Cell celebrates intersection of food and science in special issue

IMAGE:This is the cover of Cell's special issue on the Biology of Food. view more

Credit: Cell 2015

Science enters the kitchen in a special "Biology of Food" issue from the leading scientific journal Cell. This set of Review and Commentary articles comes on the heels of a recent collaboration between Cell Press and the reality competition "Top Chef" and covers the latest research on such topics as the biology underlying molecular gastronomy, our perception of food, the future of growing crops, how to tackle obesity, and the interplay between diet and the circadian clock.

"The multifaceted ways in which food factors into biological, social, and political issues seem to only be getting more complex," says Cell Scientific Editor Joo Monteiro. "This special issue, 'The Biology of Food,' explores the science behind food, nutrition, and metabolism. Like any great menu, it offers plenty of options that we hope will first tantalize and then satisfy each individual's palate."

The science of molecular gastronomy

"It is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we do not know what goes on inside our souffls," remarked Nicolas Kurti in 1969. Kurti, an Oxford physicist who coined the term "molecular gastronomy," was one of the first to recognize the intersection between science and how chefs transform cells and proteins into other, more delicious, forms.

Even boiling an egg can be a surprisingly complex process, argues a Commentary by Michael Brenner, a Harvard Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and core instructor in the university's popular "Science and Cooking" course, written with Preceptor Pia Srensen. Cooking an egg in less than one degree increments, between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius, yields eggs with completely different textures that feel different in the mouth. "Even though it's a fairly common food, it's a completely new experience for people," Brennar says in a podcast accompanying the special issue.

In addition to culinary manipulations of food texture, Brenner and Srensen discuss the science of producing flavor. They describe how chefs capture and concentrate aroma molecules, such as using centrifuges to separate carotene butter from carrot juice or evaporators to capture the flavor of eucalyptus leaves and citrus peels. They also highlight how it may also be possible to create new flavors. Chefs, like David Chang in New York, are pioneering new types of fermentation reactions that use different microorgansms, for example, to make miso soup from cashews.

"In the process of optimizing the incorporation of new ingredients and equipment into the kitchen, chefs experiment in ways similar to scientists," write the authors. "Failure of a given idea gives rise to new ones, eventually leading to creations that might not even be related to the original idea." In the podcast, Brenner adds, "Teaching science through cooking is a way to capture wonder scientists who work in science have about the world."

M.P. Brenner and P.M. Srensen: "Biophysics of Molecular Gastronomy" http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.002

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Cell celebrates intersection of food and science in special issue