Old-fashioned white coats, glass beakers and Bunsen burners are missing from this University of Utah science laboratory.
In this class, students wear kitchen aprons, use measuring cups and experiment over a gas stove.
Welcome to Beginning Chemistry, the culinary version, where every experiment is good enough to eat.
This new course teaches students the chemistry and physics behind food and cooking. Students answer the questions many cooks have wondered about: Why acids turn milk into yogurt. How baking power makes biscuits rise. And how eggs bind oil and water to make mayonnaise.
"To be a well-informed citizen you need to know a little about science," said associate professor Greg Owens, whose team teaches the class with a chemistry department colleague and Salt Lake City chef Bryan Woolley. "But you don't have to be beaten over the head with quantum physics to get it."
Owens, who enjoys cooking, happened to attend a cooking class with his wife, taught by Woolley. That's when the idea for a culinary chemistry course emerged. After all, "there's no one out there that doesn't like to eat," he said.
Owens asked Woolley to help teach the course. The pair, along with assistant chemistry professor Holly Sebahar, began looking for a curriculum. When they couldn't find what they wanted, they developed their own "completely from scratch," Owens said.
Even before the first day of class "Culinary Chemistry: The Science of Food and Cooking" created a buzz among science majors.
The department initially planned to offer one section during fall semester. But the section filled so quickly they opened a second. Another section is planned for spring semester.
The course meets once a week for three hours. Classes alternate between lectures on the U. campus and the hands-on "kitchen laboratory" at the Viking Cooking School in Salt Lake City.
During the semester, students have focused on the four food molecules: water, fats, carbohydrates and proteins. They've learned how combinations of those molecules create bread and gluten. They have learned about leaveners, saturated sugar solutions and the classic arts of food preservation and cheese making.
It's not your usual science course. "Making chemistry applicable to everyday life just makes it more interesting," said Chris Mosher, a pre-pharmacy major.
Sebahar, who teaches organic chemistry portion of the course, agrees with her student. "As a science professor I know that science is exciting, but it's hard to share that," she said. "In this class, students see the relevancy to everyday life and they are excited to learn about it."
Unlike other general education courses that have 200 students, Culinary Chemistry is limited to just 30 students per section. That allows students to get a hands-on experience in labs, while allowing Owens and Sebahar to get to know their students.
Woolley said he became a chef because he was fascinated by chemistry. "Cooking is really chemistry for everybody," he said. "It's science you can really use."
While the course is meant to teach chemistry, it has gotten several students excited about being in the kitchen.
"Now that I know what's going on," said senior Teah Caine, "it makes me want to be a better cook."
