"Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 2)

[runwestierun]

The price tag is completely different, but I'd look at how many copies have been sold of "On Food and Cooking" since its first edition to the present day. And I'd venture that the demand for MC will be significantly higher.

I just ordered from Amazon.com since I'm tired of Amazon.ca excuses. Any chance that my order would still be fulfilled with the first edition? Or is it too late for that?

I did exactly the same thing 3 days ago. Keep your .ca order because I already got a delay on my .com order. The .ca order says it's coming earler. Just race them against each other.

[pedro]

Just trying to get the book asap, not making demand estimates harder on purpose...

[Chris Amirault]

I think that what we might call the "holy crap" effect is very strong here, especially when you can see the volumes themselves. Every -- and I mean every -- chef or Johnson & Wales professor who has seen my copy has immediately ordered it (or had already). One wrote that after seeing it he realized that every serious professional had to have this in their library, and I think that's the effect it's having out there. (Not just for the el Bulli/Alinea/Noma types, either; he is a bread guy.) That suggests to me that growth will increase as copies make their way into people's hands, and especially in shared or public environments.

I've heard many people hope out loud that their library will have a copy. Have you any sense of whether that's been happening, Nathan?

[nathanm]

Libaries traditionally order order books through specialized channels, not thorough normal bookstores. The system frankly seems a bit anachronistic in the Internet age, but that is mostly still how it is done. This is discussed here and here.

I don't think that we have had a lot of orders we can trace to libraries yet. I expect it will take a while for librarians to learn about the book and order through their channels. The web sites above say that a lot depends on whether the librarians see demand, so asking the book at your library would probably help.

I hope that we will get library orders, so people who can't afford the book will get access to it.

[Borgstrom]

I have to agree that Amazon shipping estimates for MC were not very accurate. I ordered from Amazon.com on August 15, and was initially given a March 9 delivery estimate. Then on March 8, they changed the estimate to April 18. On March 10, they said it had shipped with a delivery of March 14. I actually got it on March 12!

The first thing I noticed when opening the very heavy package was the quality (and "greenness") of the packaging engineering. While most things you have shipped by mail are protected by thick blocks of non-recyclable styrofoam, MC came double boxed with an extra layer of very solid but lightweight honeycombed cardboard blocks, cleanly wrapped in brown paper. While all of this packaging can be easily recycled, it's of such good quality I'm wondering how I (or my school-aged daughter) could re-use it for some other project.

So far I've flipped though a few a the books, and read a few of the sections. I'm overwhelmed! There seems to be a whole culinary school's worth of information here. Actually, it will be interesting to see how cooking schools will fit this into their curriculums. I wonder if reading MC and doing lots of hands-on experimental work at home could approach a culinary school education. If so, the cost of the book is a real bargain!

After I get through the "flipping-through" phase, I'll need to come up with a strategy to actually read and try to absorb the whole thing. What approach would work best? Just start on page 1 of volume 1 and work your way through?

Edited March 13, 2011 by Borgstrom (log)

[hapacooking]

I would go with 25k or even 30K. This is based on a few general assumptions.

1) Demand will definitely increase for the holiday season as the word gets out. It is a perfect gift. A $450 book makes Christmas shopping an somewhat painless task. One gift, done. I have had my copy of MC for about a week and several friends and acquaintances who have seen it at my house already mentioned that it will be great holiday gift even all of them are casual chefs, at best. Small sample size but 15 people looked at the book, unprovoked, 8 of them definitely said it would be on their want list or would get it.

2) I have shown it to quite a few friends who are not chefs but are engineers and techies and they could not put the book down. I assume that once the word spreads in SIlicon Valley lots of techies will be ordering it. Once you get the Google crowd get exposed to it, watch out.

3) With the concerns of printing, availability of raw materials and services and shipping delays from the recent seismic activity in that part of the world, as well as the continuing uncertainty in that part of the world in the coming months, I would order a larger amount. If you get stuck with extra copies, I am sure that if you put them in the local San Jose Costco, they will be sold within days.

I could be wrong but sometimes you have to shoot from the gut.

[Chris Hennes]

What approach would work best? Just start on page 1 of volume 1 and work your way through?

