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Individual Course

Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science (physics)

Course Length

16 weeks

2-3 hours per week

Featuring faculty from:

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences LogoHarvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Enroll as Individual

Certificate Price:

$ 249

Enroll as Individual

Certificate Price:

$ 249

Top chefs and Harvard researchers explore how traditional and modernist cooking techniques can illuminate basic principles in chemistry, physics, and engineering. Learn about elasticity, viscosity, mayonnaise, baking, and more!

In this course, which investigates physical transformations in food, we will be visited by world-famous chefs who use a number of different styles and techniques in their cooking. Each chef will demonstrate how he or she prepares delicious and interesting creations, and we will explore how fundamental scientific principles make them possible.

Topics will include:

• How cooking changes food texture

• Making emulsions and foams

• Phase changes in cooking

You will also have the opportunity to become an experimental scientist in your very own laboratory — your kitchen! By following along with the recipes of the week, taking precise measurements, and making skillful observations, you will learn to think like both a chef and a scientist. This practice will prepare you for the final project, when you will design and perform an experiment to analyze a recipe of your choice from a scientific perspective.

The lab is certainly one of the most unique components of this course—after all, in what other science course can you eat your experiments?

The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world.

Self-Guided

edX

  • Learn from Harvard faculty
  • Do it on your own time
  • Get a certificate, add it to your resume
  • Be part of the Harvard Community
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Syllabus

View the modules for this course:

Faculty

Your Instructor

Pia Sörensen

Preceptor of Science and Cooking and HarvardX Fellow, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Department of Physics
Read full bio.

Your Instructor

David Weitz

Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Department of Physics
Read full bio.

Your Instructor

Michael Brenner

Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and Harvard College Professor
Read full bio.

Complete your journey with this Professional Certificate Series

These courses can be bundled together to receive a Professional Certificate at a discounted price.

Learn More
  • 3 Courses
  • 1 Year
  • Earn Your Certificate
An example HarvardX certificate

Ways to take this course

Audit or Pursue a Verified Certificate

A Verified Certificate costs $249 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.

⁠Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.

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