Some might say Wylie Dufresne is as much a mad scientist as he is a Michelin-starred chef: with his long hair and sideburns, he brings a certain flair to his cooking.

To eat a meal at Chef Dufresne’s wd~50 restaurant in New York City is to embark on wild culinary escapade. Popular dishes on his menu include noodles made with shrimp, bagel ice cream with cotton candy lox, sauces made from popcorn puree, and his famous “eggs Benedict” made with a cylinder of egg yolk, deep fried mayonnaise and paper thin Canadian bacon.

Perhaps it is too limiting to typify Dufresne as a “molecular gastronomist”, but with his use of ingredients like “meat glue”, he has helped start an avant-garde culinary movement in the United States. Some may recognize Dufresne from Bravo’s TV series Top Chef where he often judges challenges – even going so far as to compete on the network’s spinoff series, Top Chef Masters.

A continual supporter of education and innovation, Dufresne will be coming to Cambridge this week to guest lecture for the popular “Science of Cooking” class offered at Harvard this semester. That said, you don’t have to be a student to catch Wylie! Though he comes to campus to teach SPU-27, Dufresne will also offer a public lecture at 7 pm on Monday, November 8th in Science Center D. Don’t miss it!

For more details, visit: http://seas.harvard.edu/cooking

If you’re looking for cheap and fast Thai cuisine that doesn’t sacrifice flavor, try Pad Thai Café by Berklee School of Music. Home to the some of the most authentic Thai food in Boston, it’s worth a trip out of Harvard Square.

The atmosphere is welcoming, and the restaurant’s bus-your-own-table policy works surprisingly well; rarely is there any trash to be seen. The place is packed with lively Berklee students and one end of the room, a man welcomes patrons from a colorful desk, decorated with a fish tank and Buddhist and Thai ornaments. The giant blue-board menu claims a quarter of the wall-space and boasts daily special, often times written in Thai, in the lower left-hand corner.

Though the dining area is great, the best part about Pad Thai Café is definitely the food. While their pancake ($4.75) resembles the popular scallion pancakes in Chinese restaurants, the Pad Thai Café version uses a fluffy rice flour and has much more filling than those at the Kong.

The classic Tom Kah Soup ($3.75), made with coconut milk, mushrooms, and cilantro, is generous on the chicken or shrimp (though slightly overcooked). For a more authentic dish, try the Yum Nuah ($9.30) which is grilled beef mixed with chili paste, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, lemongrass, red onion, and scallions, with a squeeze of lime juice. The Pad Thai Café is liberal with their lime, so this dish may be too sour for those who aren’t use to it. Yum Nuah is traditionally eaten with white rice, so don’t forget that important step!

Pad Thai Café also offers a variety of rice and noodle dishes, most of which are generously portioned. While the the Pad Thai ($7.60) has a bit too much fish sauce, the Pad See You ($7.15) and Pad Woon Sen ($7.60) are good alternatives..

As for the rice dishes, the variety of curries are enough to make any foodie’s head spin. My personal favorite, the Hot Basil (with beef, $9.95) is the spiciest of them all. The aroma of the basil mingles with the flavor of the Thai chili, yielding an extremely spicy yet refreshing dish.

All this means that by the end of a meal at Pad Thai Café, dessert becomes a chore.

Though Cambridge boasts a fair number of restaurants, the simple yet savory cuisine of Pad Thai Café, accessible from the Green Line and Newbury St.., make this restaurant a hidden gem of Boston. Treat yourself to a night on the Town and be sure to start it a Pad Thai Café.

Lingbo Li Munches on Fries Cooked in Duck Fat at Portland, Maine’s “Duckfat.”

When it comes to candy consumption, one holiday rules them all: Halloween. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) expects that Americans will spend a “spooktacular” two billion dollars on sweets during the 2010 season. It seems that as a nation, we have forgone all tricks in favor of treats. As you snack on Snickers or munch on Mellowcreme Pumpkins, millions of your fellow Americans will be doing the same, whether five or fifty years old! Here are a few fun facts from the NCA to chew on:

· More than 93% of children go trick-or-treating each year.

· 90% of parents admit to sneaking goodies from their kids’ Halloween trick-or-treat bags.

· 30% of kids report that they SORT their candy first when returning home with trick-or-treat loot.

· 62% of adults will be handing out candy because “it’s a personal favorite” or it’s a household tradition (55%)

· Four-in-ten (41%) adults admit that they sneak sweets from their own candy bowl.

If for some reason you miss out on the festivities this Halloween, you can always hit up the half-price candy sales in early November!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and when it comes to breakfast at Harvard, oatmeal is my number one pick; I love the stuff. That said, the brown sugar and craisin combo gets old day after day. If you’ve also found yourself in a “steel cut rut”, try one of these tasty twists!

