Inside the Experimental Cuisine Collective

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Robert Margolskee, Mitchell Davis, Florence Fabricant, Wylie Dufresne, and Hervé This at the Experimental Cuisine Collective’s launch workshop on April 11, 2007. Photo credit: Antoinette Bruno (Star Chefs)

 

Launched in 2007, the Experimental Cuisine Collective (ECC) has proven itself as an invaluable resource for those interested in learning about the scientific principles behind food. Founded by Drs. Kent Kirshenbaum and Amy Bentley of New York University in collaboration with Chef Will Goldfarb of WillPowder, the ECC hosts workshops approximately five times per year, each featuring different topics and/or speakers. ECC’s current Director is Anne McBride, a PhD candidate in Food Studies at NYU and Culinary Program/Editorial Director for the Culinary Institute of America. Widely recognized for her ability in establishing connections between scientists and chefs, McBride has been instrumental in developing ECC’s programs. ECC’s workshops have gained nationwide acclaim, featured in media outlets such as Serious Eats, New York Observer, and even the Food Network!

The impressive roster of past ECC speakers include renowned chefs and scientific minds such as Dan Barber, Wylie Dufresne, Rachel Dutton, and Mark Bomford. The topics of ECC workshops are also interestingly diverse, covering topics from soda politics with Marion Nestle to cooking insects with the Yale Sustainable Food Project to the New York Academy of Medicine’s Eating Through Time conference.

Our recent Science & Food public event featured Dr. Kent Kirshenbaum , who stopped to answer a few questions for us about the ECC:

What motivated you to start the Experimental Cuisine Collective?
I was asked by the National Science Foundation to consider establishing a science outreach program as part of their emphasis on “Broader Impacts” of scientific research. I’ve always been eager to establish connections between scientists and experts from other disciplines, so exploring the terrain between chemistry and cuisine came about very naturally.
What has been one of your most memorable experiences since founding the site?
The Experimental Cuisine Collective has always been more about direct engagement rather than as a web-based portal for information. One of my most memorable experiences with the ECC was preparing an alginate-based mango-juice pearl with a 4th grade student at a science fair.  I asked her if we were doing science or cooking. After a moment’s careful thought she replied, “I guess it’s both!” That was a very satisfying moment.

Another memorable experience was giving a lecture series about the ECC throughout New Zealand during the “International Year of Chemistry”. The director of the ECC, Anne McBride, and I got the chance to prepare what we believe were the world’s first vegan pavlovas for our audiences throughout New Zealand. We love Kiwis!

What do you hope the Experimental Cuisine Collective’s readers take away from the website?
I think they are excited about the lecture programs we are offering at NYU, and the opportunity to learn what science can contribute to cooking — along with how chefs can advance scientific objectives. Plus, I hope readers are quick to appreciate that we have been offering our programs for almost 10 years, and all of it has been completely free of charge!
Are there any upcoming projects you would like people to know about?
Our upcoming meeting will be devoted to hydroponic farming, in partnership with the Institute of Culinary Education. We will be meeting at ICE’s indoor 540-square-foot farm in lower Manhattan, designed by Boswyck Farms, which has 3,000 plant sites and in which 22 crops are currently growing. The amazing thing about this farm is that it is literally across the street from the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Science can help us grow in so many ways and places!

Ashton YoonAbout the author: Ashton Yoon received her B.S. in Environmental Science at UCLA and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in food science. Her favorite pastime is experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes and cooking techniques.

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Daily Tea & 2016 Superfoods

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A cup of tea a day keeps cardiovascular disease away–or rather, lowers your risk for it, according to a recent study by medical doctors in China. If tea isn’t your thing, dietitian Ellie Krieger suggests five foods for a healthier diet, one of which is matcha, a type of Japanese green tea, by the way.
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Aquafaba & Other Hopes for Delicious Egg-free Meringues

Photo credit: veganbaking.net (vegan-baking/Flickr)

Photo credit: veganbaking.net (vegan-baking/Flickr)

Meringues are one of the few desserts that are simple yet elegant works of art. They are also precursors to other impressive, albeit considerably more complicated, desserts such as baked Alaska, lemon meringue pies, and macarons. At the bare minimum, all you need to make a fluffy meringue is egg whites, sugar, and an electric mixer—or an egg beater and some arm power. For vegans, this egg-containing dessert is not an option—but why should vegans (and those with egg allergies) miss out on this sweet, airy dollop of heaven?

