Harold McGee: Difference between revisions

| name = Harold McGee

| birth_name = Harold James McGee

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| image = File:Harold_McGee.jpg

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| caption = Harold McGee at a book signing in [[Washington,= D.C.]]McGee in (2010)

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|10|03|}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Harold McGee|url=http://www.cooksinfo.com/harold-mcgee|website=CooksInfo|access-date=22 August 22, 2015}}</ref>

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| nationality = American

| fields = {{Plainlist|

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| thesis_title = Keats and the Progress of Taste

| thesis_url = http://search.proquest.com/docview/302889235/

| thesis_year = 1978

| doctoral_advisor = [[Harold Bloom]]<ref name=phd/>

| known_for = ''[[On Food and Cooking]]''<ref name=ofac/><ref name=ibiomagazine>
*{{YouTube|id=I9rvFn6cd4o|title=Harold McGee (Food science writer): On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen}}, iBioMagazine</ref>

| influencedawards = {{Plainlist|

'''Harold James McGee''' (born October 3, 1951) is an American author who writes about the [[chemistry]] and history of [[food science]] and [[cooking]]. He is best known for his seminal book ''[[On Food and Cooking|On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen]]'', first published in 1984<ref name=ofac>''[[On Food and Cooking|On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen]]'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-684-18132-0}}</ref> and revised in 2004.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4242671 Food Scientist Harold McGee: 'On Food'], NPR December 2004</ref><ref>[http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3804.html Cooking with IEEE Spectrum: Harold McGee]</ref><ref name=eggwhites>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold J.|last2=Long|first2=Sharon R.|last3=Briggs|first3=Winslow R.|title=Why whip egg whites in copper bowls?|journal=Nature|volume=308|issue=5960|year=1984|pages=667–668|doi=10.1038/308667a0|bibcode=1984Natur.308..667M|s2cid=4372579}}</ref><ref name=curious>{{cite web |url=http://www.curiouscook.com/site/about-harold-mcgee.html |title=About Harold McGee |last1=McGee |first1=Harold |date=2015 |archive-date=2014-12-December 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228142626/http://www.curiouscook.com/site/about-harold-mcgee.html}}</ref>

McGee was born on 3 October 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Louise (Hanney) and Charles Gilbert McGee,<!-- www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/mcgee-harold-1951 --> and raised in Elmhurst, Illinois.<!-- www.cooksinfo.com/harold-mcgee --> He was educated at the [[California Institute of Technology|California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech)]], initially to studystudying [[astronomy]],<ref name=ibiomagazine/><ref name=qna>{{cite journal|last1=Cressey|first1=Daniel|title=Q&A with Harold McGee: The molecular master chef|journal=Nature|volume=458|issue=7239|year=2009|pages=707|doi=10.1038/458707a|pmid=19360069|doi-access=free}}</ref> but graduating with a B.S. in [[Literature]] in 1973. He went on to do a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] on the [[romantic poetry]] of [[John Keats]] supervised by [[Harold Bloom]] at [[Yale University]], graduating in 1978.<ref name=phd>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Harold James|last=McGee |title=Keats and the Progress of Taste|publisher=Yale University |date=1978 |id={{ProQuest|302889235}}}}</ref><ref name=curious/>

