The worlds biggest (and most useless) cookbook.

K

Kunmui

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* New book weighs as much as small child
* Reported $10m price tag to produce
* Features a 30-hour hamburger recipe

WEIGHING in at 18kg, costing $625 and coming in at 2,400 pages- the latest
gourmet guide that foodies are lusting after isn't your average kitchen
cookbook.

The brainchild of Nathan Myhrvold, a multimillionaire tech visionary,
Modernist Cusine is a six-volume behemoth that may be the world?s heaviest
cookbook ever.

Taking 46 people nearly five years to produce in a massive Seattle
warehouse, the incredible six-volume series celebrates the laboratory-
inspired cooking made famous by El Bulli?s Ferran Adria and The Fat Duck?s
Heston Blumenthal.

But just how many people are likely to cook from it given the list of
"must-have tools" includes liquid nitrogen, a centrifuge and a tabletop
homogenizer?

For example, the book?s hamburger recipe involves preparing tomato and
lettuce in a vacuum sealer, shaping hand-ground beef using half-cylinder
moulds and creating restructured cheese with an algae by-product that is
heated and then cooled ? and after all that, you better factor in it?ll
take you 30 hours prep time to get your burger on the table.

Modernist Cuisine is already receiving rave reviews.

?The most astonishing cookbook of our time,? the Wall Street Journal
reviewer wrote.

?Arguably the most beautiful, in-depth, manual of cooking methods ever
published,? Elizabeth Weise from USA Today said in her review.

?The cookbook to end all cookbooks,? New York culinary phenomenon David
Chang said.

Modernist Cuisine by numbers

5 ? years taken to produce books
6 ? the number of volumes
18kg- the weight of the volumes
46 ? number of staff who worked on the project
$625 ? the price tag
1,522 ? the number of recipes
2,438 ? how many pages long
3,216 ? the number of photos
$10 million ? reported cost to produce book




--
Peter Lucas
Hobart
Tasmania

"As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends
and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who
we are.

We are Queenslanders.

We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border.

We're the ones that they knock down, and we get up again."
 
Nancy2 wrote in news:c54720d3-276e-499f-a357-
[email protected]:


cylinder
is




The 'reviews' were all from industry people.

I called it useless based on the fact that you have to kit your kitchen
out like a science lab before even trying some of the recipes, and it
takes *30 hours* to make a hamburger!!


It's OK watching Heston do that sort of stuff, he has the time, patience,
and *money*... but for the ordinary home cook to buy this thing, it'd most
likely be just to become a coffee table talking piece



--
Peter Lucas
Hobart
Tasmania

"As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends
and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who
we are.

We are Queenslanders.

We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border.

We're the ones that they knock down, and we get up again."
 
On Mar 14, 11:20?pm, "I'm back."
wrote:

$10 MILLION to produce??? I hope that means they printed at least half
a mill to justify that budget. Otherwise it sounds like a wasteful
process, IMHO.

Kris
 
Captain Peter Swallows gargled up:



Definitely not for *you*, but for people with curiosity about great food and
a fair amount of cash to spend on cooking (though maybe not quite so much of
either one as Nathan Myhrvold himself), it's a magnum opus.

I read the "Alinea At Home" blog (http://alinieaathome.typepad.com), and its
author had this to say:


=================================BEGIN QUOTE================================

Oh, you guys. Modernist Cuisine? Is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and full and
rich and amazing. There is just so much to read and learn and absorb, and
it's really going to be hard to step away from it and work this week. I mean
it.

There are multiple volumes covering the history and culture of food,
ingredients, science, cooking techniques and fundamentals.... I mean,
everything you ever wanted to know or learn about food is in here. The
photography will take your breath away. It will also instruct you in ways no
other cookbook ever has (or probably could).

But what I found really amazing, and honestly, unexpected, was that there
are many, many things in this book I want to cook. Like, immediately.
Brussels sprouts. Fish. Pistachio consomm?... the list goes on and on and
on. And, I'm here to tell you: much of it is doable in your very own
kitchen. I swear. There are workarounds for gear you don't want to, or
can't, buy. But, trust me: you can cook this food.

