MikeMac

With all due respect to Nathan Myrhvold and the Modernist Cuisine team, I do find it ironic that a "Modernist" book is only available in a 50+ pound giant hardbound edition. I am in the sad position of having no more space for physical cookbooks, (Gibbs)

I love the books no problem paying but impossible to use due to the size Gibbs is right on with his suggestions about an electronic version so they are more useful.

Thank you for the correction on the e-book subscription service it's a great service and I hope that Modernist Cuisine decides to use it again going forward

I love and own all their books. It's unfortunate Moderenist Cusine's relationship with inking is not going further. The big books are great to look at in fact they live in our front room but using them to cook from or reference sucks. I use my iPad in the kitchen. Hopefully with a purchase they include the right to reference the material digitally.

Pictures of install

Thanks for all the nice comments this is a great way to do Roast Beef just prep the beef and vegetables like the pictures, bit of oil on vegetables then hit overnight roasting I like a finish temp of 120 I usually just season with salt before cooking Love my Rational.

My Rational comes with a probe I use it when doing Crispy Salmon that finishes about 103 I do this so much I had special cedar inserts made up works great. You can also cook by the look of the product as well just use the oven in manual - sort of like driving a sports car do you want a automatic or manual transmission?

I have a Rational installed in my home have not regretted it for one second, go with the gas one that uses standard electrical. Your biggest issue should be drainage and hood venting. Nothing has gone wrong with the Rational so I can not comment about service but if the service department is anything like the on call chef that answers any questions I have it will be amazing. The company makes a point of ensuring you are happy.

OK lots of theory which is appreciated but has anyone purchased a knife and actually used it? What do they have to say?

You can char on induction you are correct it's not as easy as using an open flame use a cast iron pot on full. Usually the max temp allowed by a induction burner is around 500 F so you are right its wimpy. I have a Cooktek unit.

I have both gasand induction. Once you get used to not seeing the flame I am firmly in the induction camp. Only issue is with portable units you are limited to 15 amp 110 V which does the job but takes its time with big pots if you have 220 40 Amp hang on for the rife it's SOO fast you will burn things at first. Only thing induction can not do is light Flambés by just tilting the pan you will need a match.

I have 2 of these units and can only keep one at a time working. The local service guys just cavn not keep them working and the water tray tops crack all the time. But they got me sold on Combi ovens and made me invest in a proper plumbed in a Rational oven. From that point never looked back other than the two units I have sitting in my guarage. If you have good local service and not much room they are OK,

I agree the Chefs Table in Kensington is great !! Wonderful idea well executed that can be enjoyed more than once.

Well the guy who owns it certainly has the money to do it right he developed the area . I personally have not eaten their I have at the previous versions and it was not my favorite I do not like the room. But things change... Calgary is so nice in our short summer maybe checkout Rouge better food or the River Cafe better location IF weather is nice and enjoy our summer.

In 1912 the Stampede was born from the vision of Guy Weadick. Guy was a "working" cowboy and vaudeville entertainer featured in the traveling wild-west shows that were popular world-wide in the early 1900s. Today it's morphed into a two week party celebrating the best of the west. Highlights for me: Cowboys dance hall - opportunity to party with over 5000 of your closest drunken friends. Best but most expensive experience is one of the private suites on the second floor. Easiest thing to order is bottle service. Food and especially wine choices are limited but the staff is friendly and easy to look at. Rodeo - some of the best in the world high dollar prizes so we can attract the top performers both human and livestock Food- basically Beer, BBQ and novelty items from the largest BBQ IN in the world to scorpion pizza many of the novelty food items are not local but travel from fair to fair. Something to try are the free pancake breakfasts all over the city basically show up and get all the free coffee, pancakes and bacon you want. Bigger charity focus- a trend I really like is rather than companies just laying out the food drink and entrainment more and more are asking for a donation to a charity as the price of admission.

