The first time Winnie Chiu went on a date with her future husband, she nearly wrecked the mood.
“These are cultivated blueberries,” she said over the romantic dessert, and went on to explain to him how wild berries are much smaller and less uniform in shape.
Years later, he’s used to being sent back to the grocery store, having bought French vanilla ice cream when she asked for natural vanilla bean. “Go and buy it yourself,” he often says.
Chui, now 46, was passionate about food long before it became her job. But it was only after the Hong Kong native finished a degree in biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Westminster in the U.K. that she figured out how to blend her science skills with a job in food.
After her degree, she heard about a masters in food science at the University of London and thought it would suit her perfectly.
Back in Hong Kong, Chiu got her first job at a flavour company. She spent her days in the kitchen experimenting with natural and artificial flavours in ice cream, muffins, pop and gum.
When the Hong Kong Polytechnic University decided to add a food science program, they asked Chiu to help create the curriculum.
But in 1992, Chiu and her father decided to immigrate to Canada because of the impending changeover of power in Hong Kong, and the fact that the food industry is much larger here. Chiu once again got a job for a flavour company, working on ice cream, frozen yogurt and other treats, and later worked for another company making prepared foods.
At her jobs, she spent her days taking recipes developers and chefs and making them suitable for mass production. That meant establishing precise measurements for things like salt, sugar and flavour, so the food was the same when the recipe was scaled up.
Chiu would do a lot of tasting throughout the day. So she’d make a dozen or more prototypes of the recipe, taste the results, and move onto another food product later to avoid burning out her taste buds.
When she wasn’t cooking and tasting, she was taking meticulous notes on measurements and food costs.
Chiu worked in the food industry in Canada for eight years. In 2005, she got hired by George Brown College to work with culinary and students and teach them how to integrate food science into great cooking.
