Food Woooooooooooo-ologist Part 4!

 We are almost done! YAY! This is what we have covered so far!

• What the food science community defines as food science
• What the non-food science community thinks food science is
• Who can be a food scientist
• What I think food science is

This is whats left! 

• How I became a brown-eyed-bushy-tailed food scientist

Well it all started back on July 3rd, 1991 at 9:56 a.m.... just kidding. 

I think my earliest memory of food was dinner, around kindergarten time. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house which was conveniently located half a block from my house. Around 5:00 p.m. (on the dot) I would watch my Yeh-Yeh (Grandpa) and my Ning-Ning (Grandma) use a big butchers knife to slice and dice ginger, green onions, garlic, fish and glossy green vegetables they had just bought from Chinatown that day. Yeh-Yeh, an ex-restaurant owner and natural chef, would tie on a terry-cloth flower printed apron and pad around the kitchen wielding a pair of chopsticks, tossing a little of this and a little of that into the pans on the stove. By 6:00 p.m. I would be sitting at the head of the table (sassy, I know) nomming down on glistening steamed fish sprinkled with the thinnest slices of ginger and green onions. Leafy green veggies would be slipped into my bowl as I was urged to "yum tong" or drink soup. Since I was so eager to be in the kitchen with the Grands my first kitchen duty (as with any good restaurant) was to wash dishes. And I loved it. By 7:30 p.m. it would be time to go, so my full belly and I would say bye to the Grands for the night and with dad in tow would make the long, strenuous trek back to my house. 

Yum tong has probably been the only Chinese term I can pronounce and use with confidence and that "tong"  is the a pivotal reason I became a food scientist. This soup, as everyone claims, is magical; it helps when you have a sore throat, when you have a stuffy nose, when you have high cholesterol and even if you want better skin. (Seahorse story to come later)

Brothy soup goes like this: figure out what's wrong with you, pick a base broth (chicken, beef, etc), then find the necessary blend of leafy greens, mushrooms, dried scallops, fruit rinds, or tree root (to name a few). Then BOIL and then BOIL some more! Then DRINK and then DRINK some more!

To me, that's food science. You have a problem and you have a general idea of how to fix it; all that is left is to decide how you're going to do it. If you have a sore throat, you use a special kind of dried vegetable. To offset the mild but stark bitterness of the vegetable you could use a dried date or some dried mushrooms. Each ingredient has a purpose and when you boil them together they work together to help make someone better!

That was really long, I apologize. i suppose I am a product of my chef Yeh-Yeh, my gardening Goong-Goong (other grandpa), my fluffy cake making Ning-Ning and my fruit dehydrating Paw-Paw (other grandma). I have been inspired by my tong guru dad and my snack making mom, encouraged by a family of grillers, bakers and fellow food scientist and supported by a posse of fro-yo queens, wine-sippers, brew-masters and tapa-teams.  

What a feat we have accomplished! Coming up next, my very first experience at IFT, the annual meeting for food nerds world wide! 

Stay tuned! Stay hungry!

-Taryn