HarvardX Class "ABOUT SCIENCE & COOKING"

[kryptos1]

I have done a few of these few courses and they are very very good.

https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/SPU27x/2013_Oct/about?utm_source=edX+Course+Announcements+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=56368a559e-More_new_courses_from_edX3_28_2013&utm_medium=email

ABOUT SCIENCE & COOKING: FROM HAUTE CUISINE TO SOFT MATTER SCIENCE

Science & Cooking brings together top chefs and preeminent Harvard researchers to explore how everyday cooking and haute cuisine can illuminate basic principles in physics and engineering, and vice versa.

During each week of the course, you will watch as chefs reveal the secrets behind some of their most famous culinary creations — often right in their own restaurants. Inspired by such cooking mastery, the Harvard team will then explain, in simple and sophisticated ways, the science behind the recipe.

Topics will include: soft matter materials, such as emulsions, illustrated by aioli; elasticity, exemplified by the done-ness of a steak; and diffusion, revealed by the phenomenon of spherification, the culinary technique pioneered by Ferran Adrià.

To help you make the link between cooking and science, an “equation of the week” will capture the core scientific concept being explored. You will also have the opportunity to be an experimental scientist in your very own laboratory — your kitchen. By following along with the engaging recipe of the week, taking measurements, and making observations, you will learn to think both like a cook and a scientist. The lab is also one of the most unique components of this course — after all, in what other science course do you get to eat your lab?

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

Michael Brenner

Michael Brenner is the Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics, and Harvard College Professor at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He developed the popular Harvard class, "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter," with his colleague David Weitz and chef Ferran Adrià. His research uses mathematics to examine a wide variety of problems in science and engineering, ranging from understanding the shapes of bird beaks, whale flippers and fungal spores, to finding the principles for designing materials that can assemble themselves, to answering ordinary questions about daily life, such as why a droplet of fluid splashes when it collides with a solid surface.

David Weitz

David Weitz is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Department of Physics. He developed the popular Harvard class, "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter," with his colleague Michael Brenner and chef Ferran Adrià. His research group studies the science of soft matter materials as well as biophysics and biotechnology.

Pia Sörensen

Pia Sörensen is Preceptor of Science and Cooking at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, and the HarvardX Fellow for Science & CookingX. She earned her PhD in Chemical Biology at Harvard University, studying small molecule inhibitors of cell division.

[ElsieD]

Can you give any more info like how much it costs and where exactly one goes to register? My husband is interested. Thanks.

[The J]

The edX classes are free and online. There's a registration link if you click on the link in the first post.

[kryptos1]

The edX classes are free and online. There's a registration link if you click on the link in the first post.

Thanks J. The classes I have taken on here are pretty hardcore (for me...had to relearn physics) and people from several countries.....its a great challenge and social event at the same time.

[Quasar]

Thanks for the link, I'm going to give it a try.

[jjahorn]

It will be interesting to see what happens with this.

The other classes they list already have ciriculum and how many hours/week are needed, this only has a description.

I'm interested though, I don't buy cookbooks much anymore, instead I buy cooking science books and essays...

[ePressureCooker]

Thanks for posting this! I signed up! (Can't wait)

[Ashen]

Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science free online course can be audited or there is a certificate option from harvard edX program starts october 8 2013

some of the people who will be teaching content include Harold Mcgee, Nathan Myhrvold, José Andrés, David Chang

https://www.edx.org/course/harvard-university/spu27x/science-cooking-haute-cuisine/639

[Smithy]

Wow! Thanks for that information; I'm signed up!

[chefmd]

I've signed up as well. Can it really be free? Oh yes it is.

[Martin Fisher]

I hope the course is real good, I've been waiting for several months.

[janeer]

teaching my own courses, but signed up to audit

[MisterKrazee]

I'm quite disappointed how unprofessional it is. Not from the student aspect, they are there to learn. Although there should be an extent to the quality of the curriculum. I've spotted and reported typos and many others have reported aspects of the curriculum not working correctly as well. These are top of the line chefs and universities putting themselves out there and failing on a level they would never allow in their kitchens. The schools should know better. I don't think the chefs know what is actually going on. It's Harvard and MIT. Even though it's free, it should be perfect. There is no reason to paraphrase a recipe using °C when the actual recipe uses °F. Not to mention it's being pulled from a public website. There really needs to be something like the paragraph we have to type here to sign up for these classes.

[Shalmanese]

I tried going through the first week of this course to try it out and I'm pretty disappointed so far. The lessons involving food professionals is semi-decent but essentially the same as what they say in other venues. The lessons from the professors running the class are awful. They take otherwise familiar physical/chemical concepts and then lazily graft a food layer on top without any real attempt at relevance.

