Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft, has a new “cookbook” coming out “sometime in the not-too-distant future”, says the LAT.
(According to Amazon, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking
“The food world eagerly awaits the former Microsoft technology officer’s book on the science of cooking.”
I don’t know that I’m really representative of the food world, but speaking strictly for myself: no. I’d much rather read Ferran Adrià’s book
Funny, I just starting reading the bible of cooking science (i.e., originally published in 1984), Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking,” which was updated about 6 years ago. I thought I was a bit crazy for spending $30. Charging $500 sounds more like a money laundering scheme.
To be fair, Myhrvold’s book does have the endorsement of a lot of impressive folks, including McGee.
I’m not really sure I can articulate what puts me off about it that well. To be honest, I think much of it is my negative reaction to anything involving Microsoft or Microsoft exes.
Part of it, too, though, I think, is the level of complexity. Say what you will about Keller’s French Laundry cookbook, people could make the stuff in it without going to a lab supply house and picking up a dewer of liquid nitrogen.
Then again, you could make the same complaint about Ferran Adrià’s book. The difference in my mind is that Adrià has been hugely influential on a new generation. And the “Cooking Issues” guys can write; I don’t if Myhrvold can.
[…] Ruhlman reviews Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, previously noted in this space. I was left wondering how a book could be mind-crushingly boring, eye-bulgingly riveting, edifying, […]