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

[bostonapothecary]

The book is lovely to peruse, when does the one on winemaking come out?

Have you had a chance to look through [amsazon=0771022530]Taste Buds and Molecules: The Art and Science of Food With Wine [/amazon]?

Interesting! Thanks

i'd say the fairly equivalent book on wine making is maynard amerine's "the technology of wine making"

love it or hate it, most of the modern wine industry is built from amerine's books (the road to hell is paved with good intentions). if you are good at connecting the dots yourself, the text is a treasure trove of information that can be applied to the anthropology of food, sometimes a restaurant kitchen, and especially a bar program.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Got the dreaded Amazon delay notice today, couldn't imagine why I hadn't already, with so many people ordering months before I did getting them, but it was the last day of their original 'estimated delivery' window.

And now they say "Still want it? We'll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we'll cancel your order on April 16 2011, if we haven't located it by then." Sounds like I'm in line for printing #2.

[jorach]

That stinks, when did you order?

[mkayahara]

Got the dreaded Amazon delay notice today, couldn't imagine why I hadn't already, with so many people ordering months before I did getting them, but it was the last day of their original 'estimated delivery' window.

And now they say "Still want it? We'll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we'll cancel your order on April 16 2011, if we haven't located it by then." Sounds like I'm in line for printing #2.

I'd say hang on to the order: there are bound to be some cancellations from people who ordered from multiple sources, to see which one would be shipped first.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I definitely continued the order, placed after reading the Q&A thread here on 2/23.

[abadoozy]

I definitely continued the order, placed after reading the Q&A thread here on 2/23.

I ordered on 2/21, and so far, it's still telling me mine will ship by April 15. *Crosses fingers*.

[JAZ]

Josh Ozersky's thoughts on the book from Time.com. He mentions Ruhlman's review and Nahan's reply here and makes the interesting point that in the media,

The dichotomy has been set up between honest naturalist chefs on the one side — people who "cook from the heart" and touch the soil — and on the other, cerebral nimrods who live in a la-la land of gels and immersion circulators. Given this choice, what chance is there that the public will sympathize with the latter?

The "latter" being, of course, Modernist Cuisine. It's a shame that has happened, says Ozersky:

Myhrvold, and the book's audience as well, aspires to cook better food — not weirder food, not more surprising food, but food that's just better. This is the book you read so you understand what's going on inside your brisket as it sits in your smoker, why eggs act the way they do when they're in a pan, and how moist air cooks differently from dry air. Those are the real aims, and the real achievements, of Modernist Cuisine. The food media really ought to refrain from taking cheap shots; the book could, and should, teach all of us a lot about food, and if it fails, maybe it's because its critics didn't try hard enough to understand it.

[FoodMan]

Got this as well...

Hello,

We're still trying to obtain the following item you ordered on February 26 2011 (Order# 002-6019448-6604253).

Nathan Myhrvold, et al "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982761007

Still want it? We'll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we'll cancel your order on April 16 2011, if we haven't located it by then.

still trying to obtain it??

Of course I approved it but this sucks...I'm hoping it'll be here by the end of April at the latest.

[Digijam]

I am wondering if anybody has sources for recipes for sous-vide cooking - which is to say, cooking done in sealed vacuum bags."

My questions are does anybody:

- Have any recipes themselves?

- Know of other sources (books, magazines, web sites)?

Nathan"

So, Nathan, did you ever have any luck with this?

[Brown Hornet]

FWIW, I ordered on 2/10 and Amazon is estimating my delivery for late April early May.

I'm not going to sweat it, I've got lots of other fun stuff to cook until then including a sous vide corned beef I've got going today.

[Fat Guy]

Josh Ozersky's thoughts on the book from Time.com....

....This is the book you read so you understand what's going on inside your brisket as it sits in your smoker, why eggs act the way they do when they're in a pan, and how moist air cooks differently from dry air. Those are the real aims, and the real achievements, of Modernist Cuisine....

That's the science part, but not the art part and not the "real aim" or in my opinion "real achievement" of MC. That summary makes it sound a little like a fancy version of McGee. While a lot of that ground is covered, MC is about much more than kitchen science. It's about, well, modernist cuisine.

[weinoo]

Does anyone (Nathan?) have an idea of how many copies Amazon has already shipped? And what the cutoff for the first edition is? That is, I ordered on 2/21, got that email referenced above, and want to make sure I'm still getting a first edition. Which I would hope is the case, since the 2nd printing hasn't been ordered yet.

