The Science Behind the World's Biggest Food Fight

[dmforcier]

Food - The Delicious Science

This is the best series on food (v. cooking) that I have found yet. The second episode played on PBS last night. It is presented by a a medical doctor and a botanist, and addresses foods' impacts on our bodies, how we experience them, and how we have come to cultivate some.

Ep 1 - Food on the Brain

http://www.pbs.org/video/3000652967

The effect of food on the brain. Including making chocolate, and how coffee enhances flavor. Just after the 30:00 mark there is a lengthy chapter on capsaicin (hot pepper juice) and how it interacts with the body and the brain.


Ep. 2 - A Matter of Taste

http://www.pbs.org/video/3000652697/

Focusing on the five taste senses - salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami. Did you know that tomatoes are loaded with umami? The ep starts with the Tomato Festival in Buñol, Spain, the world's largest food fight. How smelling from the front and the back of the nose can yield different results. The Maillard Reaction. How strawberries fool our sense of taste. Much more.

I hope PBS maintains these links long enough for you to watch them.

[dmforcier]

It works, btw..

[Worth1]

I never turn the TV on hardly at all and miss this stuff.
Worth

[GrowingCoastal]

We can't access PBS from Canada but I'm sure I'll hear all of it on our CBC radio sooner or later.

[dmforcier]

So watch it on your computer (or phone).

Click the links above.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

So watch it on your computer (or phone).

Click the links above.

I dont have a computer or phone.
Worth

[dmforcier]

Then how do you post?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Then how do you post?

With my mind.
Worth

[dmforcier]

Well, not always...

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Well, not always...

Wouldn't it be cool though?
We don't use squat what our brains are capable of.

Worth

[Nematode]

Cool show, thanks for.the tip.

[dmforcier]

Worth, we're gonna get there sooner than anyone expects. I won't live to see it, and you probably won't either, but it will happen. On this I totally agree with Rush: I've never resented getting older or less capable, enjoying the wisdom that experience brings. But now I resent not being here to see the next major jump in "what it is to be human." At several tech conferences I've pushed the idea that the artificial womb is the next physical step in the "divorce" of the body from the spirit (and as expected the latest news is of a successful artificial womb), but that ultimately may be less than relevant.

Meanwhile there is so much to learn. Please watch the things, with tolerance.

[dmforcier]

Tonight, two American Masters shows., the first on Jacques Pepin, the second on Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley CA.

The Pepin show was excellent. I had no idea that he was so accomplished before he came to the US - so young - serving as the chef to the French "White House" because he was drafted. Here, after his work at Le Pavillon, he twice turned down offers to serve as the chef to the US White House stating (essentially) "been there, done that."

The Alice Waters show, OTOH, is a treasure of correctness. Whatever the success of Chez Panisse, Alice was NOT the chef, and as she states bluntly, "I haven't been in the kitchen in 19 years." Paul Aratow was co-founder and executive chef in 1971, and isn't even mentioned. Nor was Jeremiah Tower, legendary chef from 1972-78, who later founded Stars* et al. Nor was Paul Bertolli, chef from 1982-1992. Instead, Alice is honored for the idea (likely not her own ) to source locally because it's cheaper. Kudos for someone for the return to local ingredients as chic. But don't regret having missed this show.



* Been there done that. It was superb.

[Nematode]

Lucky enough to have 2 restaurants in town started by Chez Panisse chef alumni.
The things they do with local ingredients is indescribable.
That reminds me, need to get there before tourists clog up the place.

[Nematode]

Dm,
You might enjoy chef's table on netflix.