Joanne Chang ‘91, owner of Boston’s Flour Bakery and Cafe, discusses the chemistry behind pastry-making on Monday night in the Science Center, as a part of the Science of Cooking community lecture series. As Chang spoke, as many as fifty attendees waited outside due to overcrowding at the event.

Joanne B. Chang ’91, the founder of Flour Bakery, lectured on the science of sweets to an overflowing hall in the Science Center Monday night.

Chang taught the audience members how to make bread, pie crust, cream puffs, and cake, while providing commentary on the chemical interactions that make these pastries delicious as part of the Science and Cooking lecture series.

Chang also used the time to field audience questions—for instance, she answered a question about the process by which bread rises, explaining the chemistry behind yeast and fermentation.

“These are living, one-celled organisms” said Chang. “They start eating all of this food when warmed…and then they start to expel gas,” causing bread to rise. Chang told audience members to think about and understand these interactions to improve their pastries.

Chang, who is well known for her appearance on the television show “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” laughed about how she was tricked into thinking she was filming a new show for the Food Network called “The Science of Sweets” which played on her background as a former applied mathematics and economics concentrator at Harvard.

“She was definitely able to teach a lot about the science of the baking itself, but then also provided a lot of ideas…of how to make something delicious,” said Carlyn R. Mann, who works as a research analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“I love coming to these when I get a chance,” said Helen C. Clark ’15, who said she hopes next year to take Science of the Physical Universe 27: “Science and Cooking” the class behind the lecture series.