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Modernist Cuisine; the $625 cookbook.

post #1 of 233
2/15/11 at 5:39am
Thread Starter 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...978673570.html

Quote:
Here's the recipe for the most astonishing cookbook of our time: Take one multimillionaire computer genius, a team of 36 researchers, chefs and editors and a laboratory specially built for cooking experiments. After nearly four years of obsessive research, assemble 2,400 pages of results into a 47-pound, six-volume collection that costs $625 and requires four pounds of ink to print.

Uhh, so who's gonna buy this thing?
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post #2 of 233
2/15/11 at 5:58am
I want it. Just don't know how and where I'll get it. It'd be like $900+ in my country if I order it at the importers. :\\
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post #3 of 233
2/15/11 at 10:03am
For realz?

PROBLEM #5: You want homemade chicken stock, but you don't have eight hours to kill.

SOLUTION: Chop small to chop time.

Pulse the ingredients (typically, carrot, onion and celery) in a food processor until very finely diced; remove vegetables, add boneless chicken pieces and puree. Chop chicken wings into tiny pieces. Brown all the chicken, then add vegetables and cover with water. Simmer for an hour. The stock will attain the same flavor it would have taken 8 hours with large chunks.

WHAT'S GOING ON: "Fick's first law of diffusivity" is at work. This principal indicates that flavor molecules have a shorter distance to travel if the pieces of food are smaller, and thus will be extracted more quickly.
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post #4 of 233
2/15/11 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mm84321 View Post
Uhh, so who's gonna buy this thing?

Like the Fat Duck book, there'll be a cheaper edition within a year or two - the big, expensive one establishes it and gets the early adopters and professionals, then the casual reader can pick up the paperback.
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post #5 of 233
2/15/11 at 2:04pm
it doesn't take 8 hours to make chicken stock. maybe if you're making 10 gallons, but i usually get all the flavor off the carcasses in like 3-4 hours i think.
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post #6 of 233
2/15/11 at 9:24pm
just had lunch with him. interesting guy.
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post #7 of 233
2/15/11 at 10:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
just had lunch with him. interesting guy.

Quote:
But the news that his new cookbook "Modernist Cuisine" had cracked the Amazon Hot 100 Tuesday had him practically going into orbit. And why not? Who would have expected a six-volume, $625 cookbook to be so popular?

Even more amazing -- those are all on pre-order. There are currently only nine copies of the book available in the United States, Myhrvold says. The rest are being shipped from the printers in China ("on a very slow boat," he jokes).

Now I want a copy!
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post #8 of 233
2/16/11 at 4:48pm
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Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
just had lunch with him. interesting guy.

have you had a chance to flip through the book? if so, thoughts?
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post #9 of 233
2/16/11 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Even more amazing -- those are all on pre-order. There are currently only nine copies of the book available in the United States, Myhrvold says. The rest are being shipped from the printers in China ("on a very slow boat," he jokes).
I bet two dollars this guy gets arrested within the year. Little says "scam" louder than "pre-orders".
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post #10 of 233
2/16/11 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnGalt View Post
have you had a chance to flip through the book? if so, thoughts?
i have skimmed the first volume. it's interesting stuff. have flipped through some of the rest and it's either brilliant or lunatic. very high finish, though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by harvey_birdman View Post
I bet two dollars this guy gets arrested within the year. Little says "scam" louder than "pre-orders".
you do understand that he is the former CFO of microsoft, right? this is definitely NOT a for-profit project.
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post #11 of 233
2/16/11 at 5:01pm
^^are you saying all preorder books are a scam?
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post #12 of 233
2/16/11 at 5:01pm
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Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
you do understand that he is the former CFO of microsoft, right? this is definitely NOT a for-profit project.

Madoff was chairman of NASDAQ.
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post #13 of 233
2/16/11 at 5:11pm
They have 50 pages alone on coffee:

Quote:
Supposedly the coffee chapter of the upcoming megacookbook Modernist Cuisine is particularly mind-blowing; curious, we asked to speak to one of its authors, Chris Young. The man is certainly passionate about his coffee; so passionate, in fact, that we had to break the interview into two chunks. Today's portion: why great restaurants have bad coffee, exactly how nerdy we can expect Modernist Cuisine to be, and how it got to be that way.

http://eater.com/archives/2010/12/08...-damn-long.php

You've got to love it.

--Andre
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post #14 of 233
2/16/11 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by harvey_birdman View Post
I bet two dollars this guy gets arrested within the year. Little says "scam" louder than "pre-orders".
I'll take that bet.
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post #15 of 233
2/16/11 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by foodguy View Post
you do understand that he is the former CFO of microsoft, right? this is definitely NOT a for-profit project.
CTO. A finance type wouldn't nearly be as interesting. The man also has patents (along with Bill Gates) on how to suppress hurricanes. --Andre
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