If you were among the lucky few who spent many an evening sitting in a UCLA lecture hall last spring, listening raptly as Dave Chang or Rene Redzepi talked about all the crazy stuff they do in their food labs, then it's time to grab your calendar and email the university again. This year, Professor Amy Rowat is back with her popular UCLA course “Science and Food,” the happy byproduct of which is the series of lectures that the rest of us can attend.

This year's schedule includes an April 17 talk by Brazilian chef Alex Atala, who runs D.O.M. in São Paulo, currently ranked the No. 4 restaurant in the world, and whose specialty is cooking with native Amazonian ingredients. On May 19, Christina Tosi of New York City's Momofuku Milk Bar and Zoe Nathan of Huckleberry here in Los Angeles will give a talk on the invention of desserts. And on April 25, Alice Waters (you know who she is), UCLA professor Wendy Slusser and LAUSD's David Binkle will give a talk on nutrition.

Tickets for each event are free $25 and will be available through UCLA's Central Ticket Office. Please visit www.scienceandfood.org for updates or to sign up for the “Science and Food” mailing list, and follow the latest developments on Twitter (@scienceandfood).

And in related news:

– Q & A With Professor Amy Rowat: Food and Science at UCLA, Danish Gastro-physical Societies + Experimental Cakes

– Rene Redzepi and Lars Williams at UCLA: Seaweed Ice Cream + Cricket Sauce

– David Chang at UCLA: Umami Reverse Engineering + The Joy of MSG

Want more Squid Ink? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.