I've personally found the book to be very well organized: if you start at the beginning each thing you learn as you go builds on stuff they told you earlier (this is most important considering the information on water). I started at page 1 volume 1 and have been plowing straight through (with the occasional detour to actually cook something: recipes don't show up until later on).

[Chris Amirault]

I agree with Mr. Hennes, and have devoted a lot of time to the volume 1, page 1: onward! project. However, the remarkable organization, and particularly cross-referencing, of the volumes also lends itself to the sort of hyperlinked experience that you usually only find in quality wikis or other digital environments. Today, for example, my FoodSaver gave up the ghost, and in one 30 minute stretch with three volumes at hand I learned more about pressure, vacuum and chamber sealers, what boiling means, plastics, and probably seven other things than I knew before I cracked 'em open.

[FoodMan]

The claim that modernism is imploding is more of a leap than the evidence can support.

El Bulli is not closing as in going out of business. It is closing to retool as part of a nonprofit foundation and the planned reopening is for 2014. It goes into its hiatus as the top restaurant in the world -- not because, for example, the clientele got old and the food got boring.

Achatz and Kokonas are opening an arguably non-modernist restaurant (if anything it is postmodern), Next, but Alinea is still going strong. Alinea and Achatz are currently emphasizing the emotional component of food, and it's true that Achatz in public appearances is saying we're moving beyond modernism, but the Alinea kitchen remains resolutely non-traditional and high-tech.

That 6,000 copies of this $500 book have been snapped up is just amazing. That the current internal debate is whether to order 20,000 or 25,000 more is pretty strong evidence that modernism is not imploding. Rather, it seems to evidence that the trickle down has been profound in its extent. Home cooks using the Sous Vide Supreme, etc.

Exactly, concerning El Bulli, it is not "dying" or going out of business! I just read Adria's interview in this month's Saveur and he underlines the fact that El Bulli is evolving and probably getting more influential over the next few years. Here is a link to the article: Adria's Second Act

Is it true you are closing El Bulli?" I ask.

"No, no!" he exclaims. "Our new plans will be a beginning, not an end." El Bulli's last meal will be served on July 31 of this year, but after that, he explains, the space will be used for his new educational foundation, which the Spanish telecom giant Telefónica is helping to fund. It will be a gathering place for the culinary world—not just cooks but sommeliers, front-of-house professionals, writers, and, eventually, diners—to experiment with foods and the ideas they spark. It will be far more think tank than culinary academy, Adrià adds; at the end of each day, participants will go online to discuss their experiences with the wider world. "It's all about sharing, about letting the mind take flight," he says.

I really like his last comment as well

"We are so lucky," he says to me. "Just to eat is a gift."

I for one am looking forward to see what he comes up with next.

On the MC front, my books are supposed to ship this week and I have not received any delay notes yet...fingers crossed.

[ermintrude]

AaronM makes a good point. People love to identify new trends, or claim that trends are over. Being late to recognize a trend isn't very special, so people tend to jump the gun.

In MC chapter 1 I discuss an article by Gael Greene from New York Magazine in 1981. In it she says that Nouvelle Cusine is "over, finee, mort, dead". It is the sort of broad prouncement that journalists love to make, especially those who position themselves as jaded sophisticates. Instead of being dead, Nouvelle went to in inspire a generation of American chefs.

And you can call it a trend, but with "Nouvelle Cuisine" it eventually became seen in the media as ridiculous and associated with high prices, small portions and pretension. E.g. $50 for 1/2 a scallop and a cauliflower floret with three peas. And in most punters eyes nouvelle cuisine died but as we know it didn't and has had a profound influence.

In the same way I expect "Molecular Gastronomy" (and I know most chefs hate that) to go the same way, as the press portrays it as strange odd and disturbing, and I expect it to fade away and I hope I will not see 1/2 a cauliflower covered in scallop foam with 27 spherified peas on a menu! Perhaps Modernist will survive that cull, however the tools and techniques and an appreciation of science are moving into kitchens everywhere.

In 5 years time, I would expect not see Molecular or Modernist as a description of a restaurant menu as things would have moved on. Like with nouvelle cuisine the good will be absorbed and the bad discarded. Some modernist techniques can be radical (even the malard reaction to some people) so will take time or be distorted but while McGee laid the foundation, I feel (And April 6) this could be a game changer as if MC gets chefs and cooks going trying things then it could cause some fundamental shifts of opinion and technique.