Oatmeal twist #1: Peanut Butter
I have a hard time saying no to peanut butter. It may not seem like “breakfast food”, but when it’s been added to a nice hot bowl of oatmeal and banana, it’s delicious. My main tip: microwave the oatmeal and peanut butter for about 15 seconds so that the peanut butter thins out enough to mix into the oatmeal, rather than having thick blobs in some bites and none in others.

Oatmeal twist #2: Chocolate
Dessert-style breakfast is never a bad thing, particularly if you have a long day ahead of you. Try mixing some hot cocoa powder into your oatmeal to create a delicious chocolate-y treat. For an added bonus, throw in some marshmallows too. Pop the bowl in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to make the marshmallows nice and gooey and voilà!

Oatmeal twist #3: Apples
Apples and cinnamon are a natural pair when it comes to oatmeal toppings. One problem: warm oatmeal isn’t so great with cold apple chunks. The solution: heat your apple pieces in the microwave to make them warm and tender before adding them to my bowl. Then top it off with some cinnamon and sugar and dig in!

Oatmeal twist #4: Honey
Brown sugar is delicious and a staple when it comes to oatmeal, but changing the sweetener to honey is great, too! For example, I use honey in place of brown sugar when I want to add bananas to my oatmeal. I find the mild flavor of the honey to be a better complement than the intense sweetness of brown sugar.

Of course you can mix and match any of these tips to create your own oatmeal twist! Cinnamon complements any of these ingredients; honey and peanut butter go together fantastically; chocolate and banana are a familiar pair. Really, the possibilities are endless. These are just a few combinations I especially love and I hope you’ll try them! If your stomach still isn’t satisfied, check back soon for another HUHDS Remix.

Our own Bianca Okafor got to sit in and transcribe a Q&A session led by Jean Dough with world-renowned chef, Jose Andres, who was in town for the Science and Cooking lecture series. What vegetable does the chef find sexiest? How does he feel about solar cooking? Read all about it on the Our Cook Quest blog here.

Natalie Padilla Discovers Cupcake Camp



Meet the Star of the # 1 hit TLC show The Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro! He will be meeting guests and signing copies of his new book, Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia. This memoir is packed with recipes and stories of the funny and fiery family that are the proprietors of Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey.



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Hunger as Politics: The Right to Food and Global Food Security


Friday 11/5, 1 pm – 3 pm

Harvard Law School 
Pound Hall 100


A special workshop with Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who will discuss his mandate and global right to food challenges. To learn more about the right to food, go tohttp://www.srfood.org.
Space is limited, so register now athttp://hlsorgs.com/lids/workshop/



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FEAST

Friday 11/5, 8 pm

Harvard College

Quincy House Dining Hall
 

Amazing food and performances from the Asian American community at Harvard! co-sponsored by AAA, AAB, and all of the Asian undergraduate student organizations, featuring performances by many different performing groups.

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Tea & Cookies with the IOP

Friday 11/5, 3 pm – 4 pm

Harvard College 
Institute of Politics

IOP Student Office (2nd fl)



Come join us on Friday afternoon for homemade cookies and hot tea in the IOP Student Office

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FLP Lowell House Apple Tasting
Taste ten different varieties of local apples in combination with honey, caramel, and peanut butter! Try Idareds, Romes, Macouns, Empires, and many others…
Tuesday, November 2, 6pm, Lowell Dining Hall

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FLP Dunster House Taza Chocolate Tour
Love Chocolate? (Yes, I know you do!) Then you would love a FREE trip to the Taza Chocolate Factory! You’ve probably seen them at the Farmers’ Market, but if not, you’re also in for a treat. Just 10 minutes from Harvard by bus, Taza Chocolate Company produces 100% stone ground, organic chocolate using only the best ingredients while compensating growers fairly for their work. Take a visit to the factory to see how cocoa beans are roasted, milled, and ground; see how temperature is adjusted and flavoring is added to perfect taste; see how packaging and design weaves into the final product, plus SAMPLE CHOCOLATES along the way
Saturday, November 6th from 2:15-4:30pm. Meet in front of Dunster at 2:15 to take the bus from Mass Ave there. Tour is from 3-4pm.
Open to Dunster residents only (email Celia if you’re from Dunster)- not from Dunster? to get on the waiting list email foodliteracy@harvard.edu

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FLP The Garden movie screening
Interested in food? Interested in minority rights? Want to learn a bit more about SoCal’s history? The freshmen FLP reps present a screening of “The Garden,” nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 2009. Profiling a working-class Los Angeles neighborhood and its massive community garden, the film explores issues of ethnicity, politics, and, of course, food. FREE CHOCOLATE AND POPCORN WILL BE PROVIDED! Bring your friends, a cushion to relax on, and enjoy a peaceful Friday night with some free food and a thought-provoking film.
Friday, November 6, 8pm, Thayer Common Room

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Amanda Hesser, Author, The Essential New York Times Cookbook
Friday, November 19, 4-6pm, OCS Reading Room
Fifty years after Craig Claiborne’s seminal The New York Times Cookbook, food writer Amanda Hesser returned to the paper’s archives to collect more than 1,000 of the paper’s best recipes – all updated for the modern home cook. A cookbook unlike any other, The Essential New York Times encompasses both innovative and classic recipes, celebrating the breadth of America’s evolving relationship with food.

