Join us online this Valentine's Day to craft the romantic feast of your dreams with Food Science and Technology experts from Oregon State University. This webinar series focuses on the perfect food and drink to make your at-home holiday a success. You can sign up for any individual course or take all five at a reduced price!
Note, if you register for the bundle, pick the three that you want to attend during registration and you will receive recordings of the others afterwards.
Join Mike and Jason as they demonstrate how to prepare a simple (and EXCITING) Valentine’s Day meal kit! Learn how to take the stress out of preparing a fun and fancy dinner. This is not just about chopping and sautéing - we will discuss some of the chemistry behind cooking and storing food and beverages to allow for ease of execution and preservation of quality. What if I make a mistake? How do I know when something is ready? How can I prep ingredients a day ahead but keep them fresh? What is a brunoise cut? We will answer these questions and more…
There will be tasty treats! We will be making a homemade pasta and salad, lemon curd for dessert and Negroni and Bellini drinks to accompany. We will also discuss substitutions/modifications to meet alternative diets if needed.
We'll also go over cocktails, maybe wine (and there will be interesting beverages without alcohol as well).
There are a lot of ways to make great food while having fun in the kitchen. We’ll show you how to impress your loved ones on Valentine’s Day (and any other day of the week, too)!
Presenters: Jason Ball and Mike Adams from OSU Department of Food Science & Technology
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Preparing a Cheese Plate: The Science and History behind a diverse collection of cheese on your cheese board
Join Robin and Lisbeth as they discuss the many different cheeses that you can select for the ultimate cheese board. Which cheeses go well together and what else belongs on the cheese board? This is not just about flavors and textures, but also about the fascinating history of cheeses. Learn how to assemble a winning cheese board and impress your Valentine with stories about each cheese. How is it possible to make hundreds of different cheeses using the same four ingredients and the same general process? Why do cheeses have different colors? Why does Swiss cheese have holes? Why so many different cheeses. There is a lot to learn about cheese. Join the cheese nerds and become one yourself.
Presenters: Cheesemaster Robin Frojen and Professor Lisbeth Goddik from OSU Department of Food Science & Technology
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Would you beer mine? Love is ale we need – a Valentine’s Day beer tasting
Does beer come to mind when you think of Valentine’s Day. Why not? This Valentine’s Day weekend, join Dr. Tom Shellhammer, the Nor’Wester Professor of Fermentation Science, to explore the wild side of brewing that is found in sour beers. These beers are intentionally sour and often spontaneously fermented, which lends a wild character to them. We’ll pay particular attention to sour beers that are blended with cherries (Kriek), but you can find them made with raspberries (Framboise), apricots and other fruit. Some can be sweet while many are quite sour, but regardless they will be fruity. If you love these beers, then bring your passion (and your favorite beer) to this event. If you have never tasted these types of beers and are curious to learn more, then join the adventure. Tom will guide you through their production techniques and survey the various types of flavors one can encounter. Bring a beer or two or three to the event and together we’ll smell and taste the romance between tartness of sour beer and their fruitiness. This will be a beer lover’s Valentine treat.
Yours brewly
We invite you to participate in a virtual tasting during this event. Bring your favorite Kriek(s) or sour beer(s), or shop for one using our suggestions.
Presenters: Dr. Tom Shellhammer from OSU Department of Food Science & Technology
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PST)
A wander Through whisk(e)ys
With origins tracing back to the medieval Celts of Ireland and Scotland, whisky/whiskey is produced is now produced in many other regions world-wide, including North America, Scandinavia, Germany, Taiwan, Japan and India. In 2020 global whiskey revenues are expected to be in excess of $87 billion, more than 20% of which is attributable to sales of Indian whisky alone. Today, more than 30% of whiskey sold in the US is from distilleries outside the top 5 spirits manufacturers, with craft producers producing significant volumes of American-made product.
Here we will explore the taste evaluation of a selection of international whiskeys and walk through the typical flavor attributes in the whiskeys of your choice and their flavor sources (ie raw materials, fermentation, maturation). We will also address questions such as whether ice and/or water should be added? What do cooling stones bring to the perception of whiskey? In advance of the event you will receive sensory evaluation sheets and a brief guide to the world of whiskeys. After the session you should be in a position to impress your friends with your knowledge of whiskey!
Presenter: Dr. Paul Hughes from OSU Department of Food Science & Technology
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Experiencing Wine: Think Pink!