Edited March 13, 2011 by ermintrude (log)

[OliverB]

I must say the spherified pea is so silly that I'd actually want to taste one! Take a sphere, work it for hours and then make a sphere.

I do think it could be interesting in ways though, like the French Laundry carrot soup, where each spoons is the extract of at least one carrot. Intenify the pea-ness and sphere it. Could be interesting.

While I've yet have to make a sphere, I have the chemicals and plan more on doing the unexpected like something that looks like a pea but tastes like bacon, goofing around in the kitchen basically.

[blackp]

I jumped ship from Amazon.com in October and placed an order on Amazon Canada to save $100. At the time both sites had the same shipping dates. According to the second delay notification I received my copy is now due to ship on April 14.

It seems to me that there are some folk who ordered from Amazon.com this year who already have their deliveries while those of us with orders months older at Amazon.ca are still waiting.

My greatest concern is that after placing my initial order in June last year I could miss out on print-run one - this would be bad enough, but would be even worse if the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan meant that the second print run was on different paper as Nathan hinted.

Has anyone received their copy from Amazon Canada? If so when was the order placed?

Thanks,

Peter.

[runwestierun]

Peter,

No books have shipped from Amazon.ca yet.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Those of you who got revised shipping dates from Amazon.com--did the revised dates e-mail arrive before or on the original estimated delivery dates?

Edited March 14, 2011 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[AaronM]

Still says it should be delivered by tomorrow, but hasn't shipped yet. No email - Ordered in February.

Amazon don't know shit.

[runwestierun]

Still says it should be delivered by tomorrow, but hasn't shipped yet. No email - Ordered in February.

Amazon don't know shit.

Aaron, you ordered yours 5 or 6 months after I ordered mine and you are getting yours 2 months before me. You should be thankful. They are not being shipped in order.

[AaronM]

I'm not complaining, I'm just spreading info for all of us that're waiting.

[nathanm]

The first batch of orders from Canada should ship in late March/early April. One of the three containers heading out from China is headed there.

[Anna N]

The first batch of orders from Canada should ship in late March/early April. One of the three containers heading out from China is headed there.

PHEW! I was beginning to think we Canadians had somehow been forgotten. Though I could not afford to purchase a set myself I am an honoured foster parent of a set ordered many months ago. Let's hope the pirates don't get word of the inestimable value we have all placed on these books. Thanks for the update, Nathan.

[vengroff]

This still leaves me with the dilemma of deciding how many books to print for the second printing. Is the sales spike today a harbinger of things to come, or a temporary uptick?

Do you think you will be able to have a third printing in the channel in time for the 2011 holiday season? I'm sure there will be a spike in demand for gifts at that point. If you increase the size of the second printing you can lessen the risk of missing that demand.

[Paul Kierstead]

That is good news. Heh, I was amused at all the americans getting hot and bothered over Amazon.ca. We have to put up with being the poor cousins most of the time, availability wise. For the ingredients for my upcoming MC, I just gave up and purchased it in the US and had it shipped to a UPS store and popped over the border to pick it up. We have 1/10 the population, and while I love Canada dearly, somethings can be a major PITA, especially things like foodstuffs which very few companies will cross-border ship.

[Msk]

My book is waiting at home for me now! My books was originally Shipping March 8th, then March 7 th it was changed to Mid April. Last Thursday I got the "Its Shipped" email. Crazy Amazon logistics.

I really am excited!

Mike

[roygon]

This still leaves me with the dilemma of deciding how many books to print for the second printing. Is the sales spike today a harbinger of things to come, or a temporary uptick?

Do you think you will be able to have a third printing in the channel in time for the 2011 holiday season? I'm sure there will be a spike in demand for gifts at that point. If you increase the size of the second printing you can lessen the risk of missing that demand.

In his blog post at MC Blog he mentions accounting for 2011 holiday season demand for the second printing and they were figuring 20K+ units for the second round

rg

Edited March 14, 2011 by roygon (log)

[roygon]

New multi page Modernist Cuisine article in new yorker

Edit: more accurately it is an article on modernist cuisine in general, not just the book

New Yorker article

Edited March 14, 2011 by roygon (log)

[JBailey]

The New Yorker article is what someone with Ruhlman's abilities should have written...

Edited March 14, 2011 by JBailey (log)