Fernando Sapiña, professor of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and researcher if the Institute of Material Science of the Universitat de València. He teaches different courses related to environment and cuisine chemistry. He collaborates with the magazines Mètode and Saó with articles about scientific dissemination. His research field is the preparation of materials with industrial appliances.

Interview

What challenges does participating in this activity have to you?In a conference or when you participate in a round table, the following dialogue with the attendees is, as normal, “directed” by the previous exposed. The challenge that ta Bar of Sciences presents is that the dialogue between experts and public is not “directed” in the same way. There is not a predefined script. The discourse builds itself in situ by the questions of the attendees, the answers of the experts and the ability of the host to guide the dialogue. So, about the question of what challenges my participation in the Bar expose, another question comes to my mind: in what were I thinking when I confirmed my participation in this madness?

What kind of citizen interest do you think that generate the topics that the Bar in which you participate will addresses?Well, daily, I would say that billions of people around the world cook. In our environment we take, at least, three meals a day. We are worried by our slightly overweight, by the rise of child obesity, by the relation between eating habits and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. We are fascinated by the other cuisine and, at the same time, everyday meals simplify/deconstruct.

Fernando Sapiña recommends:

Books:

• Hervé This. La cocina y sus misterios. Ed. Acribia, Zaragoza, 1999.
• Peter Barham. La cocina y la ciencia. Ed. Acribia. Zaragoza, 2003
• Alan Davidson. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 1999
• Harold McGee. On Food and Cooking. Prentice Hall & IBD, 1984

Articles:

• Revista Mètode, núm. 40. Monogràfic: El que mengem: cap a una fisiología molecular del gust. Universitat de Valencia, 2004.