There is nothing quite like enjoying a glass of sparkling rosé wine on special holidays such as Valentine’s day. Enjoy that lovely pink color and beautiful bubbles as they sparkle in the glass. While it may be a more traditional drink choice on Valentine’s day you can have a lot of fun exploring the many ways food and sparkling rosé mix. This event will briefly explain how sparkling rosé is made, the flavors and tastes of sparkling rosé, and go through some traditional food pairings and more adventurous choices! Please see the attached “grocery” list for items you can pick up at the grocery store and participate in the food and wine tasting. I will also provide some more advanced and exotic suggestions as we taste as well.
Presenter: Dr. Elizabeth Tomasino from OSU Department of Food Science & Technology
Time: 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Tom Shellhammer is the Nor’Wester Professor of Fermentation Science in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University, where he directs the brewing education component of the fermentation science program and teaches courses about brewing science and technology, beer and raw materials analyses, plus the history, business and technology of the wine, beer and spirits industries.
Dr. Elizabeth Tomasino is an Associate Professor of Enology at OSU. She has had the opportunity to study the wine industry world-wide, including in Europe and New Zealand. Her research interests lie in wine sensory analysis and flavor chemistry. A main research includes determining relationships between sensory and chemical data, particularly those aroma compounds important for wine quality and regional differentiation.
After gaining his PhD in chemistry from the University of London, Paul moved into the brewing research sector in 1990. After spells as an industry-sponsored research scientist and then principal scientist with Heineken International, Paul moved to Heriot-Watt University in 2005 as Professor of Brewing and Distilling and director of the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling. Paul moved to Oregon in 2015 and helped establish his popular Distillery Startup Workshop program and has been a featured author for publications like The Whiskey Wash and other distilling publications.
Jason Ball is a Faculty Research Assistant and Culinary Project Manager at the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center. Jason works as part of the Product and Process Development Team at the FIC. His work utilizes creative thinking, innovative techniques, and scientific principles to develop value added food and beverage products across all categories. Many of the projects that Jason works on are focused around new product development, ingredient applications, or innovative culinary research. Additionally, Jason manages the Culinology, and Culinary Ideation Programs at the FIC.
Previously Jason has worked in industry as a chef in Chicago, New York, London, and Copenhagen. He holds an associate degree in Hospitality Management, and a Bachelors of Culinary Science from the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY).
Mike Adams is a Food Scientist at the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center (FIC). His background is in food and fermentation science, bakery product development, organic certification, and food safety plan management. Mike has hands-on experience in all aspects of the food and beverage industry including production, sanitation, packaging, research, and quality assurance. Mike started his career as a brewer and then moved into wine research. Mike then obtained his Master’s Degree at OSU’s Food Science and Technology department in the Wheat Quality Lab. After completing his MS, Mike worked at Kroger Manufacturing in Quality Assurance management and Product Development for organic bread, bagel, and bun products. Mike joined the FIC in 2017 and supports the Product and Process Development Program. Currently Mike is focused on beverage, bakery, and organic product development.
Lisbeth grew up in Denmark and studied dairy engineering at Copenhagen University. She immigrated to the US when her family purchased a farm in the Willamette Valley. She received graduate degrees in Food Science from Cornell University and Oregon State University. She worked as the OSU Dairy Processing Extension Specialist for 20 years before transitioning into the position as Department Head for Food Science and Technology. She has worked in agriculture and dairy in New Zealand, Canada, France, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway. This includes two sabbaticals in France studying safety systems for raw milk cheeses, and in Ireland studying grassfed dairying. She has participated in cheese judging in the US and in France and is an honorary citizen of the cheese town Morbier, France. Her dairy research projects include the fermentation and distillation of whey into vodka, the economics of artisan cheese making, safety of camembert cheese, and terroir of Oregon cheddar.
Robin Frojen grew up in Los Angeles and fell in love with food very early in life. She has been cooking since 5 and by her early teens was cooking for her family’s company Christmas parties and other gatherings. Robin went the regular college route right out of high school. Hoping to join her father’s advertising agency, she majored in graphic design. That path never turned out to be. Food was really what she wanted to do so Robin went to Scottsdale Culinary Institute and began her journey as a chef. Robin cooked all over the country before setting in Oregon in the early 90’s. Robin landed in Corvallis in 1997 and has been loving it here ever since. Realizing that she couldn’t raise a son as a single parent working as a chef it was time for a change…but not without food. After finding out she could go to OSU and major in FOOD she enrolled in the Food Science program and graduated with a BS in Food Science in 2009. Robin bounced around after graduation doing various projects for companies such as Willamette Egg Farms and Oregon Fruit Products. She then found a spot at Lochmead Dairy as their Quality Assurance Manager. In 2013 she returned to OSU to run the creamery and the Beaver Classic Cheese program. Her free time away from the creamery is filled with running an urban farm in South Corvallis, raising layer chickens and KuneKune pigs.