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Science and Cooking

Professor Weitz explains how cooking and food provide neat reference points for studying a variety of physical phenomena -- from foams to supercooling and complex phase changes. 

For more information, please visit: SEAS news, Harvard online course, and EDX course. 

Related Publications: 

- Science and Cooking Course Companion, Kindle ebook

- Rowat, A. C. ; Sinha, N. N. ; Sörensen, P. M. ; Campàs, O. ; Castells, P. ; Rosenberg, D. ; Brenner, M. P. ; Weitz, D. A. The kitchen as a physics classroom. Physics Education 2014, 49, 512

- Sinha, N. N. ; Weitz, D. A. Cocktail physics. Physics World 2011, 24, 25-28.  [PDF] 

 

Here are some videos: 

Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO; co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; and author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Brain Candy (White House Pastry Chef): How Desserts Slow the Passage of Time

Corey Lee and David Weitz, PhD came together at UCSF for the 2012 Chauncey D. Leake Lecture, in which they performed lively demonstrations and discussions on the physics behind emulsions and gels, including Lee's acclaimed faux shark-fin soup and other novel preparations.

 

 

In 2012, Prof Weitz, delivered a public lecture on "The Physics of Cooking" to 550 people at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. The recipes used in the lecture are also available to download.
 
The talk presented some examples of physics and science of cooking and included demonstrations. The lecture drew on a course taught by Weitz and a team of chefs that explores the connections between cooking, soft matter physics, materials science and organic chemistry. The science of several innovative techniques in cooking, including foams and use of gelation, as well as more common processes, were explored.