had accepted the offer from Harvard instead of Northwestern, alas, I'll have to wait for Adria to come to Chicago.

[Borgstrom]

Harvard has now posted videos of the first two public lectures on YouTube:

Harold McGee, Ferran Adria, José Andrés:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard#p/c/546CD09EA2399DAB/0/odIegtceB4M

Joan Roca

http://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard#p/c/546CD09EA2399DAB/1/ulO-gGfqL6U

The public lectures are great, but wouldn't it be great to actually be able to take the class?

If Food Network would produce stuff like this, I might start watching it again...

[RobertCollins]

Thanks for telling about this lecture series. I have now used up 4 hrs of my day on these delightful lectures.

[hsm]

Harvard has now posted videos of the first two public lectures on YouTube:

Harold McGee, Ferran Adria, José Andrés:

http://www.youtube.c...B/0/odIegtceB4M

Sadly, it's now marked private.

[LindaK]

The talk was part of an engineering course and a longer lecture series at the Engineering School at Harvard. See the schedule for the current semester here: http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking

There are still some good lectures to go: Wylie Dufresne, Dan Barber, David Chang. It's quite the lineup.

Tickets go quickly but for those without tickets or far away from Cambridge, MA, they are also streamed live. There's a link in the upper right corner of the site above. You'll also see a course syllabus further down the page, in the column to the right.

[Borgstrom]

Harvard has now posted videos of the first two public lectures on YouTube:

Harold McGee, Ferran Adria, José Andrés:

http://www.youtube.c...B/0/odIegtceB4M

Sadly, it's now marked private.

You can also find them in iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=399227991

[BenT]

I have been watching this lecture series on iTunes, and find it really interesting. Not so much from a production point of view. The heavy lifting/cooking bits appear to happen in the classroom, while the lectures by the chefs appear to be illustrations of the ideas covered in the classroom. I feel that some lectures are more successful than others in getting at these ideas. For me, where the lectures really succeed is in presenting the point of view of each chef. I really enjoyed the Grant Achatz lecture and the Jose Andres lecture. I will have to rewatch the Ferran Adria lecture because I missed bits of it, both because of translation and because of distraction.

Anyone else watching this series? Any thoughts on relative successes and failures in this series, so far?

[llc45]

No - I was home in NJ working on my three papers that are due this week for the Harvard Graduate program I am in and sneeking peaks at egullet and various other food related sites as a distraction . As of 10 minutes ago, finished last paper due, now onto the presentation/documentary thingie that I am quite sure I lack the technical skills to accomplish (my daughter still has to upload pictures for me). When done, I will be cooking up a feast caused by my attention deficit web surfing for food porn! Guess I'll watch the Ferran Adria posted videos too!

[Twyst]

I tried to search for these here, but was unable to find a previous mention of them so I apologize if this is a repost.

Itunes has videos of all of the lectures from Harvard's Food and Science course up for free download here

http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/science-and-cooking/id399227991

Description

This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs: Ferran Adria presented spherification; Jose Andres discussed both the basic components of food and gelation; Joan Roca demonstrated sous vide; Enric Rovira showed his chocolate delicacies; Wylie Dufresne presented inventions with transglutaminase. The lectures then use these culinary creations as inspiration to delve into understanding how and why cooking techniques and recipes work, focusing on the physical transformations of foods and material properties.

Enjoy!

Edited May 12, 2011 by Twyst (log)

[asiebengartner]

I wonder whether Nathan Myhrvold has ever considered returning to Princeton, where Wikipedia says he did his graduate degree(s), to run a course like this one. With its emphasis on engineering, mathematics, and the sciences in general, as well as its proximity to NYC and its chefs, it would seem to be a great venue for something similar to this Harvard series.

Please?

[LindaK]

Harvard's posted the Science & Cooking Public Lectures schedule for Fall 2011: http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking

No advanced tickets (except for Ferran Adria) so get in line early!

[dcarch]

I came across these on youtube. I don't know if they have been discussed here:

Amazing series of 12 lectures, all on youtube. So much to learn about cooking.

dcarch

[Lisa Shock]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I knew about the events, I had no idea that there was an online presence.

[nickrey]

They are also available as an iTunes U collection through the iTunes store. Simply type "Science and Cooking" into the search field. This series is the first one that pops up.

Edited August 19, 2012 by nickrey (log)