To make a decent egg-free meringue, it helps to understand the meringue at the molecular level. How does a liquid get whipped into a cloud-like solid?

Egg whites, comprising 90% water, are undeniably runny. The other 10% consists of proteins, which play a major role in the fluid-to-fluff transformation. Mechanical stress from rigorously beating the egg whites causes the egg white proteins to denature, unfold from their natural structure. This exposes various amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, to the rapidly aerating environment. Some of the amino acids are hydrophobic (water-fearing), and some are hydrophilic (water-loving). As the egg whites are whipped, hydrogen bonds form between the hydrophilic amino acids and water in the egg whites. The hydrophobic amino acids prefer to be exposed to the air that is quickly beaten into the liquid mixture. Air ends up trapped in the meshwork of denatured proteins within the developing foam, and so the longer the mixture is beaten, the fluffier it gets. To retain the trapped air bubbles and generate peaks that stand up straight, sugar is added as a stabilizer. And eccola! Una nuvola dolce nella ciotola; a fluffy meringue is ready to bake or prepare into macarons or boccone dolce.

To create an equally amazing and delicious vegan counterpart, the egg whites would have to be substituted with an ingredient that has both water-loving and water-fearing parts. Logic may think to search for a plant-based protein alternative, but French chef Joël Roessel discovered that chickpea brine works perfectly well as a vegan egg-white substitute [1]. Coined aquafaba by Goose Wohlt (Latin for “bean water”), the leftover water from a can of chickpeas can be combined with sugar and whisked into a vegan meringue that surprisingly tastes nothing like beans. Of all the possible substitutions, why does aquafaba work in lieu of egg whites?

Photo credit: getselfsufficient/Flickr

Water leftover from cooking chickpeas, also known as aquafaba, can be used in lieu of egg whites. Photo credit: getselfsufficient/Flickr

Anne Rieder, a scientist at the Norwegian food research institute Nofima, analyzed aquafaba and revealed that the bean water contains equal amounts of proteins and carbohydrates [2]. The function of proteins in the aquafaba are similar for meringue-making; Rieber suggests that the carbohydrates may serve as an additional stabilizer by increasing the viscosity of the water portion of the foam.

To create foams like meringues, Kent Kirshenbaum, a professor at NYU, was inspired by chemistry to invent a foaming agent that is rich in saponins, currently awaiting patent approval. Saponins are a class of chemicals found in plants, including beans like chickpeas. The name derives from the soapwort plant, Saponaria, which contains the Latin root for soap, sapo; this is a fitting name, given the compound’s propensity to foam when shaken in water [3]. Like the amino acids of proteins, saponin molecules contain a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic moiety that enables them to interact with both air and water.

Whatever the reason for avoiding eggs, at least you won’t have to forfeit the heavenly delight that is a lightweight meringue cookie.

References cited

  1. Aquafaba history.” The Official Aquafaba Website.
  2. Aquafaba, what is its chemical composition?Frie kaker.
  3. Saponins.” Cornell University Department of Animal Sciences.

Alice PhungAbout the author: Alice Phung once had her sights set on an English degree, but eventually switched over to chemistry and hasn’t looked back since.

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Paul Thompson

Dr. Paul Thompson, a PhD in philosophy, is a professor at Michigan State University and the W. K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics. He has served on many national and international committees on agricultural biotechnology and is the author of From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone, among many other books discussing ethics in food biotechnology, agriculture, and the environment. His research focuses on the ethical and philosophical questions regarding agriculture, food, and especially the development of agricultural techno-science.

See Paul Thompson March 8, 2016 at “The Impact of What We Eat: From Science & Technology, to Eating Local”.

