A Dinner Encounter with Author Harold McGee: Science, Surprises, and Culinary Tales
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My book collection won't be complete without Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.
Not too long ago, a dinner with friends turned into a big surprise for me—one that highlights how ideas and opportunities can come together in amazing ways.
An Unexpected Dinner Guest
Picture the scene: early evening, a cool breeze rising, a classic Californian Eichler home with exotic carpets and shelves of books and objects from around the world. I was relaxing on the couch, figuring out which cheese to tackle first (the choices!), when another couple knocked on the front door. I wasn’t expecting a third family to join us, but hey, that’s how we meet new people, right?
A thin, tall man with a light beard and round-rimmed glasses held out his hand to me. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Hal.” Niceties accomplished, the group fell into conversations of twos and threes.
A few minutes later, I felt one of those annoying itches in my brain. There was something about this guy … and suddenly my mind lit up, first with excitement and then with a sense of creeping unease. I leaned over to my husband, did one of those subtle wife-nods toward the man in question, and whispered, “Wait, who is that?”
My husband whispered back, “That’s Harold McGee.”
Harold McGee! The prolific and talented writer who’s made a career of diving deep into the chemistry and biology of cooking! Even the title of his most popular work, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, conjures the misleadingly laconic style of expression that is the hallmark of writing in the sciences.
Exploring the Chemistry of Cooking
That book blends hardcore biochemistry (“A graph showing the decline of a starch’s water-holding capacity as a cooked starch gel is cooled in a freezer”) with culture (“Nutritional Fads in the United States: Why We Are So Gullible”) with history (medieval recipe includes “Cast all thise therinne. Whan they buth are boiled …”) so perfectly that I’ve always had the sense that this book was written entirely for me.
All I could think was, Be cool, Vora! Don’t make it obvious that you’re a total fangirl … wait, what did I bring to contribute to the party? Wine? Gah! Would it have been better to cook something? But what if I did a lousy job? But what if I didn’t?? Gah!
Culinary Surprises and Revelations
I eventually emerged from my own head and back into the experience. Hal was a delightful dinner companion. I learned a lot—a lot!—about how hard it is to make a perfectly peelable boiled egg. I made some suggestions for tricks that combine the lab with the kitchen; they were gracefully acknowledged, then revealed as nothing new to Hal. It was just plain fun.
A snapshot of my dinner encounter with author Harold McGee, who writes about the chemistry of food and cooking, and the science of everyday life.
I didn’t get any books signed, or suss out any secret recipes. But I did have the chance to share the story of a writing competition I once won.
My hero (me, thinly disguised) decides to make a grand romantic gesture and gift her husband with homemade Turkish delight, recalling their splendid trip to Istanbul in their misty marital past. But our heroine is bested, time and again, by the wiles of the candy, despite her tenacity and sharp scientific brain! At last, she concedes defeat, embraces the power of memory over performance … and discovers a newspaper recipe for making Turkish delight—in 5 minutes—in the microwave.
True story! And the author of that final infuriating “make it in the microwave” recipe?
Harold McGee, of course!
He laughed when I finished my tale. And then we moved on to more delicious mysteries that await exploration.
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
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