I know this isn’t news, but I just found out that one of our many on-staff chefs is going to be a guest lecturer at Harvard this fall. That’s right: Harvard! University to the best and the brightest! Including, of course, our very own MO and BO. I must say, this begins to explain a lot.
Harvard Law grads and over-achievers. In addition to being President, BO was also a Community Organizer and guest lecturer of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. MO, in addition to being FLOTUS is also World-Famous Fashion Icon and Busy Mom™
Bill Yosses, our dessert-is-not-a-right chef, has been announced as one of the guest lecturers for a new undergraduate science course offered for the first time this year at Harvard:
Science of the Physical Universe 27, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter
Don’t even get me started on “the Science of Soft Matter.”
The course offering is from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in which Harvard brings the applied technology of Ferran Adrià’s molecular gastronomy to the classroom. You may recall this from our pre-Spain discussion of Ferran’s el Bulli restaurant. It’s all about dinner-as-science-project, as explained in the course description:
Adrià is considered a pioneer of exploiting scientific principles to push the limits of modern cuisine, manipulating the physical and chemical processes of cooking by using substances such as hydrocolloids, or “gums” that enable a delicate fruit puree to be transformed into a dense gel, and deconstruction techniques like spherification, creating a resistant skin of liquid.
Ferran’s “crunchy dehydrated strawberry meringue,” aka Styrofoam food
No wonder we’ve cancelled our Space Shuttle program: we’re going to turn NASA into a science lab for fake food.
All of which I find a little confusing - what with our interest in organic produce, locavore products and “healthy” eating. Do you know what goes into molecular gastronomy dining? Sodium Alginate, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Isomalt and – I hope you’re sitting down - Transglutaminase … that’s … Meat Glue! I can’t say for sure, but maybe we’re expanding our “organic” food line to include anything listed in the “Organic Chemistry 101” textbook.
Anyway, chefs use these mysterious chemicals to create “food” that they then call “foams, emulsions and Polymer Melts.” Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Foam with bits of organic matter suspended in it: precious!
the spherification of zygotes
Did I just read something about there being an education bubble about to pop? I mean besides Glenn Reynolds article? Because I think this might just cinch their case.
O/T, but be sure to tune in for Big Guy’s presser at 11:00 AM. He’ll be announcing our new economic czar: Austan Goolsbee: I guess we’ve just decided to start writing the material for the late night comedians ourselves, since they’re going to pick on us anyway.
Goolsbee and Frank, doing their homework.
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NASA and food. A memory from my childhood can sum that up with one word . . .
ReplyDeleteTANG!
Says it all, I think.
Foams, Emulsions and Polymer Melts-
ReplyDeleteOh, you are talking about food! I thought at first you were talking about the First Couple. Fake, plastic, and with no substance.
My child is a Freshman and is pursuing a degree in Engineering at the great university that brought you Gatorade. Man, I guess he should be discouraged that he didn't get into Harvard. He could be learning so much more. Bummer.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much government money this chef is receiving for his chemical experiments. Something's got to be earmarked for him, no?
ReplyDeleteOT, but does anyone know whether BO sent out a Jewish New Year greeting yesterday? Every other POTUS in living memory has done so, but I've seen nothing from Dear Leader. Although he did issue one for Eid, the holiday at the end of Ramadan.
I find that when people show up unexpectedly at dinnertime...brown felt with a bit of mushroom sauce doubles nicely as schnitzel. If those afore mentioned guests are still around for breakfast...how's about a boob-belt "side" of bacon?
ReplyDeleteYes, actually BO and TOTUS delivered a nice Rosh Hashanah message, but we left the dinner for the few Jewish friends we have up to VP and Dr. Jill Biden. We were busy doing something or other.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed in the top picture of Moochelle and Barry...it looks like she's getting hair plugs in her hair line. I'm wondering if she's been spending too much time with "Plugs" Biden and got jealous of all his hair.
ReplyDeleteSaraB
What is really sad, is that if you would take a plain cardboard box, write "Mohammed" or "Koran" on the side, and then burn it, you would probably get death threats from the Religion of Peace people.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe just say you are going to do that, and get the death threats anyway.
We live in interesting times. **cry**
I've never seen anyone so ill endowed with so much cleavage!
ReplyDeleteThanks, MOTUS. Did they serve crunchy dehydrated strawberry meringue at the dinner
ReplyDelete"This course is limited to Harvard undergrads for one General Ed requirement."
ReplyDeleteTuition for fulltime students is $35,568.00 per academic year. Part-timers pay $ 4,446.00 for each course.
Where are the parents allowing their kids to learn to make edible foarm?
Liberal food = foam, emulsion, and polymer melts. No wonder they are so messed up.
ReplyDeleteThe capitalist pig sandwich would be a welcome antidote!
If you are what you eat, what we have here is a pair of empty, vacant, inflated, puffed up, airheads who amount to nothing!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he gave MO her meals for free in Spain because of the Harvard connection? I understand that Harvard is approaching the teaching of science through cooking, but isn't that a little bit high school?
ReplyDelete