Brain Candy: How Desserts Slow the Passage of Time- Lecture 3- Bill Yosses

Speaker: Bill Yosses (White House Pastry Chef)

Location: Science Center D

This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs: Ferran Adria presented spherification; Jose Andres discussed both the basic components of food and gelation; Joan Roca demonstrated sous vide; Enric Rovira showed his chocolate delicacies; Wylie Dufresne presented inventions with transglutaminase. The lectures then use these culinary creations as inspiration to delve into understanding how and why cooking techniques and recipes work, focusing on the physical transformations of foods and material properties.

Watch Next Video: Olive Oil and Viscosity- Lecture 4- Carles Tejedor

Who is William Yosses?

William "Bill" Yosses is the coauthor of the book Desserts For Dummies and since January 2007 the White House Executive Pastry Chef.

Bill Yosses is the author of "The Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion," and has been a pastry chef for over thirty years.

Yosses is the successor to Thaddeus DuBois who left the same position in 2006. He served as a White House Holiday Pastry Chef for the 2006 holiday season. His most recent project has been to assist in the opening of Paul Newman's Dressing Room in Westport, Connecticut-a restaurant utilizing locally grown, artisanal and organic food sources. Other Executive Pastry Chef experience includes Josephs Citarella in New York City; planning, designing and opening the pastry department of Bouley Restaurant and Bakery and operating the pastry department of the Tavern on the Green Restaurant in New York City. Mr. Yosses was also Pastry Chef at Montrachet Restaurant in New York City.

Mr. Yosses served apprenticeships in France, and also worked under Chefs Daniel Boulud and then Sous Chef Thomas Keller at Polo Restaurant in New York City. He earned his A.A.S. degree at the New York City College of Technology in Hotel Management, a Master of Arts at Rutgers University in French Language and Literature and a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toledo in French Language.

Mr. Yosses has also contributed to the community through his many teaching efforts. He served as a consultant to the Education Department of the American Museum of Natural History. There he helped organize and create showpieces for a "History of Chocolate" exhibit in 2003, "Global Kitchen" in 2004, and was on the Flavor and Evolution panel in 2006. He is also an active participant in "Spoons Across America," where he worked as a chef-teacher visiting grade schools to introduce good eating habits to children in 4-8th grades.

President Barack Obama says of Yosses, "Whatever pie you like, he will make it and it will be the best pie you have ever eaten." Obama has also nicknamed Yosses "the Crust Master."