Not a Teaspoon More!

In New Orleans, young food scientists approach cuisine with a new level of precision

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For all its happy saints and sinners, New Orleans does not immediately recommend itself as a similar refuge for tradition-tampering scientists. Oh, you’re here to save the coast? Come on in. Hired to train up a new generation of doctors at Tulane? Well, why didn’t you say so, dear? 

But if you’re one of those scientists, those flimsy authorities prominent in splashy, topsy-turvy nutrition headlines—“Scientists Say Gumbo Should Only Be Made With Tomatoes, for the Anti-Oxidants” ... “This 108-Year-Old Scientist Stirs Roux Into Her Morning Coffee”—not so fast, bub. (Unless, wait, did you say King Cake is a Superfood?)

If you can believe it, some food scientists aim to lower blood pressure, not raise it. Somewhere beyond the vertiginous wilds of clickbait, vital work in the fields of sustainability, wellness, and food safety can be found. Now a new program at the University of Holy Cross on New Orleans’ West Bank offers food science studies to those looking to innovate and nourish at once.

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Established in 2015, UHC’s food science program is only the second such curriculum at a private school after Drexel University in Philadelphia. In the program’s dedicated laboratory—once the laundry room for nuns training to become teachers—stainless steel tables and sterile equipment have replaced stained wimples and sodden tunics. Gone are the good sisters, but here come the scrupulous students, led by program director Dr. Darryl Holliday as they brew and bubble their way from the fundamentals of food science to culinary chemistry to paid internships and possible permanent positions with the likes of Zatarain’s and Smoothie King.

"With my nutrition background, I felt that I could tell people all day long how they should eat and what’s good for their bodies,” she said, “but with food science, I can make products for these people.”

Food science programs are nothing new, but Holliday cites a focus on job placement that sets UHC apart from land-grant colleges like LSU who more often steer their students down research paths. Senior Cierra Varnado landed an internship at BEC Beverage in Slidell last year; now she works in product development and as a supervisor of quality assurance at the co-packing plant. She’ll continue the job when she graduates from UHC in August with a culinology degree, a marriage between culinary arts and food science. 

For Varnado, a lifelong New Orleanian, great flavor is not born of machismo, tradition, or even love. It’s a formula; tweaking the elements of a dish has been a passion of hers since high school days at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She enrolled in Nicholls State University’s renowned culinary arts school, but the university had recently discontinued the research & development track. “One of my teachers told me about University of Holy Cross’ food science program,” said Varnado. In 2017, she transferred from Nicholls with an associate’s degree in culinary arts.  She found her knowledge of knives and flavors helped in UHC classes, but food was approached with a new level of precision. “In my Nicholls classes, we used tablespoons and cups. Here at UHC, everything has to be in grams.” 

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Emily Alexander transferred in as well, finishing her nutrition degree at University of Louisiana at Lafayette before embarking on another undergraduate degree at UHC. “I could have gotten a Master’s,” said Alexander, “but food science was so new to me. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could.”

While still a nutrition student, she’d met Holliday during her internship at Ochsner Eat Fit NOLA, an organization that works with the city’s restaurants to increase healthy menu options. As Holliday helped Eat Fit NOLA in developing a product for a client, Alexander saw her ambitions shift. “I didn’t just want to be a registered dietitian. I wanted to do more with food.”

She appreciates the labs and hands-on lectures at UHC. “Dr. Holliday makes sure we have all the equipment needed to do different kinds of testing. We get an actual feel of the machinery,” said Alexander.

In addition to classes that teach coveted skills like winemaking and fat assessments, UHC nudges students into competition. Experiments that shine in the classroom should do just as well under real-world stresses and delight more than professorial palates. Last spring, Varnado and Alexander attended the Research Chefs Association in Savannah; in the student competition, the pair were to concoct an all-natural foodstuff using a byproduct. “We made ‘Sweet Nothings’: a no-sodium, low-carb cracker that used coffee flour, which comes from the coffee cherry pulp.” Coffee plants sprout cherries; consumers most often enjoy the pit, or bean—roasted, percolated, and gulped down ferociously—while the pulp sludges off to the landfill. But made into a flour, then combined with spices, coconut oil, sweet potato, and ricotta, and finally dehydrated into a cracker, the pulp has a delicious use. The judges thought so, anyhow, awarding Varnado and Alexander second place for their creation.

New Orleans residents will benefit, like anyone, from breakthroughs in food waste, but more immediately exciting may be the contract work UHC does with cooks of all calibers. “People bring us old family recipes they’d like to bottle and mass produce,” said Holliday. Even Chef Tory McPhail, of Commander’s Palace, worked with UHC to translate the restaurant’s popular sauces into shelf-ready bottles, without sacrificing the superb quality upon which Commander’s banks its reputation.

“New Orleans food is so unique in itself because of the cultural influences. But making a healthier version won’t get rid of the flavor we all know. We can smell the flavor in the streets.”  

With her new pedigree, Varnado hopes to one day revolutionize the dog food industry. She’s inspired by the expensive diet prescribed to her late dog, Prince, when he suffered from gallstones. “It was sixty dollars for twelve cans of dog food. He’d eat one can in two days. People can’t afford that.”

“Cheap foods are actually bad for the dog, though,” added Varnado. “I’m still developing the idea, but my company will make a tasty, cost-effective food. We can solve that problem.”

Alexander dreams of healthy alternatives too. “With my nutrition background, I felt that I could tell people all day long how they should eat and what’s good for their bodies,” she said, “but with food science, I can make products for these people.”

Though she won’t graduate from UHC until May, Alexander already has a position with Smoothie King, an internship that evolved into a full-time role as a research & development coordinator. “I do a multitude of things: product development of smoothies, reformulation of ingredients, extensive work on the nutritional boards we have in stores.”

Another New Orleans native, her love for food came from watching her father, particularly after Katrina when he stirred cast-iron cauldrons of local classics for volunteers. “He loves going into the kitchen with me now,” said Alexander. “He’s taught me everything since I was a baby. Now I’m teaching him.”

The young food scientist doesn’t shrink at the thought of tinkering with beloved dishes. “Flavor is always there. Flavor can be mimicked,” said Alexander. “New Orleans food is so unique in itself because of the cultural influences. But making a healthier version won’t get rid of the flavor we all know. We can smell the flavor in the streets.”  

uhcno.edu