Sponsors:
Jose Andres, the Think Food group, and Alicia provide financial and intellectual support. Montferrand, Whole Foods, Fusion Chef by Gelabo, Cataliana Casa, Food and Wine, and Lexus are new sponsors.

Guest Speakers:
Chefs from the area participated in panel discussions and shared their experiences. Bill Yosses, the White House pastry chef, will speak on Monday after Thanksgiving. Ferran Adria will give a special lecture on December 4. Tickets are free but must be obtained from the Holyoke Center. Overflow rooms will be available for those who cannot get into the main lecture hall. Nathan Myhrvold will speak tonight and sign books at the end of the lecture. His book, Modernist Cuisine, will also be available for purchase.

Cooking Time Equation:
Heat propagates through a material via diffusion. The equation for the time it takes for heat to diffuse a certain length is given by:
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t = l^2 / (4 * D)
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Where l is the distance, and D is the diffusion coefficient for heat.

Temperature and Cooking Methods:
Temperature plays a significant role in cooking. Traditional grilling methods char the outside of food while leaving different textures inside. The sous vide method uses a higher temperature and allows heat to diffuse in, resulting in a uniform temperature throughout the food.

The Impact of Temperature on Food Texture and Flavor:
Temperature plays a crucial role in determining the texture and flavor of food during cooking. For instance, in chocolate cake, the temperature diffuses from the hot oven inward, causing the cake to solidify as it cooks.

Measuring Temperature Changes During Cooking:
Data on temperature changes during the cooking of a molten chocolate cake shows an increase in temperature until it reaches a final temperature, close to the boiling point.

Understanding the Rate of Heat Diffusion:
The rate of heat diffusion depends on the temperature difference between the heat source and the food. As the temperature difference decreases, the rate of heat diffusion slows down.

Exponential Dependence on Cooking Time:
The time it takes to cook food follows an exponential relationship with the temperature difference. This exponential dependence can be used to estimate the cooking time for different positions within the food.

Estimating the Size of a Turkey for Cooking:
To calculate the size of a turkey, it can be approximated as a sphere. The density of the turkey is assumed to be that of water, allowing for the estimation of its volume and radius.

Equation for Calculating Cooking Time:
A complex equation is presented to calculate the cooking time based on external temperature, initial temperature, target temperature, and the diffusion coefficient of heat through water.

Accuracy of the Simple Approximation:
The simple spherical turkey approximation and the equation provide accurate estimations of cooking times, as seen by comparing them with empirical data.

Complicating Factors:
Real-world cooking involves additional factors such as stuffing, which can affect cooking times.

Nathan Myhrvold’s Contributions:
Nathan Myhrvold, with a background in mathematical economics and theoretical physics, has made significant contributions to understanding cooking times. He developed a table of cooking times for sous vide cooking and authored the book “Modernist Cuisine.”

Book Overview:
Nathan Myhrvold’s “Modernist Cuisine” is a comprehensive cookbook and guide to culinary techniques, history, and science. It includes 1500 recipes, detailed explanations of cooking techniques, and in-depth discussions of ingredients and equipment.

Features:
Six volumes, 2,438 pages, 1.1 million words, 150,000 pictures, 1,522 recipes, and 4 pounds of ink. Reprinted key tables and recipes on a waterproof, washable kitchen manual. Dramatic, beautiful photographs to communicate ideas and engage readers. Cutaway photos to show what happens during cooking.

Challenges:
The size of the book and the number of pictures made it challenging to create a digital version. The decision to use traditional paper printing was influenced by the effectiveness of digital tools for global printing.

Example:
A cutaway photo of a traditional braise shows the different heat sources and how they affect the cooking process.

Modernist Cuisine as Art and Science:
Cooking can be an art that engages people’s minds and emotions, not just a craft. Cooking is also a science governed by the laws of nature.

Understanding Science in Cooking:
Science helps remove ignorance from the kitchen. Knowing the scientific principles behind cooking leads to better results.

The Role of Recipes:
Recipes are instructions that guide cooks to achieve a specific result. Traditionally, recipes were incomplete, assuming cooks had the necessary knowledge and experience.

Escoffier’s Recipes:
Escoffier’s recipes in 1903 established French cooking’s global dominance. His recipes contained proportions and instructions but lacked detailed explanations. This approach was suitable for apprentices who had undergone extensive training.

Defining Modernist Cuisine:
Modernist cuisine is a movement that aims to meld the art and science of cooking, emphasizing creation, innovation, and understanding over rote instructions. It involves breaking culinary traditions, celebrating aesthetics beyond realism, and embracing new tools and techniques.

