Book Overview:
Modernist Cuisine at Home is a new cookbook by Nathan Merville that focuses on modernist techniques for home cooking. It contains 405 recipes, 228 waterproof pages, and over 86,000 photos, making it a comprehensive guide to modernist cooking. The book is designed to be accessible to home cooks of all skill levels, with detailed instructions and beautiful photography.

Philosophy of the Book:
The book aims to reinvent food using new techniques and methods while still being accessible to home cooks. It provides detailed instructions and explanations, even for complex techniques, making it a valuable resource for those interested in learning more about modernist cooking.

Physical Quality:
The book is known for its high-quality physical construction, including large pages, nice paper, and vibrant ink. It features a washable kitchen manual for easy cleaning and a stochastic screening technique for high-resolution photos.

Digital vs. Physical:
The author discusses the advantages of a physical book over a digital version for displaying high-resolution images and providing a more immersive experience. The author explains that creating a digital version with an engaging user interface, animations, and simulations would require significant effort and resources.

Book Statistics:
The new book has two volumes, 684 pages, 228 waterproof pages, 23 chapters, 210,000 words, 405 recipes, and 114 photos out of 86,000 taken for the book. It costs $140, making it more affordable than the original Modernist Cuisine book, which cost $625.

Value of the Book:
The author highlights the value of the book by comparing the cost per recipe to the price of Parmesan cheese, suggesting that it is a worthwhile investment for those who enjoy cooking.

Length of the Text:
If all the text in Modernist Cuisine were put in a single line of text, it would be 1.4 miles long, stretching from Pike Place Market to the Space Needle.

Defining Modernist Cuisine:
Modernist Cuisine is a movement that recognizes cooking as an art form, spanning from craft to high art. Most people approach cooking as a craft, while Modernist Cuisine elevates it to an art form.

Science in the Kitchen:
Science is a set of rules that govern the world and is already present in the kitchen. Traditional cooking recipes often omit the scientific reasoning behind the steps, leading to ignorance and perpetuation of misconceptions.

Historical Tradition of Cooking:
Historically, cooking recipes have been passed down without explanations, leading to a lack of understanding of the underlying science. Over time, people began creating stories and explanations to fill in the gaps, often resulting in misconceptions.

Example: Searing Steak:
A common misconception is that searing steak seals in the juices. In reality, searing steak does the opposite, causing the juices to flow out more.

Modernism in Cooking:
Modernist cuisine is a blend of art and science that aims to achieve intellectually interesting results through cooking. It involves breaking rules, seeing people’s reactions to food, and being empowered by knowing how cooking works.

Modernism in Art:
Modernism is a movement in visual arts that emphasizes intellectual engagement and emotional expression over realism. Examples include Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, which departed from traditional styles and sought to convey nuanced messages.

Initial Reactions to Modernism:
When Impressionist paintings first emerged, they were met with resistance and criticism, with some people finding them ugly and disturbing. Similarly, early modernist dishes elicited visceral reactions, challenging people’s aesthetic frameworks.

Modernism in Architecture:
Architecture also underwent a shift from traditional styles to more experimental and rule-breaking designs. Buildings like Frank Gehry’s EMP in Seattle exemplify this break with tradition, sparking curiosity and interest.

Key Ideas in Modernism:
Modernism involves a deliberate break with tradition, celebrating aesthetic values beyond realism. It seeks to engage the intellect and emotions, rather than simply depicting reality.

Challenging Traditional Notions of Italian Cuisine:
Modernist cooking emerged in the mid-1980s, incorporating new techniques like foams, which sparked controversy similar to Impressionist art. Contemporary Italian cuisine’s emphasis on basil, tomatoes, and garlic is a recent development. Traditional Roman cooking featured black pepper, lovage, and fish sauce, including in desserts. Worcestershire sauce is a lineal descendant of Roman liquamen, made from anchovies.

The Dynamic Nature of Cuisine:
Italian cuisine has undergone significant changes throughout history, influenced by cultural factors and technological advancements. Medieval Italian cuisine closely resembled that of other European regions, exhibiting uniformity in ingredients and dishes.

Questioning the Great-Grandmother Rule:
Michael Pollan’s great-grandmother rule, which advocates rejecting industrialized foods unrecognized by one’s great-grandmother, has limitations. Many delicious and nutritious foods, such as sushi and hummus, would be excluded under this rule due to their novelty. Historical dishes like pizza and ice cream are also relatively recent inventions and would be eliminated. Traditional sausage curing techniques originated in China and were introduced to Europe in the 1700s, challenging notions of tradition.

Espresso and Modernism:
Espresso was invented in 1911 as a fast food alternative to traditional brewed coffee. It faced initial criticism from purists who viewed it as an inferior method.

