Category: Food and Culinary Studies

May 4, 2012

Anat Pick — Fleshing out the Morality of Meat: Thoughts on the New York Times’s contest “Calling All Carnivores"

The following is the first half of a post by Anat Pick, author of Creaturely Poetics: Animality and Vulnerability in Literature and Film. Pick is, in part, responding to Calling All Carnivores, a contest from The Ethicist, a feature in...

May 3, 2012

Michael Marder Responds to Criticism

“Dietary ethics attuned to vegetal life does not imply that we should start eating more animal flesh, or, for those who are neither vegans nor vegetarians, continue consuming it in good conscience.” — Michael Marder

May 1, 2012

Michael Marder on the Ethical Implications of Plant Communication

“Is it morally permissible to submit to total instrumentalization living beings that, though they do not have a central nervous system, are capable of basic learning and communication?” — Michael Marder

April 19, 2012

James McWilliams on the Myth of Sustainable Meat in the New York Times

“After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all.” — James McWilliams

March 26, 2012

The Science of Cotton Candy and More from The Kitchen as Laboratory

The editors of The Kitchen as Laboratory: Reflections on the Science of Food and Cooking have put together a great slide show on Huffington Post that underscore some of the aims of their book. In the slideshow, the authors describe...

February 3, 2012

Better Food Through Science — The Kitchen as Laboratory

“We strongly believe that the proper use of the scientific method in the areas of food design, production, and distribution can be of great benefit to society.”—Cesar Vega and David J. McClements We conclude our week-long feature on The Kitchen...

February 2, 2012

Bacon: The Slice of Life — The Kitchen as Laboratory

“Whether used as a breakfast meat, a cooking ingredient, or strictly for flavoring, bacon is one of the most universally enjoyed foods in the world. It is hard to deny that bacon is an important part of our most fundamental...

February 1, 2012

The Science of a Grilled Cheese Sandwich from The Kitchen as Laboratory

It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to have a post on grilled cheese sandwich, so we were glad to see that The Kitchen as Laboratory: Reflections on the Science of Food and Cooking opens with Jennifer Kimmel’s...

January 31, 2012

The Kitchen as Laboratory Quiz

Sure you love a great grilled cheese sandwich but do you know the science behind what distinguishes a good from a bad sandwich? Test your knowledge of the science and psychology with this quiz based on The Kitchen as Laboratory:...

December 9, 2011

Neurogastronomy: Aging, Flavor, and Taste

We conclude our week-long feature on Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters, by Gordon Shepherd fittingly enough with an excerpt from the final chapter. In the chapter, “Why Flavor Matters,” Shepherd discusses how perceptions of flavor...

December 8, 2011

Neurogastronomy: Language and Flavor

One of the facets of the brain and food that Gordon Shepherd links in Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters is the role of language. Below is an excerpt from the book on this subject. (For...

December 7, 2011

How Neurogastronomy Can Fight Obesity and Fast-Food Cravings

Gordon Shepherd, author of Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters, recently talked with The Chronicle of Higher Education about his book. In the article Shepherd discusses the science behind neurogastronomy and the ways in which we...