Food & Gastronomy
How to make a perfect cheese sandwich
Way back in 2003 the British Cheese Board asked me if I could work out scientifically the optimum amount of cheese to put in a cheese sandwich. Well, I did, by measuring the concentration of aroma released when I ate sandwiches made with different thicknesses of...
The Future of Food: An Integrated Global Challenge
A talk delivered at the meeting "Food Futures in the Anthropocene" (University of Tasmania, November 7-10 (2020)). One of a number of talks and articles where I have been trying to bring people's attention to the importance of interconnectedness between the many...
Virtual food
The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is my favourite indulgence - old friends, good wine, great food. But this year it has to be virtual, and here I will keep a running diary of events to share. Enjoy! The header picture is from last year. That's me holding the...
The Brexit Minister for Food Security
The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is my favourite annual indulgence, where I meet many old friends from the foodie world and let fly with my thoughts and opinions on the theme of the meeting. The theme for 2019 was Food and Power, which gave me the opportunity...
Chickens’ Guts and Chefs’ Tools
Art imitating nature: how chefs treat seeds in just the same ways that seed-eating birds have been doing for millions of years: https://youtu.be/RMuAx4XVa08 My talk at the 2018 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Start at 2'50" if you want to...
The science of toffee apples
In 2005 I gave a talk at the Royal Institution on the science of toffee apples. It was, of course, timed for Guy Fawkes night! Recently a few people have asked whether they might have a copy of the script. So for them, and anyone else who is dying to know more about...
Global warming and the global food landscape: why we need to maintain diversity.
The video of my talk to the 2017 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is now available on YouTube. complete with questions, comments and the occasional joke. Pity I kept mispronouncing TAnzania as TanzAnia; maybe a side-effect of speaking to such a distinguished...
Idiots’ Guide to Vegetables
Commissioned by the Guardian a while ago, but then spiked on the basis that it was too "sciencey" [sic]. I wonder what else they expected from a scientist? At any rate, here is my guide to the quirkier side of vegetables (from fresh and juicy to saggy and sorry) for a...
125. The Chinese tea ceremony
The Chinese New Year, which began this year on January 28th, is a big deal in Sydney, which has a large and vibrant Chinese community, some of whose families go back to the gold rush days of the 1850s. As part of the celebrations, the Art Gallery of New South Wales...
Food books for food enthusiasts
Do you have a passion for food and cooking? Do you want access and guidance on the best in culinary literature? Former molecular biologist Matt Cockerill has an answer, in the form of a new web-based project called 1000 Cookbooks (www.1000cookbooks.com). As a start,...
Letter to “Times,” Thursday June 16 (2016), re food and Brexit.
At Theodore Zeldin's suggestion, supported and promoted by Paul Levy, here is a letter that I and 59 others signed, with food-related reasons for Britain to stay firmly in the EU. Sir, As people engaged in the food world, concerned about the cultural, nutritional and...
Brain cutlets, anyone?
In celebration of the “offal” theme at the 2016 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, here is the wonderful brain cutlet story from Lawrence Durrell’s Prospero’s Cell, a semi-fictional diary of his time on Corfu. The Count is “Count D” (probably an invented character,...
Food and Desire
Here are the talk notes and accompanying Powerpoint Slides for the keynote talk that I gave on "Food and Desire" at the second Biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium (DGS) that (3-4 June 2014, Dublin Institute of Technology). It was a wonderful meeting, full of food and...
101. Tacit knowledge and the replication of results.
One thing that seldom gets talked about in the world of science is the notion of tacit knowledge – that is, know-how that is only, and sometimes can only, be passed on through direct experience. A recent example was described in the journal Nature (Vol. 514, pp. 139 –...
The true place of science in gastronomy
My contribution to a panel discussion at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, Sunday July 5th, 2015. We don’t need to understand science to enjoy our food, but quite often we need science to provide us with food that we can enjoy, and understanding the science...
How To Eat Your Mummy
I am a regular speaker at the annual Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, where famous food writers, food historians, and other food enthusiasts share their ideas and experiences in the cloistered dignity of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. Well, it would be...
Food Museums: An Eclectic List
I love museums. They link our past, present and future, reminding us of what was, helping us to understand what is, and providing a foundation for what is to come. Museums take many forms, and few people know about one of those forms - the food museum. So to help you...
84. On hot apple pies, exploding kedgeree and the birth of a new idea
I haven’t yet finished with Count Rumford, because his encounters with heat didn’t end with brass cannons. Apple pies were also on the menu, and their properties puzzled him: When dining, I had often observed that some some particular dishes retain their Heat much...