Origins of Modernist Cuisine:
Modernist cuisine emerged in the late 1970s with the introduction of new technologies into the kitchen. Chefs such as Fran Adria began pushing boundaries, creating innovative dishes that challenged conventional norms.

Inspiration from Impressionism:
The modernist movement in cuisine draws parallels to the impressionist art movement. Impressionist artists, like Monet, rebelled against traditional academic art, creating paintings that conveyed emotions and impressions rather than literal representations. Modernist chefs similarly sought to break free from culinary constraints, aiming to create new and thought-provoking dishes.

The Dialogue Between Chef and Patron:
In modernist cuisine, dining is viewed as a dialogue between the chef and the patron. Chefs have more creative freedom, designing dishes that surprise and delight diners. Creativity and invention are prioritized over tradition, with an emphasis on delivering unique and memorable experiences.

Hyper-Decanting:
Hyper-decanting involves using a blender to rapidly decant wine. This technique enhances the benefits of decanting and creates a sense of surprise and intrigue among diners. It challenges traditional wine etiquette and demonstrates the willingness of modernist cuisine to break culinary norms.

Invention and Inspiration:
Invention and innovation are key aspects of modernist cuisine. Chefs take pride in creating original dishes and techniques, often inspired by science and technology. The goal is to elevate cooking into an art form, where chefs experiment and push boundaries to create unique and memorable dining experiences.

The Importance of Ingredients:
Despite its focus on innovation, modernist cuisine still emphasizes the importance of high-quality ingredients. Chefs seek out the best possible ingredients and utilize techniques that enhance and celebrate their natural flavors. Technique is often used to isolate and improve specific tastes and aspects within an ingredient, rather than masking or altering them.

The Oversized Dinner Menu:
Nathan Myhrvold’s overly large dinners showcase the diversity and creativity of modernist cuisine. With 30 to 35 courses, these dinners offer a wide range of dishes that challenge traditional notions of dining. The goal is to provide diners with a comprehensive and immersive culinary experience that showcases the breadth of modernist cuisine.

Watermelon Chips:
Watermelon chips exemplify the innovative techniques used in modernist cuisine. By adding starch to watermelon slices and vacuum-sealing them, a starch glass is formed when the chips are deep-fried, resulting in a unique and unexpected flavor experience.

Pistachio Gelato:
Modernist cuisine seeks to enhance and elevate flavors. In the case of pistachio gelato, traditional methods often dilute the delicate pistachio flavor. By experimenting with emulsions, modernist chefs have developed techniques to create pistachio gelato with a more intense and authentic flavor.

Emulsions in Cooking:
Emulsions are mixtures of two liquids that are normally immiscible, such as oil and water. Cream is an example of an emulsion, consisting of milk fat emulsified with water and stabilized by proteins.

Creating Pistachio Gelato without Dairy:
Nathan Myhrvold describes a process for making pistachio gelato without milk, cream, or eggs. The process involves grinding pistachios, separating the oil, and emulsifying it in water. The pistachio solids and sugar are then added to create a flavorful and pistachio-rich gelato.

Rotor Stator Homogenizer:
A rotor stator homogenizer is a machine used to create emulsions. It spins rapidly, sucking in small droplets of oil and pushing them through narrow slots, resulting in very fine emulsions. This machine can produce emulsions with droplet sizes as small as one micron, much smaller than what can be achieved with a conventional blender.

Other Applications of Constructed Creams:
Beyond pistachio gelato, Nathan Myhrvold’s team has created other dishes using constructed creams. One example is the world’s only kosher veal in cream sauce.

Veal Cream Sauce and Centrifugation:
Veal fat is rendered and homogenized with veal stock to create a rich cream sauce without the heavy flavor of veal milk.

Ricotta Gnocchi Pea Juice and Pea Butter Toast:
Centrifugation separates pureed peas into three layers: pea broth, pea sawdust (used for gnocchi or pasta), and pea butter (a flavorful, non-fatty spread).

Caramelized Carrot Soup:
Pressure cooking at high temperatures and alkaline pH enables caramelization without boiling away water and drying out the food. Baking soda is added to carrots before pressure cooking to enhance browning and create a rich, caramelized flavor.

Simple Carrot Soup:
The carrot soup recipe consists of just four ingredients: carrots, water, salt, and baking soda. The soup can be made in a blender in just 20 minutes. It has a fantastic flavor and has amazed top chefs worldwide. The technique can be applied to various vegetables like onions, beets, and more.

Secrets of Cooking Hamburger:
The grilling flavors of a hamburger come from the fat flare-ups caused by incomplete combustion and pyrolysis. Grilling vegetables lack grilled flavors due to the absence of dripping fat. To enhance grilled flavors in vegetables, generously oil or butter them before grilling.

