Connecting Food, Art and Science

Food creation is the ultimate infinitely rich palette (and palate), where an artist, a chef, and a scientist can work – and sometimes work together. Take the simple egg – crack it, put it in a hot pan, and you get a simple protein-rich meal. And there is beauty, a work of art, a culinary masterpiece when a perfect omelette hits the plate – just ask anyone who has ever attempted Jacques Pepin’s egg omelette.

There is no lack of finding food in art: from The Last Supper to Salvador Dali’s crazy fascination with cooking (he wrote a cookbook, Les diners de Gala), there are tons of examples of food as art, food in art. The dinner table has been a constant companion to the visual arts.

Like most art, working with food requires tapping into both sides of the brain, considering the flavor, appearance, and healthy attributes that will both attract and please the diner, as well as exploring the technical & scientific aspects that enable foods to be produced consistently and with beauty. Foods are complex living, chemical systems – and that’s where the science comes in. To really understand what’s going on when we cook an egg, we need to know the world of the (nearly) invisible small molecules that unwind, recombine, and react with each other to form a totally different ingredient than before we applied heat.

At the Foodie Labs, we draw our inspiration from the classic chefs, the innovators, and the everyday line cook who knows how to churn out great food day in and day out. We are bringing together people from many disciplines so that we can all expand our ideas about food, and serve up the ultimate goal: connecting people through a meal.