Author and food scientist Harold McGee. Photo: The Chronicle 2005
On Monday evening, the great Harold McGee held court at the newish French Culinary Institute down in Campbell.
In attendance were culinary students, faculty, alums, and a few high-profile SF chefs who admirably made the trek down just to learn something new from McGee and support the culinary school.
It would be a disservice to Mr. McGee to try to summarize his thoughts, especially the more technical ones (please read his books and columns instead), but here are a few of his choice quotes from the evening, as gleaned from the FCI’s Twitter feed.
On the subjectivity of taste: “Taste is subjective. Taste starts with genetics. 500 different genes [are] involved and no one has all of them … We all live in a different universe when it comes to taste. Genes, experience and expectation define your taste.”
On the biggest recent technique development: “It is the first time in cooking that cooks can control temperature.”
On GMOs: “They are here whether or not we want them here.”
On information sharing between chefs: “Chefs now have a sense of pride when sharing. This is a change in the culinary world”
On cuisine: “Cooking is no longer national or traditional — it is now personal.”
On his inspiration: “People who make delicious things”
