Science in the kitchen. Scientific and culinary condiments in the art of food

Humanity has used both science and culture as tools to build civilizations and to progress in all areas, including the field of food. The International Center for Scientific Debate, the Technology Museum of l'Empordà and the Girona Regional Government Casa de Cultura propose a menu to reflect and debate on the past and future of human food and its relationships with pleasure, creativity, health and scientific and technological breakthroughs. This series of multidisciplinary chats runs from 14 October through 18 November 2011.

Human beings have created history, art, science and literature through food. Archeological and historical finds show how eating certain foods has, since antiquity, been a driving force behind civilization in banquets celebrating love or death, which have been written about, painted, documented and found in ruins. In fact, the word culture comes from the Latin meaning cultivate or grow.

Ever since the origins of our species, our diet has been based on cereals and their derivatives, dried legumes, vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs and fermented drinks. The evolution of the food we eat has been nourished by scientific work in agriculture from the beginning; which is to say the step that moved us from nomadic beings, hunting and gathering, to a people that establish more stable civilizations in places where an abundance of water allows for abundant fishing and fertile lands, for farming and grazing. Since that time, our food habits haven’t stopped evolving, and cooking and gastronomy now have their place among the arts. Science and culture have, thus, been the tools that have allowed humanity to build civilizations and to progress in all areas, including the field of food.