Before becoming a food science writer, McGee was a literature and writing instructor at Yale. McGeeHe has also written for ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'',<ref name=kurti>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|title=Food science: With pipette and ladle|journal=Nature|volume=480|issue=7378|year=2011|pages=452–453|doi=10.1038/480452a|bibcode=2011Natur.480..452M|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=festive>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|title=Chemistry: A festive ferment|journal=Nature|volume=504|issue=7480|year=2013|pages=372–374|doi=10.1038/504372a|pmid=24352277|bibcode=2013Natur.504..372M|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=takingstock>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|journal=Nature|volume=400|issue=6739|year=1999|pages=17–18|doi=10.1038/21775|title=Taking stock of new flavours|pmid=10403241|bibcode=1999Natur.400...17M|s2cid=31829606|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=veritas>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|journal=Nature|volume=392|issue=6677|year=1998|pages=649–650|doi=10.1038/33528|pmid=9565025|title=In victu veritas|bibcode=1998Natur.392..649M|s2cid=4383793}}</ref><ref name=gluttons>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|title=Trials of the gluttons for punishment|journal=Nature|volume=326|issue=6116|year=1987|pages=907–908|doi=10.1038/326907a0|bibcode=1987Natur.326..907M|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=safersauces>{{cite journal|last1=Mcgee|first1=Harold|title=Recipe for safer sauces|journal=Nature|volume=347|issue=6295|year=1990|pages=717|doi=10.1038/347717a0|pmid=2234048|bibcode=1990Natur.347..717M|s2cid=4348407|doi-access=free}}</ref> ''[[Health (magazine)|Health]]'', ''[[The New York Times]]'', the ''[[World Book Encyclopedia]]'', ''The Art of Eating'', ''[[Food & Wine]]'', ''[[Fine Cooking]]'', and ''[[Physics Today]]''.<ref name=heattransfer>{{cite journal|last1=McGee|first1=Harold|last2=McInerney|first2=Jack|last3=Harrus|first3=Alain|title=The Virtual Cook: Modeling Heat Transfer in the Kitchen|journal=Physics Today|volume=52|issue=11|year=1999|pages=30|doi=10.1063/1.882728|bibcode=1999PhT....52k..30M}}</ref> andHe has lectured on kitchen chemistry at cooking schools, universities, Thethe [[Oxford Symposia on Food and Cookery]], the [[Denver Museum of Nature and Science|Denver Natural History Museum]], and the [[Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory]]. For a brief time he wrote a regular column for the ''[[New York Times]]'', ''The Curious Cook'', which examined, and often debunked, conventional kitchen wisdom.<ref>''The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore'' (1990) {{ISBN|0-86547-452-4}},</ref><ref>''[[On Food and Cooking|On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen]]'' (2004) {{ISBN|0-684-80001-2}}</ref><ref>''Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes'' (2010) {{ISBN|0-340-96320-4}}, a compendium of practical information on food and cooking.</ref><ref>''Modern gastronomy A to Z : a scientific and gastronomic lexicon'' (2010) {{ISBN|978-1-4398-1245-7}}</ref><ref>[http://arrow.dit.ie/oxfor/9/ Harold McGee interview] by [[Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire]] (Oxford Oral History Project)</ref> His latest book is ''[[Nose dive: a field guide to the world's smells]]'' (2020).<ref>''Nose dive: a field guide to the world's smells'' (2020) {{ISBN|978-1-5942-0395-4}}</ref>.

With [[Dave Arnold]] and [[Nils Norén]], McGee teaches a three-day class, ''The Harold McGee Lecture Series'', at Thethe [[French Culinary Institute]] in New York City.

McGee is a visiting scholar at [[Harvard University]].<ref name=ibiomagazine/>

His book ''[[On Food and Cooking]]'' has won numerous awards and is used widely in [[food science]] courses at many universities.

McGee's scientific approach to cooking has been embraced and popularized by chefs and authors such as [[David Chang]].<ref name=blumenthal>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04l065d BBC Radio 4 Food Programme: A Life through Food with Harold McGee], [[BBC]], October 13, 2014</ref> and [[J. Kenji López-Alt|J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]].<ref>{{Cite book |date=April 19, 2016 |title=The food lab: better home cooking through science }}</ref> <!-- each name-drop NEEDS a source: [[Alton Brown]], [[Heston Blumenthal]] [[Shirley Corriher]], [[Lynne Rossetto Kasper]] and [[Russ Parsons]]. -->

McGee married his college girlfriend [[Sharon R. Long|Sharon Rugel Long]] on July 7, 1979; they divorced in 2004. They had two children, son John (born 1986) and daughter Florence (born 1988).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2004/2004_11_19.mcgee19ja.shtml |title = A chemist in the kitchen (November 19, 2004)}}</ref>