High-Speed Camera and Modern Cooking:
High-speed cameras allow for detailed observation and analysis of food processes, leading to innovative culinary techniques.

Watermelon Chips:
Watermelon chips were created by infusing thin watermelon slices with starch, creating a crispy snack that showcases the versatility of starch glass formation.

Ultimate French Fries:
Ultrasonic baths were used to create microscopic fissures in potato surfaces, allowing for greater starch absorption and resulting in extra crispy French fries.

Leidenfrost Effect:
The Leidenfrost effect involves a gas layer that forms between a liquid and a hot surface, preventing direct contact and enabling unique cooking methods. Liquid nitrogen, with its extremely low temperature, allows for rapid cooling without moisture, enabling the creation of perfect spheres of liquid droplets.

Popcorn and Steam Expansion:
Popcorn pops due to the rapid expansion of water vapor within the kernel, creating a steam-powered “rocket” effect. Boiling is a crucial cooking process that requires significant energy, making it highly efficient.

Charbroiling and Fat Drippings:
Most flavors in charbroiling come from fat dripping onto coals, causing flare-ups. Adding fat, such as olive oil, to the fire enhances the flavor of grilled foods. High-speed camera footage captures the fat dripping phenomenon and the subsequent flames.

Visual Appeal in Culinary Books:
Visually interesting pictures can attract readers and make technical cooking topics more accessible. The use of high-quality images can overcome the perceived intimidation of scientific or technical cooking content.

Briquettes and Charcoal:
The type of briquettes used in grilling does not significantly impact the final flavor of the food.

Understanding the Flavor of Charcoal:
Charcoal burns at a consistent temperature and lacks distinct flavors. Flavorful cooking results from the combination of dripping fats and juices that partially burn on the flame.

Egg Proteins and Coagulation:
Eggs contain different proteins in the yolk and white that coagulate at different temperatures. Yolk sets before the white due to its lower coagulation temperature.

Steam Bubbles in Cooking:
Water in food boils and expands when exposed to high heat, creating steam bubbles. Sizzling sounds during cooking result from these steam volcanoes.

Custard Texture and Concentration:
Custard texture depends on the concentration of egg in the mixture. Cooking time and temperature also affect the texture.

Creme Anglaise and Striped Omelette:
Creme anglaise is like melted vanilla ice cream. The striped omelette is a unique dish made in the oven, ensuring precise temperature control for perfect texture.

The Challenge of Omelets:
Traditional French chefs consider making a perfect omelet a measure of a chef’s skill. The difficulty lies in achieving the right temperature to set the egg without overcooking it.

Striped Omelets and Experimentation:
Once the basics of omelet-making are mastered, striped omelets can be made by following recipes. Experimentation with high-speed cameras and unusual ingredients leads to innovative cooking techniques.

Browning Carrots in a Pressure Cooker:
Carrots can be browned in a pressure cooker by leveraging the lower browning temperature in alkaline environments. This technique results in a caramelized carrot soup with an intense flavor. The browning occurs throughout the carrot due to the high humidity in the pressure cooker.

Pressure Cooker’s Advantages:
Pressure cookers allow for higher boiling temperatures, extracting more flavors in stock. The high temperature and humidity in a pressure cooker enable browning without drying out the food.

Extending the Technique to Other Foods:
The browning technique used for pretzels can be applied to other foods, such as mushrooms, squash, artichoke, and broccoli. These foods benefit from the enhanced browning and caramelization.

Inspiration from Unexpected Sources:
Culinary innovation can arise from understanding the underlying principles of cooking techniques. Pretzels, a seemingly unrelated dish, inspired the idea of browning carrots in an alkaline environment.

Roast Chicken as a Contradiction:
Roast chicken is a classic dish that presents a paradox. The term “roast” implies high heat, but chicken is a delicate protein that requires careful cooking.

Brining Techniques:
Brining chicken enhances juiciness by modifying proteins to retain water. However, brining also makes the skin rubbery due to its protein content.

Injection Brining:
To prevent rubbery skin, the team developed an injection brining method. Salt solution is carefully injected into the meat, avoiding the skin.

Drying and Roasting:
After injection brining, the chicken is hung uncovered in the refrigerator. This allows excess moisture to drip off and promotes skin drying. The chicken is then roasted at a low temperature for four and a half hours. Finally, the oven is cranked up to high heat to sear the chicken, resulting in a crispy skin and juicy interior.

Modernist Comfort Food:
While the restaurant embraces modernist cuisine, they also appreciate classic comfort dishes. They serve their roast chicken on traditional plates to evoke a sense of nostalgia. A whole chapter in their cookbook is dedicated to macaroni and cheese.

