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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Science of Gastronomy by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

4.6
stars
766 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces several basic scientific principles underpinning the methodology of cooking, food preparation, and the enjoyment of food. All topics covered have a strong basis in biology, chemistry, and physics application. Among others, they include the consumption of cooked food, the physiological and evolutionary implications of the senses, geographic and cultural influences on food, and the rationale behind food preparation. We will also discuss issues such as coupling of senses to improve sense stimulation; altering flavor by chemical means, and modification of the coloration to improve the appearance of dishes. Following the video demonstrations of the scientific principles of cooking, you will learn to recognize the key ingredients and their combinations for preparing good healthy food. You will also be asked to try out and practice specific cooking principles through the weekly assignments; analyze your data and make comparisons of your experiences with others. At the end of this course, you will be able to: - appreciate the scientific basis of various recipes. - develop your own recipes by integrating some of the scientific principles into new dishes. - recognize the influence of the material world on human perception from the different senses. - appreciate the art of integrating science into cooking and dining. Important Note: This course is not designed for people with special dietary needs such as vegetarian, diabetic, and gluten-free diets. If you feel uncomfortable with any part of the assignments or activities of this course, you can substitute some of the ingredients or ask friends and family members to help with the tasting of your assignments. Alternatively, you may skip that specific assignment if you have fulfilled all other qualifying requirements to pass the course. Course Overview video: https://www.coursera.org/lecture/gastronomy/course-overview-43gyz...

Top reviews

DJ

Jun 3, 2021

Very easy to understand even for someone new to food science like me. Learn a lot about the basic science of how our body works to see taste smell taste hear and touch food and how cooking works.

SJ

Sep 28, 2020

Thank you very much Professor Chow and Professor Yeung as well as to your student assistants. I find the topics, demonstrations and assignments very interesting and useful in my profession.

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176 - 189 of 189 Reviews for The Science of Gastronomy

By Davide P

Sep 27, 2018

Very interesting

By Jenniffer C

Jun 27, 2020

I learn a lot.

By abhishek b

Sep 28, 2017

nice course

By Pablo H

Apr 23, 2020

I love it.

By Sarra T

Jun 7, 2020

Excellent

By Adveet G

Nov 11, 2024

good

By Michał P K

Jun 12, 2021

Only three stars despite excellent content (delivery for a paid option should be better) • The content is extremely interesting and it is clear that a lot of effort was put in preparing the course. Very good downloadable presentations, fantastic summaries (topic summaries) at the end of each module. The second part even more interesting that the first one. • There are errors in English. The second part delivered by the second instructor was worse, the delivery sometimes hindered the understanding and thus caused frustration. Not being an English native speaker myself, I understand this is easier said than done. However, the course was made available on a global platform in English, so one expects it to be easy to understand, especially for those as myself who purchased a certificate. Does Coursera verify the course before putting it on the platform? Courses with poor content or poor delivery should be available for auditing only, without possibility to buy a certificate.

• There are many assignments. Maybe one could consider replacing some of them by short mandatory tests after each module or chapter (and not only a final test at the end). Short tests at the end of each module would allow better understanding of the material, which would be memorised longer…

By Ilaria C

Jan 7, 2018

I learned many interesting things but it was a bit long. The teacher keeps adding some redundant words (i.e. in fact) in the sentences and his pronunciation makes it difficult to get the concepts sometimes. The classes are a bit slow and always the same, with the explanation first (interesting for me), and then some experiment description and implementation (too long videos on that part).

It doesn't really have exams at the end of classes, so it is easy to pass but at the same time I realise I lost many concepts since the beginning.

By Jonathan G

Dec 10, 2017

I found this course to be tedious and redundant. There was so much that wasn't needed and was very condescending to most students. Anyone can learn how to cook. It is not hard skill. The trick to good cooking is knowing how to properly cook something and not overcook or undercook, using the right amount of spices or flavor and timing. This course was taught as though to deliberately insult the intelligence of those taking it.

By Alice Z

Apr 12, 2021

The course itself is both interesting and useful. The instructor explained everything clearly. However, the exams are designed very poorly. Some of the questions include concepts that has NOT been mentioned before and some of the questions are very controversial.

By Abraham M P

Oct 16, 2020

It's a good course to learn the basic chemistry of food and the human body perception. But there is too much homework.

By Jenn P

Mar 6, 2021

I found this a mix of basic information that somebody with basic anatomy & physiology should know, and also hard to follow due to English/Chinese issues. Just not for me. It may be the perfect course for a psychology major or somebody else who needs the background to understand how brains and basic science works.

By Charlie H

Aug 14, 2020

I really wanted to learn the subject, however, the instructor is very boring and the videos are drawn out. I couldn't get past the first week.

By Ajay L

May 28, 2016

amateurish presentation. and there is some technical issue with the content. the video gets stuck a lot and the problem is not my internet.