Last night, Savoy chef and local foods champion Peter Hoffman gave a presentation at the Museum of Natural History on the role of water in sustainable farming, in conjunction with the ongoing Water: H2O = Life exhibit (now through May 25). We missed it too, but found some similar upcoming events. Call it the Mr. Wizard meets Escoffier edition- these food happenings deal with the intersections of ingredients, science, and art.

Experimental Cuisine Collective
While today’s afternoon meeting of the chef-scientist group at the NYU Food Studies Department, featuring baker and author Rose Levy Beranbaum doing a laboratory-grade angel food cake demo, is booked solid, it’s worth joining the ECC’s mailing list to get first word on the group’s future meetings. Members (and founders) include NYU’s Amy Bentley, chefs Will Goldfarb and Wylie Dufresne; French scientist Hervé This brought the house down last November with a talk on kitchen technology, and a small bowl of mayonnaise. Dan Barber may or may not be speaking about boar castration at the group’s March meeting. (ECC meetings are free)

January 25: Caitlin Berrigan
We interviewed artist Caitlin Berrigan last spring about her “Viral Confections” project, which involves chocolates cast in silicon molds generated from 3D electron microscopy imaging of the Hepatitis C virus. At 7 PM on January 25th in the Lower Gallery at the Whitney, Berrigan will talk about her work and present “Hepatophagy,” which the artist explains is “based on the Brazilian Anthropophagists of the 1960's.” Collectable take-home livers, modeled on Berrigan’s own, cast with La Tène chocolate and presented on equally collectable Delftware plates, will be given out. (Free with museum admission- Friday nights are “pay-what-you-wish,” however. Reserve tickets here)

Photo: Viral Confections, courtesy Caitlin Berrigan