Science of Food

By USA Science & Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker Jeff Potter Jeff Potter's Patent-Violating* Chocolate Chip Cookies. Photo by Jeff Potter One of the biggest advantages that home-cooked foods have over store-bought goods is time. Commercial products have to be shelf-stable, so manufacturers have to come up with clever tricks to mimic home cooking. What if we dug into the literature and tried using those tricks for ourselves? A freshly baked cookie—“just like Mom used to make!”—ends up being crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. Some enterprising researchers at UC…

The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, D.C. area in the 2014-2015 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools. Meet Nifty Fifty Speaker Jeff Potter Some of the finest and most engaging scientists don't wear lab coats or work at universities. Instead some of them can be found in the top kitchens of America donned in aprons and chef's hats as they skillfully blend their passion for cooking with…