I already had a very good understanding of molarity and I've never had to apply that knowledge in the kitchen because molarity is very seldom a relevant measure (ironically, the one place it's even conceivably useful would be to calculate how much baking soda & vinegar is required to make a perfectly neutral base. This concept which would have neatly tied together the physical and chemical halves of the course but it is never mentioned in the course). If I didn't already have such an understanding, the way it was taught using food would have been even more confusing to me than via a standard approach.

On top of that, the quizzes and labs are slopping in many places and downright conceptually wrong in others. One of the labs rests on the assumption that sugar melts at 366F despite the current consensus being that sugar does not have a fixed melting point but instead, decomposes. Another homework assignment relies on you knowing the density of flour despite telling you earlier that the density of flour varies and then using a density of flour that is different from the one they previously used. One of the questions asked was "is baking soda natural" which becomes maddeningly philosophical for anyone who knows anything about the debate surrounding the concept of natural (according to edX, it's not!).

The entire course is riddled with poor pedagogy that gives online learning a poor reputation. If other courses on edX are similar to this one, it's no wonder that completion rates are abysmal.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Shalmanese (log)

[Tri2Cook]

These initial reviews are disappointing. I was looking forward to this. Oh well, I'll still give it a go. If it's really as bad as is the reviews are saying, at least it's free and I won't feel bad about stopping.

[msacuisine]

Wow, I'm really shocked by some of these reviews! Maybe this fall course that just started has been improved. A Harvard class taught in cooperation than some of the world's top chefs -- how bad can it be? I feel really lucky to have access to this course for free. Despite the disappointing reviews here, I am still really excited and looking forward to the class.

[msacuisine]

I really excited about this class! Ferran Adrià putting together a class for Harvard? Amazing!!! The is another thread with some reviews apparently of a previous time this course was offered, and a few people have made some pretty negative comments. Nonetheless, I feel honored to be in this class, am very excited, and can't believe it's free!

[MisterKrazee]

It may have some really good information, but it's open to the public. I doubt they would spend the time to make it perfect for free. Even in the introduction videos Ferran Adrià is obviously reading from cue cards. He just seems bored and spitting things out compared to the passion I've seen flow from him.

Edited October 10, 2013 by MisterKrazee (log)

[Smithy]

It may have some really good information, but it's open to the public. I doubt they would spend the time to make it perfect for free. Even in the introduction videos Ferran Adrià is obviously reading from cue cards. He just seems bored and spitting things out compared to the passion I've seen flow from him.

I haven't seen Ferran Adria yet, and I'm into the review work (waiting for the labs to come back up to view). Could it be you're thinking of Jose Andres in one of the two introductory videos? Or am I missing a video yet?

[msacuisine]

Smithy, you must have missed a video. He does quite a lengthy introduction to the course in Spanish.

[Smithy]

Smithy, you must have missed a video. He does quite a lengthy introduction to the course in Spanish.

I'll go look again. Thanks for that information.

[Vlcatko]

I finished the first week, here are my observations:

• it's harder than I anticipated - the level of chemistry, math and other "science" is pretty high for me (I have grown sooo lazy with no science classes at my current university, I even forgot the basic things like logarithms' connection to exponentiation.) - but when I realized what this course is really about - teaching some science to non-science students - I thought it was doing a pretty good job
• sure, there are some mistakes and occasional nonsense/illogicality (like phrasing a question, non-consistent terminology etc. ) but it's free, and the overall beneficial influence it can have on individuals who endure and finish the class is worth a momentary frustration from time to time
• for many people here the content may be laughable or they may already know all and more of what is presented but for me and others like me it's more or less a revelation - I get to see some of the top chefs at work, get to know their mindset and motivation and get to understand at least some principles of cooking - which is something that's never really been done in education in our country
• from all the online courses I took, this one is by far the best one - timeline, resources, interface...

All in all, I am glad I signed up and I hope I will manage to finish the course successfully

[Smithy]

I too am glad to be enrolled! So far it has been a good review of math (easy) and chemistry (seriously arcane) for me. Everyone's mileage wll vary, of course. I think I'll learn a lot.

[AAQuesada]

It's interesting, the math and chemistry are def tough. I have tried hard to forget most of my chem and math knowledge! lol, but it is fun to stretch myself mentally and get out of your own food universe. Think of it as continuing education.

On another note, it certainly helps to speak spanish! I thought todays translation of Joan Roca was particularly mediocre