The chemistry of cooking: Scientist meets chef

Two things you find on college campuses worldwide: classrooms teaching chemistry and cafeterias serving food to students. The two might not seem to be related, but Rice chemist and self-professed “foodie” Lesa Tran ’07 would argue differently. While one might nurture the mind and the other the body, chemistry and cooking — when paired together — can do both.

Tran, the Wiess Instructor of Chemistry, has spent her share of time in both campus labs and serveries since she first came to Rice as an undergraduate chemistry student in 2003. Over the last 11 years, she’s worn many hats, from distinguished researcher to self-taught cook. Now that she’s a Rice faculty member, Tran has added chemistry instructor to that list, and she’s not just sticking to the traditional classroom or laboratory setting.

On Monday and Wednesday nights, Tran and a small, dedicated group of 14 undergraduate students gather in the North Servery kitchen for their class, CHEM 178: The Chemistry of Cooking. Together they don aprons and huddle around prep stations, stoves and fryers to perform cooking demonstrations. These unconventional laboratory experiments are designed to illustrate the science involved in the composition, transformation and consumption of food.

“Every single week the students in my class, who are from very different majors, years and colleges, meet and not only cover the theory behind food and cooking in terms of chemistry concepts, but have the opportunity to demonstrate and observe the chemical phenomena through kitchen experiments,” Tran said.

Student groups are given recipes to follow and are asked to change different variables in the recipes. For example, the students observed that changing the type of flour or fat source when baking biscuits and cookies alters their overall texture and flavor. These experiences provide students the chance to taste, perceive and discuss the chemical changes caused by each component of the recipe, Tran said.

“To me, chemistry and food go hand in hand,” she said. “Food — like everything else in this world — is composed of atoms and molecules, which follow the same concepts and principles we learn in chemistry.”

Wiess College junior Abby Halm signed up for the class after having taken a previous chemistry course with Tran. Halm said that the class has been beneficial on two levels – picking up cooking skills and dusting off her basic chemistry skills.

“Thinking back on the horrible mistakes I’ve made in the kitchen now I realize how and why I made those mistakes,” Halm said. “My cooking isn’t very good, but at least I’ll know why things have gone wrong.”

Throughout the semester, guest speakers from some of Houston’s best restaurants and eateries, including chef Chris Leung of Cloud 10 Creamery and chef Sandia Horng of Bite Macarons, have stopped by the class to share their culinary methods with the students and open a dialogue on the science behind their tasty creations.

James Beard Foundation award-winning chef Chris Shepherd, owner of Underbelly, shared his culinary techniques and sustainable food philosophy with the students. Shepherd believes in supporting the local food industry by purchasing entire produce crops, bycatch from Gulf Coast fishermen and entire specially bred animals -– not just specific cuts of meat — from local farmers. This enables those farmers and fishermen to reinvest in their respective trades, which helps ensure new products for the following year, Shepherd said. But buying an entire truckload of one specific fresh food item requires storage solutions, large-scale preparation and more than a little creative science.

The need to preserve such large quantities of food has made Shepherd something of an expert in fermentation. He brought samples of plum vinegar, fish sauce and coppa from his curing room — the only one of its kind in Houston — for students to sample; then the class discussed the different chemical changes required to turn fresh, locally grown food items into delicious, shelf-stable restaurant ingredients.

“There’s so much in cooking that involves chemistry and understanding why food affects the taste buds, palate and our other senses the way it does,” said Shepherd.

And what started as a guest lecture has turned into a cooperative learning opportunity. While Shepherd was honored to share his culinary prowess with the class, Tran was happy to visit Underbelly to teach Shepherd’s sous-chefs and kitchen staff the basics of chemistry.

“We are always practicing with fermentation and curing, but I really wanted to know the science behind it,” Shepherd said. “We tend to think about technique first, but understanding the science is important.” By doing so, the chefs can make more informed decisions when conducting their own kitchen experiments at Underbelly.

The class is sponsored by the Brown Teaching Grants Program, and was one of 10 proposals selected by Rice’s Committee on Teaching this year to receive funding, which was made possible by Houston’s Brown Foundation Inc. Tran also credited Johnny Curet, director of residential dining, and Housing and Dining staff for their hard work supporting the class.

“This is Rice! We offer unconventional ways of teaching,” Tran said. “And through this course, students are now learning chemistry, which may otherwise be considered a dry or difficult subject, in a more relatable and palatable way.”