The cookbook began when Hesser—author of the acclaimed Cooking with Mr. Latte and former food editor for the Times—placed an ad in the Times simply asking readers for their favorite recipes the paper has ever published. The rush of letters, emails, and yellowed, newsprint recipes propelled Hesser into the kitchen, where she meticulously tested every dish with the modern, time-pressed home cook in mind. Intrigued by the paper’s 150-year food history and inspired by the passionate response from readers, Hesser dug further into the paper’s archives, uncovering pleasant surprises, modern classics, and truly standout dishes from the world’s best chefs.
Presented by: The Office of Career Services, Harvard Alumni in Food and Wine and the Food Literacy Project

To pre-register: email ocsrsvp@fas.harvard.edu with “Amanda Hesser” in the subject line.

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FLP Apple Tasting
Taste 10 different types of local apples- from Idareds to Jonathans with the Food Literacy Project.
Tuesday, November 2, 11:45-12:45pm, Rock Cafe

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Harvard Garden Work Day
Saturdays 4-6pm
Come work in the garden for our weekly work day- open to all. Ends November 15th.

Monday 10/25, 5:30-7:00 pm

Suffolk University, Donahue Hall, McDermott Conference Room.
41 Temple St, Boston.

Cultural anthropologist, Harvard Professor Theodore Bestor, a specialist on contemporary Japanese culture, will talk about the confluence of food and cultural values among the Japanese today, while the audience will be able to sample from freshly-made sushi.

This event is co-sponsored by the Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies along with Dr. Micky Lee, Department of Communication and Journalism.

Free and open to the public. Sushi and light snacks will be served.

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Boston’s 15th Annual Vegetarian Food Festival

Saturday 10/30, 10am – 6pm
Sunday 10/31, 10am – 4pm

Reggie Lewis Athletic Center
1350 Tremont Street
Boston, Massachusetts

This FREE Festival brings together an amazing array of vegetarian natural food providers, top national speakers and chefs, and educational exhibitors in a fun and welcoming environment. It is a chance to talk directly to food producers, learn the newest items in the marketplace, taste free food samples, shop at show special discounts, or simply learn what vegetarian foods are available and where you can find them!

Speakers include: Chef Tal Ronnen, Chef Alan Roettinger, Terry Hope Romero, plus many more!

Slow Food Interational founder Carlo Petrini paced the room, articulating in Italian how food has lost its true value over the years thanks to industrial farming. “In every civilization, food has been sacred,” he said.

In early October, the HUHDS Food Literacy Program invited Petrini to address the Harvard community about the current environmental challenges facing our food systems and our culinary culture. He founded Slow Food in his native Italy over thirty years ago; today it has grown into a global grassroots organization involving over 150 countries, dedicated to promoting the importance of local, sustainable agricultural practices and healthy eating in all communities.

Petrini primarily discussed how the industrialization of food, from chickens to corn, has created massive problems in ecosystems, including the degradation of soil, a decrease in water quality, and a loss of biodiversity. Most of our our food is produced cheap and fast by large-scale corporations.

To give a sense of scale, in 1950, 50 percent of the population of the United States was involved in agriculture and farming. Today it is 1 percent.

According to Petrini, farmers who produce food conventionally, with organic, sustainable practices often struggle to make ends meet. We have become far removed from the land, the animals, and the people who create the food we eat every day. Take the current news story on glass shards found in packaged vegetables as an example of how our food system, run by conglomerations not farmers, operates.

Petrini linked current food problems to consumer habits, calling for a new system in which the exchange of goods reclaims the reciprocity and respect that has been lost. Pushing the idea that traditional wisdom can be reconciled with science and technology, he also acknowledged the growing movement for local, organic food as an important and encouraging step in the right direction. He was careful to note, however, that “the good and the beautiful are the rights of all.” Everyone should have access to, sustainable, healthy food and not just the wealthy.

What is so striking about Petrini’s message was its simplicity. He ended the evening on a positive, encouraging note, affirming, “everything has to restart—and everything has already restarted.”