Teaching Food

I teach a couple of “Scientific Principles of Food Preparation” labs at our local university–and I absolutely love what I do.

What I don’t love is trying to explain what I do.

The easiest explanation, although not the most accurate, is that I teach college nutrition students how to cook.

The truth is…a bit more complicated.

Over the course of any given lab, I might be showing someone how to separate an egg, explaining how one ingredient can be substituted for another, defining “simmering” or “rolling boil”, encouraging students to get out of their comfort zones and eat a new food, describing some cultural ritual associated with a food, and discussing the functional properties of certain ingredients.

And then there’s the part I’m actually hired to teach. :-)

You see, ultimately, my job is to help students understand not how to cook, but why we cook the way we do and what happens when we cook certain ways.

My job is to teach the science behind cooking.

For instance, last week I showed the students why recipes that include purple/red vegetables often include an acid of some sort (vinegar, lemon juice, fruit, etc.)

I boiled some red cabbage in three separate pans. Each pan contained water and cabbage, but two contained extra ingredients. To one pan, I added baking soda (a base). To another, I added cream of tartar (an acid).

I drained the cabbage and reserved the liquid to show the students what each looked like.

I explained how the purple/red pigments, called anthocyanins, found in these fruits change their color based on pH. As the concentration of hydrogen ions increase (the acidity increases), the color becomes more of a red/pink color. As the alkalinity increases, the color changes to blue-green color.

I encouraged the students to take a close look at the texture of each wedge of cabbage. The one that was cooked in a basic solution was incredibly mushy, because the hemicellulose, one of the fibers that gives structure to vegetables, becomes soluble in water under basic conditions, causing structure to be lost.

I talked about the sensory implications of cooking style–how different methods of cooking vegetables influence their color, flavor, and texture. I talked about the nutrient implications of cooking style–how different methods of cooking vegetables influences nutrient availability, nutrient loss, and ease of eating.

I talked about “phytochemicals” and how many of these “food dyes” that give color to our vegetables have been identified as having beneficial health properties. I mentioned lycopene, the bright red pigment found in tomatoes. I explained to my students that lycopene is a carotenoid that can not be used by the body to synthesize Vitamin A–but that is still useful as a phytochemical that appears to be active in prostate cancer prevention.

I teach “pure science”–things like osmosis and acidity and chemical structures. I teach “food science”–things like the functional properties of gluten and the interactions of glutenin and gliadin to create an elastic dough. I teach “nutrition science”–things like what nutrients can be found where and how different cooking techniques influence the nutritional properties of a food.

But mostly, I just teach food.

Which suits me just fine.

‘Cause I love teaching–and I love FOOD!