Importance of Optimization and Technique:
Nathan Myhrvold and his team optimize every part of the hamburger, from grinding the meat to making the bun. They believe that any food is valid and deserves to be treated with respect and care.

Cooking the Ultimate Burger:
To achieve the ultimate hamburger, Nathan Myhrvold and his team developed a technique called cryo-frying. The process involves cooking the burger sous vide, freezing it in liquid nitrogen, and then deep-frying it in oil.

Sous Vide Cooking:
Sous vide cooking involves cooking food in a water bath at a low temperature for an extended period. For the hamburger, it is important not to seal the sous vide bag to avoid making the patty too dense.

Liquid Nitrogen Freezing:
Liquid nitrogen is used to rapidly freeze the sous vide-cooked hamburger. This step is crucial to create a cold barrier that prevents the inside of the burger from overheating during deep-frying.

Deep-Frying:
Deep-frying the frozen hamburger in hot oil creates a crispy exterior while maintaining a medium-rare interior. The cold barrier formed by the liquid nitrogen prevents the inside from overcooking.

Maillard Reaction and Browning:
Browning in meat occurs due to the Maillard reaction, which is a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars. The browned layer on the surface of the burger is extremely thin, as most of the heat is absorbed by the water in the meat.

Cooking with Light: Broiling and Food Color:
Broiling involves cooking with light, and the rate of heat absorption by food depends on its color. Lighter-colored foods, such as fish belly or toast, reflect more light and absorb heat slower. As food gets darker, it absorbs heat more rapidly, leading to faster cooking and potential burning.

Cooking Bread and Souffles:
Bread absorbs only 10% of infrared light initially, but as it cooks, the absorption rate increases tenfold, making it challenging to determine doneness. Souffles are formed differently from bread; instead of yeast creating bubbles, they are manually introduced by beating eggs. Souffles puff due to the expansion of hot gas and the evaporation of water; collapsing occurs when water vapor condenses after cooling, creating a vacuum.

Popcorn and Foams:
Popcorn kernels contain a tiny fissure that, when heated, expands rapidly due to steam, causing the kernel to lift and pop. Foams can be created using nitrous oxide, which is highly soluble and bubbles up when pressure is released, resulting in instant souffle.

Water Balloon and Orange Zest:
Water balloons take time to fall after being pricked because the high-tension outer layer has low mass and whips out quickly, while the water inside has more inertia. Zesting an orange releases oil, which can be demonstrated by holding a zester near a candle to see the oil ignite.

Ballistics Gelatin:
Ballistics gelatin, commonly seen on CSI and Mythbusters, is the same gelatin used in desserts. Once obtained, people often experiment with shooting various objects into the gelatin, demonstrating its versatility.

Sharing in the Culinary Community:
Sharing and building upon the work of others is central to the modernist culinary community. Chefs often create and publicize new dishes, gaining bragging rights for their invention. The history of cooking includes key dishes and technique innovations with recognized creators.

Science and Patent Systems:
Science and patents share similarities in credit and ownership systems. In science, publishing first in a peer-reviewed journal grants credit and potential funding. In the patent system, publishing in the patent office secures a period of commercial exclusivity before entering the public domain. The intent is to reward inventors financially for their efforts.

Patents in the Culinary World:
Most cooking techniques and dishes are not relevant for patenting due to their nature or potential profitability. Patents in food tend to be associated with commercial processed foods produced in large quantities.

A Case of Culinary Copyright:
A modernist chef in Australia replicated famous dishes from renowned restaurants without crediting the original chefs. With the advent of the internet, the act was widely publicized, leading to outrage among the original chefs. Legal protection for dish presentation and recipes is limited, making it challenging to address such situations.

Cult Foods and Secret Recipes:
In various regions, there are cult foods with strong regional identities, such as chili in Texas and bouillabaisse in Marseille. These cult foods often have secret recipes that are closely guarded and passed down within families.

Nathan’s Conversation with Chefs:
Nathan found that chefs, especially those considered the best, are eager to share their recipes and techniques, contrary to the common belief of secrecy surrounding recipes.

The Instant Souffle:
The most challenging recipe in the book was the instant souffle, which aimed to create a souffle base that could be stored and baked quickly. Achieving the right mixture to stabilize the bubbles in the souffle proved difficult, requiring 150 trials.

Book Development Timeline:
Nathan began outlining the book in 2005 and sent it to the printer in 2010, a five-year process. He worked alone for two years before assembling a team to tackle the extensive work required for the project.

Science of Taste:
Nathan challenges the popular theory that taste consists of a few key components like sweet, sour, and umami. Taste receptors on the tongue number at least 40, possibly hundreds, making it difficult to comprehensively understand flavor.

