Stepping into the laboratory of Lisa Bird ’98 is like walking into a vast aromatic banquet—the air is infused with the scent of garlicky, gingery stir fry, coconut cookies, bratwurst. But the feast is purely for the nose, because the bouquet is contained in several glass vials lined up on the kitchen-like counter.
Bird is a senior principal process flavorist at McCormick and Co., the herb and spice giant famous for seasoning mixes like Old Bay and Montreal Steak Seasoning. Her job in creating liquid and dry flavorings is to add a peanutty crunch to a boring wafer, or to transform an unappealing pile of pea protein into a mouthwatering vegan burger patty.
“What do you think of, what sensations do you have when you bite into a steak? That’s what we’re recreating,” she said.
A chemistry major who started with the company in 1991, Bird returned to UMD to earn her master’s in food science so she could understand, at the molecular level, what makes taste buds sing.
Now that she has that expertise, she mixes the magic in her lab’s reactors—“really expensive pressure cookers,” as she described them. They allow for precise timing, agitation and temperature controls needed for the chemical reactions of cooking. One of about 300 so called “savory chemists” worldwide, Bird specializes in recreating the umami-rich essences of roasted onion, grilled chicken and the like. Once she perfects a flavor, a facility down the street produces it in much larger reactors.
Bird has yet to read the bestselling novel “Lessons in Chemistry,” about a female chemist-turned-TV cooking show star, but like the story’s protagonist Elizabeth Zott, she merges hard science with culinary art. That’s one reason she insists on living with her husband in Baltimore: to have access to the creations of the city’s chefs. “I want to see who’s doing what, what new flavor combinations they think of,” she says. “When I try something new and exciting, I think I become a better chemist.”
by Chris Carroll