With the Science of Pie coming up in just a few weeks, we’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about baked goods. And one ingredient in particular has really captured our imagination—the egg! In the realm of baked goods, eggs are highly revered for their binding and leavening abilities. The fats and proteins within an egg can also contribute to important properties like moisture, texture, and mouthfeel [1]. Read more
Getting ready for tonight’s Edible Education lecture with Alice Waters, David Binkle, and Wendy Slusser has us thinking a lot about what it means to eat healthfully. The New York Times takes a peek inside the food industry, while Commander Chris Hadfield demonstrates how to prepare cooked spinach aboard the International Space Station. Even astronauts need to eat their vegetables! Read more
With increasing numbers of people embracing dietary-restricted, vegetarian, and vegan lifestyles, birthday parties are becoming more complex. Consider the simple birthday cake. Everyone should be able to partake in its delicious sugary goodness; however, this can prove difficult. Specifically, how can you bake a cake if you cannot use one of the most important components, eggs? Read more
Chef David Binkle currently serves as the director of food services for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where he oversees a program serving more than 650,000 meals per day. Chef Binkle came to the LAUSD to develop a healthier cuisine for students. His goal is to improve the menu by having less processed foods and more garden-fresh products using locally grown produce. Read more
Dr. Wendy Slusser is an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA. Her current research focuses on evaluating the LAUSD Nutrition Network and developing Nutrition Friendly School criteria. Dr. Slusser is also the Nutrition Director of UCLA’s Healthy Campus Initiative. Read more
Chef Alex Atala characterizes new ingredients from the Amazon basin, while an artist helps capture the amazing biodiversity of wild apples. Read more
Update: This contest is now closed.
Congratulations to our winner, Lysandra Sayer, who took home a Juice Fountain Crush from our friends at Breville. Check out her winning tweet: Read more
Chef Alex Atala is the chef and owner of D.O.M. in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2012, D.O.M. was ranked the fourth best restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino. As part of his vision for Brazilian cuisine, Chef Atala has worked with anthropologists and scientists at the Social Environmental Institute to discover and classify new food products from the Amazonian region. Read more
Two weeks from now, renowned Brazilian chef Alex Atala will be joining Science & Food for the first 2013 public lecture at UCLA. Chef Atala has generated a lot of buzz in the food world by discovering and classifying new ingredients from the Amazon basin. But Atala isn’t the only one looking to the South American rain forest for inspiration. By studying the fruit of the tropical plant Margaritaria nobilis (commonly known as the bastard hogberry), a team of researchers led by Dr. Mathias Kolle has created an amazing new material that changes color as it stretches. Read more