Flavor Pairings:
Websites like foodpairings.com provide empirical databases of flavor combinations that look good, but their predictive value is limited.

Evolutionary Reasons for Taste Preferences:
Humans evolved to enjoy fats and sugars due to their nutritional value. The attraction to wood smoke and heated flavors is rooted in the evolution of cooking, allowing us to consume food with our limited teeth.

Mystery of Truffles:
The taste of truffles cannot be explained by evolutionary advantages for humans since they are not a significant food source. Truffles evolved to attract animals like pigs to eat them and disperse their spores, fooling mammalian taste buds into liking their unique flavor.

Nathan Myhrvold’s Perspective on the Future of Food:
Myhrvold believes that we have reached a point where we cannot rely solely on importing new foods to increase culinary diversity. He suggests that the next step is to invent new foods and cuisines. Myhrvold emphasizes that cuisine is always changing and evolving, and that traditional cuisines are made up of old innovations.

Reasons for Inventing New Foods:
The importation of new foods has reached its limit, as we have explored and discovered most cuisines worldwide. People’s desire for culinary diversity continues to grow, and they want to experience a wide range of cuisines and flavors. New foods can be created to address specific dietary needs, preferences, and health concerns.

Examples of Invented Foods:
Sushi, which was not widely available in the United States a few decades ago, has become a popular and mainstream dish. Ice cream, which was once a luxury item, is now a widely consumed and enjoyed treat. Tomatoes, which were initially perceived as poisonous due to their relation to nightshade plants, are now a staple ingredient in many cuisines.

Challenges in Inventing New Foods:
Overcoming cultural and psychological barriers, such as perceptions of new foods as being unsafe or unhealthy. Ensuring that new foods are nutritious and safe for consumption. Balancing innovation with preserving traditional culinary practices and flavors.

Photography:
The book’s photos were taken with Canon digital cameras, full frame, 5D Mark II, and 1DS Mark III. The goal was to present food in a unique and unconventional way, showcasing the cooking process and scientific aspects. Previous food photography focused on making dishes look appetizing but didn’t explore innovative techniques.

Cooking Tools:
Half the recipes in the book are accessible to anyone with basic equipment. Another 25% require some specialized equipment or ingredients. The final 25% are challenging even for well-equipped kitchens. Digital thermometers and scales are essential tools for serious cooking. Liquid nitrogen is not as exotic as it seems, as it makes up 78% of the air. Sous vide equipment is a recommended purchase, becoming more affordable and comparable to a slow cooker.

Future of Food:
Microbiology holds significant potential for innovation in food production. Growing meat in a vat or truffles in liquid tissue culture are examples of radical changes in food production. The increasing global demand for meat consumption is driving the need for alternative food sources.

Personal Preferences and Culinary Opinions:
Nathan Myhrvold’s passion for veal cooked in cream sauce reflects his upbringing in a strict kosher kitchen. The author expresses uncertainty about the kosher nature of faux cream, emphasizing the need for rabbinical guidance.

Thanksgiving Turkey Dilemmas and Solutions:
Turkey presents challenges due to the disparity in cooking properties between the breast and the rest of the bird. Steaming or low-temperature cooking (sous-vide) is recommended for achieving moist and flavorful turkey breast. Smoking or brining can enhance the flavor and prevent overcooking. Turkey thighs and wings offer more enthusiasm, especially when cooked separately at low temperatures sous-vide. Cutting thighs off the bird allows for optimal cooking without compromising the white meat.

Science and Cooking: A Dynamic Duo:
The relationship between science and cooking remains empirical, involving trial and error. Perseverance and a willingness to experiment are key to culinary success. Happy accidents can lead to unexpected culinary discoveries, as exemplified by the liquid-centered chocolate cake.

Future Plans for the Book Project:
Nathan Myhrvold intends to continue his think tank, “Lucia,” and his lab, where people come to work daily. Myhrvold is considering future projects, including potentially tackling pastry baking and dessert in a separate book. He acknowledges that pastry baking is a vast subject that would require multiple volumes. Myhrvold is also open to exploring smaller projects that have been discussed but not yet decided upon.

Research on the Psycho-Emotional Relationship to Cooking and Eating:
Myhrvold acknowledges that cooking has profound psycho-emotional effects on individuals. He discusses the use of fMRI machines to study how various odors and flavors affect people. Myhrvold highlights the existence of flavor memory, where certain scents and flavors can trigger memories and associations. He mentions how modern chefs, like Fran Adria and Heston Blumenthal, have explored the concepts of flavor memory and nostalgia in their dishes. Myhrvold emphasizes the importance of understanding the cultural and personal significance of specific flavors and memories for different individuals.