The following are my notes from a presentation and Q&A with Nathan Myhrvold, author of Moderist Cuisine.
Who's the book for? People passionate and curious about food
Made the decision to make the book 2 years ago - no ipad then.
Chose to use very high quality: stochastic printing
Photography was used to illustrate concepts that people otherwise wouldn't understand
Use cutaways to illustrate what's going on inside a cooking vessel that we can’t see
One of the volumes is about coffee and wine
Best thing to do to young red wines: hyper decanting. Pour into blender, hit frappe, 30 sec. Makes younger red wines more drinkable. "The other reason to do it is because it freaks wine people out SO MUCH"
1500 recipes in the set, 50% can be done at home; With special equipment, 75%
The rest requires liquid nitrogen, etc. Can do at home but it requires effort
Photography philosophy: Want to provide a view of food they've never seen before
The team believed If they did the food right, shouldn't have a stylist coming and telling them how to fake it.
About the cutaway photography:
It was real, not photoshopped. They cut equipment in half. "We have 2 halves of one of the best kitchens in the world"
Had to be willing to make a mess
Photography motto: "It only has to look good for 1/1000th of a second"
Wok photo was especially difficult: Cut ⅓ off of wok, oil kept catching fire
Also had a video camera HD at 6200 fps
One video: Water balloon popped with a pin. The tension on the balloon pulls it off the water faster than the water drops. Wile E. Coyote-like (water stays in the air)
Another video: Recipe for ballistics gelatin in the book.
Popcorn video: Water expands by a factor of 1600
The project started as an outline for a 600 page book.
Lots of techniques, no good place to learn. Wanted one definitive place to learn about modern cooking techniques.
Plans on publishing more?
A reader once said to him re: number of copies: "your publisher is an idiot.” He responded: “I'm the publisher"
It's the first 2400 page cookbook
Sold the 6000 before they even shipped.
Ordered 25000 more.
Audience questions:
Favorite restaurant? Meal?
El Bulli
Talk more about barbecue temperature stall:
On Google [barbecue stall] vs [barbecue stall temperature] has vastly different results
“What the hell is the stall?”
Most of the community claimed the stall in temperature rise was due to collagen in the meat being converted into gelatin (making touch meat tender)
In reality, there was not enough energy in the reaction that it could be
In fact, it was evaporation of water, like evaporative cooling.
To prove it was evaporation, they conducted an experiment where one brisket was sealed in bag and put in convection oven.
Uncovered one stalled for 2.5 hours and went up; covered one, no stall.
While at Microsoft, had to convince Bill Gates to give him leave to go to culinary school, but couldn’t get into culinary school without restaurant experience. So worked at a restaurant once a week.
In France, a chef huffily walked up to him and said “you know a duck like a Frenchman!”
"I boned a lot of ducks...I wouldn’t admit that elsewhere”
What are top 3 things average cook does wrong?
“Wrong” is hard.
Best tip: If making omelets or scrambled eggs, throw 1 egg white away to improve texture. Cook at extremely low heat (water bath, steam).
What about coffee tips?
There's a large coffee community.
Coffee is mostly about attention to detail, like temperature control
Pressure profiling - allows you to determine pressure of espresso
Best tip: For regular coffee- aeropress. It's like a super soaker for coffee cup. 175 deg. Available on Amazon.
How did you select your coauthors and what are they doing now?
"If I hadn't written software, I never would've written this book....The best software isn't written by a single person”
Chef at Fat Duck. He had understood science.
Scientific American editor
All photos were taking by him and assistant
Most of the people who worked on the book still work for him. Promoting book, figuring out what to do next.
The book’s kitchen is in a space that used to be a Harley Davidson service area. They still get people coming to get their bikes serviced.
How did this book on the art of cooking change the science of cooking?
Engineering underlies art. This book should empower chefs.
Lots of time describing cooking as art in book.
Parallels between modernism in art and cooking.
Cooking is an art. It's about engaging us through our emotions.
Like architecture - most buildings are pretty dull, but they're necessary.
Nutrition?
There's a chapter on food and health. Nutrition not covered completely. Tried to tackle good for you and not good for you food. Food is about energy.
The spectrum of heat application
Most traditional applications are very hot - fire
Most food is mostly water. Can't make food higher than boiling point of water until it's dried out
Grilling is cooking with infrared. Gas flame is a poor way to do it, which is why they have a metal grill to reflect infrared
