HAROLD MCGEE: My name is Harold McGee, and I write
about the science of food and cooking.
I'm the author of the book On Food and Cooking
that's being used as a textbook in the course.
And I've been writing about the science of food
for longer than I care to think, maybe 30 or 40 years.
It's not something I planned to do, but I'm delighted that I fell into it.
I started out life studying science at Caltech,
decided for a variety of reasons that I'd rather do other things as well,
and went off to graduate school and studied philosophy and literature.
And then, of course, had trouble finding a job teaching.
So after a couple of years of looking, I decided
to try to recoup my investment in science by writing about it
and writing about the science of everyday life.
And I thought cooking would be an interesting subject to pick,
because people do it every day.
So I wrote a proposal to write a book about the science of food and cooking.
And in 1984 the first edition of that book was published,
and I've been enjoying writing about the science of food and cooking ever since.