Steak done right. TRIB Steakhouse Calgary A big problem in Calgary is the lack of good steak houses. We have the old standbys tired over priced and way over salted that I will not bother naming them. We had a group of twenty in town for Stampede and booked at the TRIB Worked out real well. Juanita was our server, and she is a fantastic, professional and passionate individual, we were are lucky to have her. For wine we did Your wine the Seghesio Zinfandel from Sonoma, CA. The Resturant messed up one steak and a couple of the bottles of wine had something wrong but Juanita and her team not only made things right they did not make a fuss about it. When a Kitchen gets slammed with 20 picky eaters who all want to get served at once mistakes happen Juanita and her team handled thinks really well in fact when the one errant steak came out it was considered by the eater fantastic. I highly recommend the TRIB and further Juanita a lady that really knows her food and wine.

You are right they look like the same product quite tasty but in the Turks and Caicos islands where I eat the large ones nearly every day the only way to make Conch edible to either really pound them or creviche them.The next question is the health qualities of the meat. One school calls it natures wonder food pure lean protein another school says lots of protein but also lots of cholesterol, but does not identify what kind of cholesterol.

This is so cool !! I am a Canadian posting on an American web site learning from someone in CHINA!! I consider Chinese cuisine one of the "mother cuisine's" 3.000 plus years of history in every dish. Its a privilege to learn from you.

Interesting exactly the opposite to the farmed approach where the entire cooking process I used is designed to render most of the fat leaving a very succulent tasty finished product with a crispy skin. How do you cook it? Debone then pan fry?

Our local Asian Superstore has started stocking live baby conch these are maybe 2 inches long I am used to (and love) the big ones. Never eaten the little ones maybe do them up like escargot ? The big conch are tough and need vigorous tenderizing - again no idea how to deal with the little ones.

Interesting how is the wild stuff different than the farm product? Frankly I can not see the farmed product flying around when I cooked them lost 40% by weight and had quite a bit of duck fat. With the wild I would imagine not the same fat content but no "hands on" knowledge.

Duck under used product. Duck is amazing I am not talking the wild stuff with no fat which has spent its life running or flying from its natural enemies Instead the carefully raised farm product. True you loose a lot of the product to fat dripping but what is left is great. Tonight I did nothing to season the duck just set it up and roasted it it up right letting the fat drain out. I lost 40% of the duck by weight but the meat left was amazing served it quartered over a bed of celery root roasted in a bit of the duck fat with Kale and lemon salt. I used the tasty part of lemon rind as well as the lemon juice to brighten up taste. All it needed on top of this was a bit of salt and pepper. Really great.

With out a doubt Japanese food is better in Vancouver than Calgary Tojo's is amazing and regular Japanese restaurants especially sushi bars are cheaper and better in Vancouver. But we in Calgary have some pretty good contenders when you toss out the top few in Vancouver We in Calgary have Shikiji Japanese Noodles & Sushi on Center street and a real old timer going into its second generation of ownership Sushi Hero. In fact its interesting both of these are moving from first generation into second generation ownership. If you come to Calgary I hope you will enjoy these fine restaurants.

I am firmly on the side of induction burners. Use both induction is faster more controllable and produces a lot less heat in the kitchen. Only drawbacks are need separate ignition source for Flambés, and due to electronic Saftey switches I can not modify less tempature than t like for blackening. Of course their is the issue with non magnetic pots and pans I love the look and feel of my copper cookware but as I get older it sure gets a lot heavier. Progress.

At work I use a lot of manuals regulations and reference guides. In my travels I used to lug some of this around then I loaded it on my iPad and not only is the material always upto date it's always accessible and searchable. Fantastic Same with cooking I do not like buying cook books unless they come out as ebooks. I am a huge fan of Modernist Cuisine. I like the inking app with Modernist Cuisine at Home. I like the "original" Modernist. Cuisine even better but it's so big and hard to reference I tend to not use it much. In terms of my iPad getting dirty - who cares? Electronics are disposable items use it abuse it the apple warranty is great and when it runs out just buy a new one. The key for me is easy access to the reference material. I am not big into fancy pictures bit I a huge into under sting the SICENCE behind the cooking process and making sure I use it to achieve my desired results. Tonight crispy salmon !!!!