Cultivating Flavor: A Recipe for the Recipe- Lecture 11- Dan Barber- Science and Cooking

Dan Barber (Blue Hill)

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.

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Who is Dan Barber?

Dan Barber (born 1969) is a chef and owner of several restaurants including Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. He is a 1992 graduate of Tufts University, where he received a B.A. in English, and a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, now known as The International Culinary Center. He is married to Aria Sloss, a short story writer, novelist and former food writer.

Achievements

In 2002, Barber was named one of the Best New Chefs by Food and Wine Magazine. He has received several James Beard Foundation awards, including the 2006 award for Best Chef: New York City and the 2009 award for Outstanding Chef.

The James Beard Foundation also named him the top chef in America in 2009. Also in 2009, he was named one of the world’s most influential people in Time Magazine's annual Time 100. His restaurant, Blue Hill in New York City, has also been recognized as one of GAYOT.com's Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S.

Approach to Cuisine

Barber has written on many food and agricultural policies, which have appeared in the New York Times, Gourmet, The Nation, Saveur, and Food & Wine. His writings pertain to creating a consciousness about the effects of everyday food choices and food sustainability.

Barber's efforts to forward the local cuisine movement are brought to the table at his flagship restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where seasonal produce grown and raised on-site is grilled over wood fuel from the nearby forests.

In February 2010, Barber gave a talk at the TED Conference where he outlined his discovery of extensively farmed fish at Veta La Palma. Barber often wears pajama pants and waffled long-sleeve shirts in the kitchen. Barber was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition and is also a member of the Advisory Board to the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and The Global Environment.

Barber has also been a leader in farm-to-table education. Together with The International Culinary Center, Blue Hill’s kitchen team and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s expert farmers, Chef Dan Barber presented a broad ranging farm-to-table curriculum for the school, teaching students practices that connect professional kitchens and ecological farms, and the strong ties that link agriculture and cuisine.