[OliverB]

a 2nd printing is not necessarily a 2nd edition. There's really no rule for this "first edition" thing, depends on whom you ask. I'd consider anything first edition that's the same as the first book coming off the press. Even if a 2nd print run has a handful of typo corrections - which I think is unlikely, since it's costly to make a new plate just to fix one word. I believe these are printed with real plates, not some digital process)

But just ordering a second shipment off the same plates is not a 2nd edition to me. Not that I care what collector's value this might have some day, I won't sell it so it has no monetary value anyway

Now, amazon does not know or care about how many books were printed originally, it's not like there's one guy sitting there paying attention. As long as a publisher flags a book as available they'll take orders, even if they don't know if (or when) they can get it. They also won't indicate what edition it is, it's all the same to them. If you just ordered now, you might get lucky and get one from the first print run, but I think Nathan mentioned that those are close to sold out, so you might have to wait until June or later for the 2nd order to start arriving.

I don't really care, it's now supposed to ship April to May13, May 14 is my b'day, so that's just perfect for me

[Wholemeal Crank]

Found a copy elsewhere, since it looked like I was going to be pushed into the second printing.

Still have a week or two to wait for shipping, but that's better than the months I was set to wait.

[blackp]

Found a copy elsewhere, since it looked like I was going to be pushed into the second printing.

Still have a week or two to wait for shipping, but that's better than the months I was set to wait.

Where did you find it - or is that Top Secret?

[Wholemeal Crank]

They told me it was their only copy. But until I get an actual shipping notice, will keep mum.

[nathanm]

We ordered the second printing, and decided on 25,000. Tomorrow AM I fly to New York City for a whirlwind of events all week. Ryan and othres on the team will be posting pictures to the Modernist Cuisine blog. I probably will be too busy to post much, but will try to pop in on occasion...

[JBailey]

Nathan

I just viewed the video on your Blog about the first printing of your book. That was a fascinating glimpse into the melding of technology and hand crafting of Modernist Cuisine at the printing plant. Just don't tell me that you composed the background music and played it as well!

[JAZ]

John Mariani's Esquire blog post, in which he trashes not only Modernist Cuisine, but all of modernist cooking, all modernist chefs and restaurants, and especially Grant Achatz. I can't even dignify it with the term "review" -- it's a bizarre, spite-filled rant (and not a particularly well-written one, even). The only people Mariani seems to respect are Thomas Keller, Harold McGee and the staff of Cook's Illustrated magazine.

After likening Modernist cooking to Lucky Charms and Dan Ackroyd's SNL Bassomatic skit, he concludes:

Which leads to the question, what exactly has been the effect and influence of the modernist/molecular chefs' ideas on other chefs? The simple answer is: next to zero. Aside from the momentary faddishness of Ferran Adrià's foam sauces — now a cliché — nothing has been adapted from the modernist movement, and the number of such chefs comprising the movement in the entire world might be counted on two hands. . . . If modernist cuisine were a real revolution, it would have flowed into mainstream kitchens and been adopted by all serious cooks. But it's been around now for two decades and the sale of nitrous oxide and centrifuges has not exactly soared.

What cave does he live in?

I hadn't really formed an opinion about Mariani before this, but he shows himself here to be childish, spiteful, and ignorant. It's unbelievable.

[Paul Kierstead]

He is apparently unaware that Keller uses modernist techniques like sous-vide?

[Chris Amirault]

IIRC, he wrote a few books using these wacky techniques, too, something about pressure....

[cbread]

Mariani's is one more review that fails to recognize that new techniques and laboratory testing can serve simplicity and clarity. For me, the thing I most await in my none too soon to come copy of MC is a mass of tested data on how things actually work in the kitchen. I'll pass on exoticism for it's own sake and I cannot afford kilobuck gizmos, but what I do want is tested facts I can incorporate in day to day cooking.

Mariani's stance seems self contradictory. He lauds McGee's book, but there is more in common than in fundamental difference between Myhrvold, McGee, and the staff at Cook's Illustrated's kitchen. They all investigate what's involved in making food better by actually doing research and cooking with a scientific "test the facts" mindset.

[Amida0616]

How does someone like John Mariani keep his job writing about food?

[Msk]

I find these reviews very funny. It was amazingly clear to me the second I opened one of the books just how much this goes beyond a "Cookbook." There are so many interesting techniques to learn and to be applied, all backed by rigorous scientific analysis.

Mike

[edsel]

Michael Ruhlman was interviewed about Modernist Cuisine on a local NPR show today. He clarifies his statements in the NY Times a bit. It seems to me that he has immense respect for MC. I'm sure some here will find something to quibble with.

Link to a podcast of today's show:

"All chefs will need to have this"

The Ruhlman segment starts at about 21 minutes in.