"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 3)

[Paul Kierstead]

Three cheers to Jane!!! I'm so happy. Went and checked my bookshelf, sure enough, it was there and indexed.

[LindaK]

Jane, that's terrific. I hadn't bothered to add the ISBN for MC to my EYB bookshelf. But on it goes!

And thanks for the inside scoop on the effort it took to index it, so interesting. Someone on your staff has learned a lot in the process, I imagine.

[nickrey]

Thanks Jane, what a mammoth task!

[Chris Amirault]

That's some fantastic news right there!

[Broken English]

My copy arrived today. Wow, it's going to take me years to get through this thing. It's been amazing just skimming through it thus far.

[ScottyBoy]

Holy mother of god!

My copy came and I'm just lost. Where to start? This thing is a masterpiece!

[ScoopKW]

Holy mother of god!

My copy came and I'm just lost. Where to start? This thing is a masterpiece!

Feeling the same way. I'm not even going to bother for awhile. I simply don't have the time.

[rotuts]

I also waited a bit with my MC. after recovering from back injuries ( ) getting the box inside and open, i waited a little more

then started on the first page. read a little every day. end to end.

[Special K]

I just got my first look at the set - our (high school) librarian just purchased it for the school library on the Science Dept's recommendation (she's definitely one of us). I am just blown away! This is so going on my holiday wish list now that I've actually seen it. And I notice it's now $450.39 (28% off the original price) on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320944557&sr=1-1, so that breaks down to about $90 per book, which is very reasonable for a reference book.

[thayes1c]

Googled Modernist Cuisine first editions today to see what they were selling for and came across a picture of the Spanish edition put out with Taschen. Looks really cool. It's black and the cover photo looks almost like it's in infrared. It's like the sexy European cousin of my white one!

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/3836532581/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

[Broken English]

A fellow cook in the kitchen was asking me about whether she should get Modernist or two El Bulli books. Because I own Modernist, I was advising her to buy the El Bulli books in the hope we could swap each other.

Alas, she got Modernist Cuisine and loves it and I, as a result, will now have to fork out for those El Bulli volumes I've wanted for so long.

[PedroG]

Googled Modernist Cuisine first editions today to see what they were selling for and came across a picture of the Spanish edition put out with Taschen. Looks really cool. It's black and the cover photo looks almost like it's in infrared. It's like the sexy European cousin of my white one!

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/3836532581/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

See modernistcuisine.com/2011/12/foreign-editions-are-in-stock/, available at 399 EUR (about 520 USD) in French, German and Spanish.

Amazon.com has the Spanish edition at 562.50 USD.

[Todd in Chicago]

Folks!

I got a chance to see Chris Young speak about Modernist Cuisine at Chicago Ideas week. He was fantastic! And as luck would have it, got to have a small chat with him when I bumped into him a few blocks away. Very nice guy!

Well as it turns out, Chicago Ideas week posted their videos online. I was lucky enough to be in the second row. Here is a link to Chris Young's speech:

http://www.chicagoideas.com/videos/12

One thing that constantly amazes me is people that can speak to an audience well; a skill that Nathan and Chris both have!

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

[designdog]

Got mine from Amazon yesterday, and am both amazed and disappointed. Amazed, well all of the praise is pretty much true, so no need to repeat it. Here is why I am disappointed:

• As the title, and reputation, states, this is cutting edge cuisine. Sous vide, high tech equipment, etc. but guess what? All that food has to be cut, and there is nothing on kitchen knives. Nada. Unusual, with the focus on other equipment. There is some interesting new technology in knives as well...
  
• After a while I thought they were channeling cook's illustrated. You know, the shocking " the least expensive pan is the best pan," etc. The knock on copper pans, for example, neglected to mention the benefit of rapid temperature response in making pan sauces, etc.
  
• Volume 2 of my edition has several ink smears and an uncut folio page...
  

Still a great effort, but I like Ducasse' Encyclopedia better. Another example of a big and expensive book, and one from which I do not cook the specific recipes, but from which I learn and can apply much to my every day cuisine...

[Judy Wilson]

Got mine from Amazon yesterday, and am both amazed and disappointed. Amazed, well all of the praise is pretty much true, so no need to repeat it. Here is why I am disappointed:

• As the title, and reputation, states, this is cutting edge cuisine. Sous vide, high tech equipment, etc. but guess what? All that food has to be cut, and there is nothing on kitchen knives. Nada. Unusual, with the focus on other equipment. There is some interesting new technology in knives as well...
  
• After a while I thought they were channeling cook's illustrated. You know, the shocking " the least expensive pan is the best pan," etc. The knock on copper pans, for example, neglected to mention the benefit of rapid temperature response in making pan sauces, etc.
  
• Volume 2 of my edition has several ink smears and an uncut folio page...
  

Still a great effort, but I like Ducasse' Encyclopedia better. Another example of a big and expensive book, and one from which I do not cook the specific recipes, but from which I learn and can apply much to my every day cuisine...

designdog, I'm so sorry to hear about the damage to your vol. 2. Please send some photos to info@modernistcuisine.com and we will most likely be able to send you a new copy.

[Fat Guy]

Nothing settles an argument like pulling volume 2 off the shelf and opening it to the parametric recipe for jus.

[designdog]

Thanks! Customer service is not dead!

I will send photos tomorrow.

Note to other post: I think the jus chart was where my pages were joined!

[Michael S.]

Received my copy a couple of days ago, decided to start in book 1 at the microbiology section and there was some glue in the pages which left a couple of tiny white patches right in the middle of the Trichinella poster where the paper tore a it. Nothing major but still disappointing. Anybody else had this, is it normal?

[Michael S.]

The same thing happened in another one of the books, and a lot of the pages seem to be glued together close to the spine so they don't open flat, I can't figure out if that's just how the binding works or is it's an actual issue? It seems fairly inconsistent throughout.

[pep.]

So what's up with the errata? The current list is almost a year old and there is not even a list for the second printing. I asked in the MC forum last October (after I got my book set - the first printing wasn't available in Europe), but I got no response from the MC team. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with the errata policy and the lack of response to my question.

[Chris Hennes]

I think the website version (rather than the PDF) is newer: at least, the two corrections I sent in last week are up there.

[pep.]

I think the website version (rather than the PDF) is newer: at least, the two corrections I sent in last week are up there.

So they just don't bother to update the "Last revised:" date? That's confusing (and someone should really generate a new PDF). But certainly better than nothing.

However, I still think that a list of corrections that actually made it into the second printing is long overdue (or some kind of markup in the main list).

[Shalmanese]

Keep in mind that even bothering to track, let alone publish errata is rare in the cookbook industry.

[pep.]

Keep in mind that even bothering to track, let alone publish errata is rare in the cookbook industry.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the books and I certainly would buy them again! But encouraging high expectations with the website and forum and then not quite managing to meet those expectations is a bit of a letdown.

If they PDF version can't be updated easily or automatically, I think it should be removed or labeled as out of date. If there is a "Last revised" date given on a page, it should be accurate (for ease of maintenance, such a date should always be generated automatically). This is all just good web practice.

[Chris Hennes]

No arguments here, just pointing out that it's possible that the online errata isn't as out of date as it appears.