Science and Art of Cheese:
Cheese is an intriguing subject, offering both scientific insights and accessible recipes. Milk products are emulsions of fat and water, stabilized by casein proteins. Melting cheese disrupts the emulsion, causing fat separation.

Velveeta and the Magic of Sodium Citrate:
James L. Kraft discovered a way to stabilize melted cheese using sodium citrate in 1911, leading to the creation of Velveeta. Sodium citrate changes the ionic balance in cheese, stabilizing the emulsion at higher temperatures. This allows for smooth, cheese-based sauces without the need for starch thickeners, resulting in a purer cheese flavor.

Sous Vide Steak and Culinary Innovations:
Sous vide cooking allows for precise temperature control, enabling unique culinary creations. Hot water can be used for sous vide steak, resulting in a perfectly cooked steak that can be easily grilled or seared. Carnitas, braised short ribs, and chicken wings are examples of dishes explored in the book.

Ingredients and Technique:
Great food starts with great ingredients. Modern cooking techniques aim to unlock the inherent qualities of ingredients. Traditional cooking methods also often serve to enhance the natural flavors and textures of ingredients.

Cooking Techniques:
Pasta, cheese, wine, and bread are complex foods with intricate processes. Some dishes require specialized techniques, like the high-speed flash photography used to capture the perfect shot of raspberry soup. Cooking is a fundamentally social activity, and sharing a meal is a great way to connect with others.

Lab and Dinner Experiences:
The lab in Bellevue serves as a creative space for cooking and experimenting. Special dinners with multiple courses have been held, inviting chefs and food writers to experience the art of modernist cooking. These dinners feature a variety of dishes and take three hours to complete.

Pacing and Timing:
Pacing is essential in multi-course meals to maintain guests’ attention. Keeping dishes warm for plating and serving can be challenging, especially for dishes that require precise cooking temperatures.

Sous Vide Cooking:
Sous vide cooking involves cooking food in vacuum-sealed bags at low temperatures for extended periods. This technique allows for precise temperature control and consistent cooking results. Sous vide cooking can be used to cook steaks and other meats to a desired doneness while keeping them warm for a period of time.

Other Appliances:
Combi ovens are versatile appliances that can be used for sous vide cooking and other cooking methods. Combi ovens allow for precise temperature control and can cook food evenly at low temperatures.

Color Management in Printing:
Color management is crucial to accurately reproduce colors in print. Scalable fonts and color management were introduced in Windows by the speaker. The process involves compressing the color range to fit the output device’s limitations. Pre-press professionals and digital photographers adjust colors to optimize their appearance in print.

Quality Matters:
The speaker emphasized the importance of quality in publishing, particularly in cookbooks. They believed in creating visually appealing and high-quality books that would be valued by readers. They invested in better ink and printing techniques to ensure vibrant colors and sharp images.

Comparison to America’s Test Kitchen:
The speaker contrasted their approach with that of America’s Test Kitchen, which focuses on home cooking and accessible recipes. They aimed for more eclectic and adventurous recipes, with a focus on visual appeal. The speaker admired America’s Test Kitchen’s thoroughness but felt their own work went further in culinary exploration.

Patenting Challenges in Food Science:
Patenting food-related inventions is challenging due to the lack of novelty and the limited market for specialized techniques. The speaker explained that pretzel techniques, for example, are not patentable because they are well-known, even if applied to new ingredients. They highlighted the exception of their ultrasonic French fries technique, which has potential for mass production.

Intellectual Property Protection for Recipes:
Recipes cannot be copyrighted, which means anyone can copy and use them as long as they don’t directly reproduce the original text. This lack of legal protection can be frustrating for chefs who view their recipes as personal creations. The speaker emphasized that while recipes may not be legally protected, they still hold significant value and ownership in a broader sense.

Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”:
The speaker praised Harold McGee’s book “On Food and Cooking” as a fantastic resource and a personal favorite. They acknowledged that McGee’s book focuses on food science rather than applied recipes and uses minimal black-and-white images. While they didn’t recall any specific errors in McGee’s book, they noted that food science is constantly evolving and new discoveries may have led to updates in knowledge.

Local Markets and Ethnic Cuisine:
The speaker highlighted the Bellevue Farmer’s Market as a great place for shopping and supporting local farmers. They also recommended Uwajimaya, an Asian grocery store, for its diverse selection of produce and ingredients from different cultures. They encouraged people to explore ethnic markets, regardless of their own ethnicity, to discover new and exciting ingredients.

Local Ethnic Markets:
Local ethnic markets offer unique produce and food items that aren’t found in mass-market grocery stores. They buy from local farmers, ensuring fresher and more authentic ingredients.

Global Cuisine in Cookbooks:
Cookbooks often include recipes from various cultures, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of the cooking team. The world offers a wide array of delicious and exciting cuisines to explore and enjoy.