By Jamison Wagner, Staff Reporter
Instructor hopes to teach students about science behind food
A new nutrition class could be added to the catalog soon, said Lisa Gurule, Nutrition instructor, said.
Intro to Food and Science would go beyond what is taught in the Culinary Arts classes and focus on the science behind the food, said Gurule.
“I remember when I took this class at NMSU and it was my favorite, favorite, favorite course ever,” she said.
While this class teaches the basics of low-level chemistry, it is something the students can connect to because it relates to structure in food, she said.
“Culinary students do know how to cook beautifully, but now they will know some of the science behind it,” she said.
The difference between this class and the Culinary Arts class is that Culinary is about preparing the food, while Food and Science is about the nature, deterioration, food processing and the development of new products, said Gurule.
“People will tell you not to over-mix a muffin mix, but they will not tell you why you cannot do that. We will experiment by over-mixing muffins and see what happens to the muffins,” she said.
Students will learn how to measure the thickness of different sauces, she said. This is important for certain dishes that require a sauce that may need to be heavier according to the recipe and students will learn how to set this up, she said.
“The starches you use can change viscosity and we will go over why this is important,” she said.
This course will not be required for the associate degree in Nutrition, but will possibly be offered as part of the transfer agreement to NMSU’s Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition and Diabetic Sciences degree, she said.
To find out more about the class, and when it will become available, contact Donna Diller, Dean of Business and Information Technology at ddiller@cnm.edu.