I'm not a professional reviewer, but I'm coming at this book from a unique
perspective, I think. I tackled The French Laundry Cookbook as a complete
amateur. And now, I'm cooking my way through Alinea. Better-skilled, yes,
but still: an amateur. I have never gone to culinary school. I have never
taken cooking lessons or classes. I have never worked in a restaurant
kitchen. I am not inherently a creative or craft-driven person. And yet, I
want to learn. There's the adage "write what you know." I find that to be
bollocks. I get bored writing what I know and doing what I know. That's why
Modernist Cuisine is so appealing to me. It's kind of cool that I can leaf
through the book and say to myself: oh, I know how to do that or I've made
that before or that actually looks kind of easy. But you know what? You'd be
able to do the same thing. And, in doing so, you'd learn a hell of a lot
over the many years you'd refer to this book.

There are pages where my brain explodes. Centrifuged pea pur?e? Mussels in
mussel-juice spheres? Edible soap with honey bubbles??? Teach me how to do
that.

And, there are many, many pages that make me hug myself in joy: flourless
gnocchi, deep-fried Brussels sprouts, caramelized carrot soup, risotto
Milanese...

Some people will scoff at this book, whether at the price or the sheer size
of it. Or, that the recipes aren't written in the way they are in most
cookbooks (which, quite frankly, is a refreshing change). Others might be
afraid of it... afraid that it's suggesting a new way to cook and isn't the
way we do it now just fine as it is?

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Mine is that I love this book.
Unabashedly. There is so much to learn, and so much to read. It's the kind
of book I might open on a Thursday morning and think: what can I learn to do
this weekend? What can I cook that I already love? How can I grow? Where can
I improve? Or, I might just drool over the photos. This is a book I will
refer to for years and years and years. I know that already. In fact, I'm
making a space for it in the little mudroom/pantry just off the kitchen
because it doesn't belong on a shelf in the living room or den. It needs to
be read and used, and kept close by.

==================================END QUOTE=================================

Harold McGee (possibly one of the most prominent food scientists in the
world) wrote this about _Modernist Cuisine_: "a landmark contribution to the
craft of cooking and our understanding of its underlying principles. Its
scale, detail, and eye-opening graphics are unmatched by any other book on
the subject. It will be an invaluable resource for anyone with a serious
interest in cooking techniques, whether the professional innovations of the
last few decades or the long traditions on which they build."

Chef David Kinch (of the fantastic Manresa in Los Gatos) wrote this: A
breathtaking new benchmark in understanding cooking. _Modernist Cuisine_ is
destined to be as important a work for the 21st century as Escoffier's _Ma
Cuisine_ was for the 20th century."

The thing is, those reviews were written by people who CARE about
cooking...and some people obviously care more than others. Swallows doesn't
want the set. I'd *love* to have it. As to the cost, Myhrvold himself put it
this way: "_Modernist Cuisine_ costs less per pound than Parmigiano
Reggiano."

Bob
 
And you would think in these days with the amount of recipes available
on the Internet, non-celebrity written cookbooks would be obsolete. I
bet I could find a recipe for Yak Casserole on Google inside of 30
seconds if I desired. I own dozens of cookbooks, but if I want to
find a recipe for Salsa I could either spend a couple hours digging
thru the cookbooks or go online and get a dozen different Salsa
recipes in under a minute.
 
"Michael O'Connor" wrote in news:853fe5ff-af74-442a-
[email protected]:




http://www.theyakranch.com/yak-recipes/


http://www.vermontyak.com/index.php?p=eat


In under 4 seconds.

:-)






http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=&q=recipe+salsa&sourceid=navclient-
ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enAU240AU240&ie=UTF-8


7,180,000 in 0.12 seconds.

Cookbooks are basically defunct.


Especially that big useless tome.


--
Peter Lucas
Hobart
Tasmania

"As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends
and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who
we are.

We are Queenslanders.

We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border.

We're the ones that they knock down, and we get up again."
 
Captain Peter Swallows had to wipe semen off his hands before typing:



For many people, quality is more important than quantity. You are obviously
not in that group.

Bob
 
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