LEAVE heirloom tomatoes to the organic farmers and pork belly to the chefs. In the chemistry department at Rutgers University and other laboratories like it, the real action is in less trendy ingredients like oregano, crab shells and milk.

In a handful of food science labs around the country, people who talk about food in terms of microbes and polymers have been turning the natural pathogen fighters found in everyday food into edible films and powders.

If their work pans out, thin films woven with a thyme derivative that can kill E. coli could line bags of fresh spinach. The same material in powder form might be sprinkled on packages of chicken to stop salmonella.

Strawberries could be dipped in a soup made from egg proteins and shrimp shells. The resulting film — invisible, edible and, ideally, flavorless — would fight mold, kill pathogens and keep the fruit ripe longer.

For average eaters who are still scratching their heads over trans fat, food coated with invisible films that lure bad microorganisms to their death might as well be nuclear fusion. But food scientists believe the potential for using these everyday ingredients to make a safer food supply is huge.

“These natural films are really a very hot topic these days,” said Michael Chikindas, a food scientist working with the team at Rutgers. “The range of applications is endless, from very delicate foods to Army rations and space missions.”

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SERIOUS cooks know they can go off to France and take immersion courses, but until recently, I hadn’t realized that it is possible to take quickie cooking classes: a few hours, a half day or a day.Although I visit Paris often, my visits are short, and I assumed cooking classes would involve a major time commitment. In fact, it is easy to pop into a class, connect with Paris in a different way and, as a bonus, improve your French. (Usually, but not always, there is an English translator.)

The range of choice is so enormous that I decided to explore my options at three principal cooking schools in Paris: École Ritz Escoffier, École Lenôtre and Le Cordon Bleu. All three schools have well organized Web sites, particularly Lenôtre, where classes are given only in French. At Cordon Bleu, amateur classes are translated simultaneously into English, as are many demonstrations; at Ritz Escoffier, everything is translated.

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