Paul Thompson

What hooked you on cooking? On science?
My mother was a terrible cook. Lots of canned spinach, frozen fish sticks and macaroni & cheese out of the blue box. Both of my brothers and I learned to cook out of self-preservation.
The science thing is more complex. I trained in the philosophy of science and technology and I have studied the strengths and weaknesses of using science in assessing both food-related and environmental risks.
The coolest example of science in your food?
Don’t eat a potato after it has turned green. That’s a sign that the toxin-producing genes (normally active only in the leaves) have been activated in the tuber (that is, the part we eat).
The food you find most fascinating?
Maize (or corn). It couldn’t exist without human help. I’m fascinated in thinking about how native populations in Mexico managed to develop it from teosinte.
What scientific concept–food related or otherwise–do you find most fascinating?
Sustainability. And how it depends on systems thinking.
Your best example of a food that is better because of science?
The strawberry we know and love would not exist if the genes from two species of berry had not been crossed by French monks back in the 16th century.
We love comparing the gluten in bread to a network of springs. Are there any analogies you like to use to explain difficult or counter-intuitive food science concepts?
I do like to think about how the medieval concept of gluttony had nothing to do with physical health or obesity. It was about being too interested in the bodily experience of eating, not only eating too much, but being picky about one’s diet, eating at the wrong time of day, being too eager or preferring fine as opposed to coarse (e.g. peasant-style) foods.
One kitchen tool you could not live without?
Garlic press
Five things most likely to be found in your fridge?
Cottage cheese, pickles, half & half, tortillas (can’t get fresh ones in Michigan) and (of course) milk.
Your all-time favorite ingredient?
Onions. Everything is better with them.
Favorite cookbook?
I almost never use a cookbook, but my favorite would be The Vegetarian Epicure.
Your standard breakfast?
Oatmeal. It has to be steel-cut, preferably with dried Michigan tart cherries thrown in while it cooks.

From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone – An Excerpt

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 “You are what you eat.”

This aphorism is consistently used to fit different scenarios, but are we really what we eat? Author Paul B. Thompson begs to differ. In his book, From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone, Thompson presents his case against this statement and brings light upon many ethical food dilemmas, including obesity, livestock welfare, and the environmental impact of food systems. He structures his thoughts around the idea that food ethics are being revived in the contemporary world. Regarding the aforementioned axiom, Thompson explains that food is more than just substance for your body’s functioning. Here is an excerpt analyzing this issue:

“On the one hand, dietetics has become a domain of personal vulnerability calling for regulatory action on moral grounds. What is vulnerable may be one’s health, as in the case of food safety or nutrition, but it may equally be one’s identity or solidarity with others as people attempt to achieve social justice and environmental goals through labels that promise ‘fair-trade’ or ‘humanely raised’ foods. On the other hand, practices that promote hospitable respect for personal dietary committees or solidarity may run afoul of a philosophy of risk that emphasizes classic hazards to health and physical safety. All told, it begins to look less and less like food choice can be confined to the prudential realm” (p. 29) [1].

In this passage, Thompson emphasizes that people may no longer be able to use good reason and judgment when choosing their food. The foods you choose to eat not only affect your body and health, but it also affects people and ideas around you. There is potentially harm being done on third parties connected to certain food purchases.

Thompson’s take on this statement is just one of the many issues he delves into in From Field to Fork. He offers deep philosophical and ethical analyses while integrating economics, history, science, psychology, and politics. For example, when discussing food systems, Thompson addresses multiple factors to consider when ensuring food sufficiency. Environmentally, a growth in monoculture production systems to mass-produce certain crops can tax natural resources. Socially, these industrial systems can destroy healthy rural communities. Politically, there are injustices that make it difficult to distribute these resources fairly. An extensive framework is given regarding how to approach food sufficiency and other issues in the book.

As a philosopher and current W. K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics, Paul B. Thompson provides a comprehensive guide to food ethics in his book. From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone will not only give you a deeper insight into food, but also into our society.

References Cited:

  1. Thompson, P.B. (2015). From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

 


Catherine HuAbout the author: Catherine Hu received her B.S. in Psychobiology at UCLA. When she is not writing about food science, she enjoys exploring the city and can often be found enduring long wait times to try new mouthwatering dishes.

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