On November 27, 2012, world-renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé arrived at Harvard University. He brought five chefs, 600 sheets of gelatin, 150 eggs, 68 pounds of caster sugar, 40 pounds of unsalted butter, 11 pounds of grated wasabi, and the alchemic techniques to transform these ingredients into an elaborate “lecture de pâtisserie.” The Architecture of Taste recaptures this night and the physiological effects of Hermé’s pastry visions.