GALILEO GALILEI FOUNDATION
WORLD FEDERATION OF SCIENTISTS
ETTORE MAJORANA CENTRE FOR SCIENTIFIC
CULTURE
GALILEO GALILEI CELEBRATIONS
Four Hundred Years Since the Birth of MODERN SCIENCE
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON
MOLECULAR AND PHYSICAL GASTRONOMY
3rd Meeting: HEAT IN COOKING
ERICE-SICILY: 4 - 8 APRIL 1997
Sponsored by the:
PROGRAMME AND PARTICIPANTS
INTRODUCTORY LECTURES
TOPICS
METHODS OF HEATING
CHEMICAL REACTIONS IN COOKING
HEAT CONDUCTION. CONVECTION AND TRANSFER
PARTICIPANTS (Partial List)
The purpose of these Workshops is to assemble 50-60 people from various walks of life (chefs, amateur cooks, scientists, food writers, educators) who have in common a love of food and an interest in its preparation. With the help of discussions, culinary experiments, tastings, etc., we aim at a better understanding of the scientific basis of the culinary processes. In doing so, we hope to improve some cooking methods, possibly invent or develop new dishes and establish whether the advantages resulting from certain culinary knacks are real or imaginary. The emphasis is on the practices in the domestic or restaurant kitchen, not in large scale catering and food processing and we are more concerned with gastronomy than with nutrition.
The INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MOLECULAR AND SCIENTIFIC GASTRONOMY has
for its mottoes the following quotations from two of the founders of scientific
gastronomy:
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Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814)
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Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1775-1826)
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Please indicate to which of the above listed topics you expect to contribute,
the nature of your contribution and whether you will be accompanied. Applicants
will be informed by March 10, at the latest, whether they can be accommodated at
the Workshop.
The total fee, $400 US, which is the same for participants and accompanying
persons, covers accommodation and all meals from lunch-time Friday, April 4,
until lunch-time Tuesday, April 8, as well as transport between Palermo Airport
and Erice, on the official days of arrival and departure (April 4 and April 8,
1997). Erice is on the Western coast of Sicily approximately 100 km from the
Palermo Airport. Participants will be conveyed by car or minibus to Erice.
Participants should arrive in Erice no later than 5 pm on Friday April 4. The
Workshop will start on Saturday morning April 5, there will be a
conference-dinner on Monday April 7, and a short closing session on Tuesday,
April 8, ending at 11.30 am.
According to legend, Erice, son of Venus and Neptune, founded a
small town on top of a mountain (750 metres above sea level) more than three
thousand years ago. The great historian Thucydides (~500 B.C.) said that
the Elymi - founders of Erice - were survivors of the destruction of Troy.
Ancient historians agreed that Erice was the oldest city in Europe.
Homer (~1000 B.C.), Theocritus (~300 B.C.), Polybius (~200 B.C.), Virgil
(~50 B.C.), Horace (~20 B.C.), and others have celebrated this magnificent
spot in Sicily in their poems. In Erice you can admire the Castle of Venus,
the Cyclopean Walls (~800 B.C.) and the Gothic Cathedral (~1300 A.D.).
Erice is at present a mixture of ancient and medieval architecture.
Other masterpieces of ancient civilization are to be found in the
neighbourhood: at Motya (Phoenician), Segesta (Elymian), and Selinunte
(Greek). On the Aegadian Islands - theatre of the decisive naval battle of
the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) - suggestive neolithic and paleolithic
vestiges are still visible: the grottoes of Favignana, the carvings and
murals of Levanzo.
Splendid beaches are at San Vito Lo Capo, Scopello, and Cornino, and a
wild and rocky coast around Monte Cofano: all at less than one hour's drive
from Erice.
DIRECTORS OF THE WORKSHOP: N. KURTI - H. THIS-BENCKHARD
DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE: A. ZICHICHI