Series features Brie Larson as recipe author chemist – 10/16/2023 – Food

“A Question of Chemistry”, a series recently launched on Apple TV +, tells the story of Elizabeth Zott, played by Brie Larson. She is a brilliant chemist but resentful of the lack of recognition. Due to life’s setbacks, she needs to cook to support herself.

Until then, it could be a feminist version of “Breaking Bad”. It is not. Unlike Mr. Walter White, Miss Zott has food in the pot. Sabotaged by men in suits in a laboratory in Los Angeles, she becomes the star of a culinary show on TV — live, with an auditorium and in black and white.

A cooking show needs food. A series about a cooking show too. Providing this production is complex and requires specialized professionals. That’s the role of Courtney McBroom, food consultant on “A Question of Chemistry.”

Texan McBroom built her reputation working with David Chang, a famous New York chef. She was culinary director at Momofuku Milk Bar and wrote two books for the restaurant before moving on to consult.

In “A Question of Chemistry”, McBroom was responsible for the conception and execution of the recipes that appear in the episodes, in addition to acting as a stunt double for Brie Larson (“Captain America”), her friend.

“The hands that appear in the close-up scenes are mine”, says McBroom in an interview with Folha. So the cook in the series doesn’t know how to do scratching? “She cooks very well”, explains the consultant.

It turns out that the shots in question, taken from above, close on hands that cut vegetables quickly and with professional technique. Assuming that Brie Larson should have done them is like wanting Adrien Brody to become a concert artist to perform in “The Pianist.”

Courtney waves her hands at the camera and jokes, “These are my money-making machines.” The consultant’s contribution, no matter how beautiful and skilled her hands may be, goes further.

“I work with writers, producers and cast to decide what the food will be, its appearance and its role in the plot,” he says. “Then we prepare the food, physically speaking, and arrange it on set.”

This joint work with the entire team, far from being exclusive to Courtney or this production, has been common in series in which the kitchen plays a relevant role.

In “The Bear” (Star +), a series that takes place almost entirely inside a restaurant, there are two culinary consultants. One is Matty Matheson —chef, restaurant owner, executive producer of the series and interpreter of the character Fak.

For the series “Hannibal” (Amazon Prime Video), Spanish chef José Andrés, at the head of a group of restaurants, faced the task of creating dishes that were appetizing, but reminiscent of human flesh — the specialty of the character Hannibal Lecter, murderer and cannibal.

McBroom’s challenge for “A Question of Chemistry” was to create a collection of savory and sweet treats that seemed plausible for 1950s America. “I’m a big fan of that period and I have a collection of old cookbooks,” she says. “I was already versed in this type of cuisine.”

The production of protagonist Elizabeth Zott, however, seems somewhat advanced for its time. The character even criticizes, without using the term, the consumption of ultra-processed food — a concept formulated decades later.

“We needed to make decisions,” says the consultant. “We knew Elizabeth was a woman ahead of her time, so we wanted her cooking to be fresher and more vibrant.”

McBroom states that, contrary to the culinary habits of the time, he designed recipes for the protagonist made from scratch, without resorting to shortcuts such as pre-prepared foods. For lasagna, for example, she follows the traditional Bolognese ragu recipe, a sauce of beef and pork, vegetables, wine and milk, something no Californian would do in the post-war period.

“There was great food in the 1950s, don’t get me wrong,” he says. “But a lot of the cuisine prioritized convenience, with canned food and things like that.”

To deliver the food that appears on screen, McBroom and his team needed a structure to be set up at the back of the apparent scenery. “We had a full professional kitchen, with torches and lots of ovens.”

In addition to Courtney and her cooks, another professional category provided consultancy behind the scenes of “A Question of Chemistry”: chemists, obviously.

The series is punctuated by dialogues with amino acids, nucleotides and a multitude of technical terms that the viewer will probably hear and float. That’s okay, you don’t need to understand them to follow the story.

But the team needed to have some idea so that Elizabeth Zott could mix onions and molecules without making mistakes. To insert chemistry into the culinary context, McBroom submitted the content to validation by scientific consultants. “And there’s Google too,” he laughs. “It’s a great tool.”