Harold James McGee (born October 3, 1951) is an American author who writes about the chemistry and history of food science and cooking. He is best known for his seminal book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen initially published in 1984^[2] and revised in 2004.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Harold James McGee (born October 3, 1951) is an American author who writes about the chemistry and history of food science and cooking. He is best known for his seminal book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen initially published in. Books by Harold McGee. 1984: On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen; 1990: The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore; 2004: On Food & Cooking, Revised Edition; 2010: Keys to Good Cooking; Videos. Harold McGee on how he made the move to food.

Education[edit]

McGee was educated at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), initially to study astronomy,^[3][12] but graduating with a B.S. in Literature in 1973. He went on to do a Ph.D. on the romantic poetry of John Keats supervised by Harold Bloom at Yale University, graduating in 1978.^[4][11]

Personal life[edit]

McGee married his college girlfriend Sharon Rugel Long on July 7, 1979; they divorced in 2004. They had two children, son John (born 1986) and daughter Florence (born 1988).^[13]

Career[edit]

Before becoming a food science writer, McGee was a literature and writing instructor at Yale. McGee has also written for Nature,^{[5][14][15][16][17][18]}Health, The New York Times, the World Book Encyclopedia, The Art of Eating, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, and Physics Today^[19] and lectured on kitchen chemistry at cooking schools, universities, The Oxford Symposia on Food and Cookery, the Denver Natural History Museum and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. For a brief time he wrote a regular column for the New York Times, 'The Curious Cook,' which examined, and often debunked, conventional kitchen wisdom.

With Dave Arnold and Nils Norén, McGee teaches a three-day class, 'The Harold McGee Lecture Series,' at The French Culinary Institute in New York City.

Awards and honors[edit]

McGee is a visiting scholar at Harvard University.^[3] His book On Food and Cooking has won numerous awards and is used widely in food science courses at many universities.

Influences[edit]

McGee's scientific approach to cooking has been embraced and popularized by chefs and authors such as David Chang.^[7]

References[edit]

Harold Mcgee Chef

1. ^'Harold McGee'. CooksInfo. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
2. ^ ^abOn Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (1984) ISBN0-684-18132-0
3. ^ ^abcHarold McGee (Food science writer): On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen on YouTube, iBioMagazine
4. ^ ^abMcGee, Harold James (1978). Keats and the Progress of Taste (PhD thesis). Yale University. ProQuest302889235.
5. ^ ^abMcGee, Harold (2011). 'Food science: With pipette and ladle'. Nature. 480 (7378): 452–453. Bibcode:2011Natur.480..452M. doi:10.1038/480452a.
6. ^But the Crackling is Superb: An Anthology on Food and Drink by Fellows and Foreign Members of The Royal Society of LondonISBN0-7503-0488-X
7. ^ ^abBBC Radio 4 Food Programme: A Life through Food with Harold McGee, BBC, 2014-10-13
8. ^Food Scientist Harold McGee: 'On Food', NPR December 2004
9. ^Cooking with IEEE Spectrum: Harold McGee
10. ^McGee, Harold J.; Long, Sharon R.; Briggs, Winslow R. (1984). 'Why whip egg whites in copper bowls?'. Nature. 308 (5960): 667–668. Bibcode:1984Natur.308..667M. doi:10.1038/308667a0. S2CID4372579.
11. ^ ^abMcGee, Harold (2015). 'About Harold McGee'. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28.
12. ^Cressey, Daniel (2009). 'Q&A with Harold McGee: The molecular master chef'. Nature. 458 (7239): 707. doi:10.1038/458707a. PMID19360069.
13. ^https://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2004/2004_11_19.mcgee19ja.shtml
14. ^McGee, Harold (2013). 'Chemistry: A festive ferment'. Nature. 504 (7480): 372–374. Bibcode:2013Natur.504..372M. doi:10.1038/504372a. PMID24352277.
15. ^McGee, Harold (1999). 'Taking stock of new flavours'. Nature. 400 (6739): 17–18. Bibcode:1999Natur.400...17M. doi:10.1038/21775. PMID10403241. S2CID31829606.
16. ^McGee, Harold (1998). 'In victu veritas'. Nature. 392 (6677): 649–650. Bibcode:1998Natur.392..649M. doi:10.1038/33528. PMID9565025. S2CID4383793.
17. ^McGee, Harold (1987). 'Trials of the gluttons for punishment'. Nature. 326 (6116): 907–908. Bibcode:1987Natur.326..907M. doi:10.1038/326907a0.
18. ^Mcgee, Harold (1990). 'Recipe for safer sauces'. Nature. 347 (6295): 717. Bibcode:1990Natur.347..717M. doi:10.1038/347717a0. PMID2234048. S2CID4348407.
19. ^McGee, Harold; McInerney, Jack; Harrus, Alain (1999). 'The Virtual Cook: Modeling Heat Transfer in the Kitchen'. Physics Today. 52 (11): 30. Bibcode:1999PhT....52k..30M. doi:10.1063/1.882728.

External links[edit]

Food Science Harold Mcgee

• Harold McGee interview by Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire (Oxford Oral History Project)

Harold Mcgee Book