What's actually happening to your food when you cook it? Harvard physicist David Weitz and Sorted Food's Ben Ebbrell reveal the science hidden inside everyday cooking — from why mayonnaise becomes a solid, to how meringue defies physics, to what a martini has in common with a bag of salt. Watch Part 2 here: https://youtu.be/XIf83okkgiU
This talk was filmed at the Ri on the 18th April 2026.
---
In this lecture — the UK premiere of Harvard's celebrated Science and Cooking series — Ben cooks live on stage while David explains the physics and chemistry behind every step. You'll never look at an emulsion, a foam, or a loaf of focaccia the same way again.
This is Part 1 — covering herb oil, emulsions, and the science of mayonnaise. Part 2 covers focaccia elasticity, baked Alaska, and cocktail physics.
---
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeF244yNGuFefuFKqxIAXw/join
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
---
David Weitz is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University, where his research focuses on the physics of soft condensed matter. A member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the National Academy of Engineering, he is the founder of Harvard's Science and Cooking public lecture series — a programme that has drawn over 45,000 live attendees and more than six million YouTube views worldwide.
---
Ben Ebbrell is a co-founder of Sorted Food, one of the UK's most-loved food YouTube channels with nearly 3 million subscribers. A trained chef, he won the Good Food Channel's "next celebrity chef" competition and was named in The Guardian's 30 Under 30 for digital media. Sorted Food has released 7 cookbooks, a popular app, and a range of live shows dedicated to making great cooking accessible to everyone.
----
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction – Harvard's Science & Cooking course
1:49 How it all started: Ferran Adrià comes to Harvard
3:04 Designing the course: chefs meet scientists
4:04 Inside the lab: you can eat your experiment
5:37 The molten chocolate cake and the diffusion equation
7:15 Meet Ben Ebbrell – Sorted Food
13:38 Why chip pan fires are so dangerous (live demo)
15:07 Making herb oil: extracting chlorophyll with heat
19:15 Two liquids become a solid: the science of mayonnaise
22:48 What is an emulsion? Oil, water, and lecithin explained
24:07 Why emulsions turn solid: volume fraction and elasticity
26:12 The equation of the week
---
The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science
and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution
and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science
Listen to the Ri podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ri-science-podcast
Donate to the RI and help us bring you more lectures: https://www.rigb.org/support-us/donate-ri
Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments
Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter
Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.
#scienceofcooking #sortedfood #benebbrell #davidweitz #royalinstitution #harvardscience #foodscience #cookingchemistry #emulsionexplained #howmayonnaiseworks #bakedAlaskascience #cookingphysics #rilecture #whathappenswhenyoucook #kitchenscience