Introduction:
Nathan Myrvold, a former Microsoft CTO and CEO of Intellectual Ventures, has authored a six-volume, 2,438-page book titled “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.” The book is unique in its scope, aiming to revolutionize cooking by exploring science-inspired techniques and presenting food as art.

Key Features:
Extensive Content: Contains 1.1 million words, 3,200 high-quality photographs, 1,522 recipes, and contributions from 72 renowned chefs. Four pounds of ink are used in each volume, highlighting the significance of physical print for high-resolution images. Collaborative Effort: Myrvold emphasizes the collaborative nature of the project, involving 44 writers, editors, and art staff. The author’s background in software development at Microsoft influenced the book’s creation and extensive scope.

Reasons for a Physical Book:
Print Quality: Physical print offers superior quality for delivering large, high-resolution photographs, making it the best medium for showcasing food photography. The book’s target platform was determined two years prior, before the iPad’s release, and Kindle was not suitable for image-oriented content.

Interactive Features:
Potential for Interactive Versions: The author acknowledges the demand for interactive digital versions and plans to develop them in the future. Creating interactive features, such as animations and videos, would require significant effort and potentially increase costs.

Printing Techniques:
Stochastic Screening: Myrvold discusses the use of stochastic screening, a patented technique developed during his time at Microsoft, to improve image quality in digital printing. Stochastic screening allows for a better mix of halftone dots, resulting in more accurate and visually appealing images.

Volume One: History and Fundamentals:
Non-Traditional Content: The first volume covers topics typically absent from cookbooks, such as history, microbiology, physics, food safety, and nutrition. These chapters provide a comprehensive foundation for understanding the science behind cooking and food.

Motivation:
The book aims to compile scientific knowledge and chef techniques to create a comprehensive guide for cooking. There was a lack of a single resource where one could learn both the why and how of cooking, unlike cookbooks that primarily focused on recipes.

Content Overview:
Volume 1: Explains the principles behind traditional cooking methods like roasting, baking, and frying. Volume 2: Focuses on modern cooking techniques and equipment. Volume 3: Explores ingredients, including meat science and plant science. Volume 4: Discusses various ingredients and preparations, such as thickeners, emulsions, gels, foams, and more. Volume 5: Features plated dish recipes, combining different ingredients and preparations into complete meals. Volume 6: Contains recipes in a smaller, spiral-bound format for easy use in the kitchen.

Unique Features:
Cutaway photos: These photos provide a detailed view of the inside of food while it cooks, showing the changes that occur during the cooking process. Sidebars: The book includes sidebars with explanations and additional information related to the recipes and techniques. Extensive research: The author conducted extensive research, including consulting with chefs and reviewing scientific literature, to gather the information presented in the book. Attention to detail: The author took great care in capturing the exact moment during cooking when the food looked its best for the cutaway photos.

Challenges:
Balancing the depth of information with accessibility: The book aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of cooking techniques and principles while ensuring that the content remained approachable for home cooks. Managing the large volume of information: The book’s six volumes contain a vast amount of information, requiring careful organization and presentation to ensure clarity and ease of use. Creating visually appealing and informative cutaway photos: Taking these photos involved cutting food items in half and capturing the right moment during cooking, often requiring multiple attempts and digital photo manipulation.

Wire EDM Cutting:
A wire EDM machine cuts metal by passing a lot of current through a thin wire, creating sparks that cut the metal. Underwater cutting provides more control over the sparks.

Partial Differential Equations:
The book includes partial differential equations, making it unique among cookbooks. The author wrote thousands of lines of code to simulate heat flow and other aspects of food processes.

Heat Equation:
The general heat equation and detailed calculations are provided. An example simulation shows the “sweet spot” where side-to-side variation in cooking intensity is within 10%.

Graining the Ultimate Hamburger:
Aligning the grain in hamburger meat makes it easier to bite and prevents uneven cutting. The process involves passing ground meat cylinders back and forth to align the grains.

Liquid Nitrogen Cooking:
The best way to cook the Ultimate Hamburger is to first cook it sous vide, then freeze it in liquid nitrogen, and finally deep fry it. This method creates a thermal barrier that prevents overcooking the inside while browning the outside.

Space Station Burgers:
The book discusses making burgers on the space station, where there is no gravity. A special bun recipe with the amino acid L-cysteine prevents the gluten from getting too tough.

Culinary Innovations:
The speaker introduces a beef suet mousseline, a special mushroom patty, smoke-flavored lettuce, and vacuum-compressed tomato as components of their ultimate burger. They describe how James Craft invented a way to make cheese melt perfectly in 1916, leading to the creation of Velveeta. The speaker provides a method for making one’s own Velveeta-like cheese using Gruyere, Emmental, or other preferred cheeses. Mushroom ketchup is mentioned as an additional ingredient in their ultimate burger.

Scientific Experiments:
The speaker demonstrates an experiment using a video camera and a water-filled balloon. They compare the behavior of water to the cartoons of Wile E. Coyote, where the coyote doesn’t fall off a cliff until he looks down. The speaker highlights the concept of gels and introduces a chapter on the topic. They create ballistics gelatin, a substance often seen in crime shows and Mythbusters, using a high-speed camera to capture the expansion of a popcorn kernel.

The Science of Popcorn:
Popcorn expands by a factor of 1600 when it boils into steam. The expansion of water into steam is a critical principle in cooking. This expansion is why it takes a lot of energy to boil water and is essential for pressure cookers.

Comfort Food:
People have personal notions of comfort food. The speaker’s favorite hamburger is not greasy or overcooked. Subtleties are important in appreciating the best burgers.

Implementing Recipes and Techniques:
About half of the recipes in the book are feasible for anyone with basic kitchen equipment. 75% of the recipes are doable with additional equipment from a kitchen store. The remaining 25% are more adventurous and require specialized equipment.

Liquid Nitrogen:
Liquid nitrogen is surprisingly accessible and affordable. It can be delivered to homes and is used in doctor’s offices. It’s not as dangerous as people think and is fun to experiment with.

Baking and Dessert:
The book generally doesn’t cover baking, pastry, or dessert. There are a few exceptions, such as hamburger buns, ice creams, and creme brulee. The speaker is considering writing a separate book on pastry, baking, and dessert.

Debunking the Myth of Stopping Cooking by Plunging Food into Ice Water:
The idea that plunging cooked food into ice water halts the cooking process is a misconception. Heat transfer in food occurs from the outside inward during cooking. The rate of heat transfer is primarily determined by thermal conductivity and diffusivity. Introducing a pulse of cold (ice water) does not overtake the heat pulse already present. The maximum temperature reached by the food’s interior remains unaffected by this method.

Challenging the Notion of Confit’s Unique Texture:
The belief that confit, a cooking method involving slow cooking in oil or fat, imparts a distinct rich and silky texture is questioned. Oil molecules are too large to diffuse into the food’s center within the cooking time. Blind taste tests revealed no discernible difference between confit-cooked meat and steamed meat when time and temperature were controlled. Chefs’ resistance to this finding highlights the importance of empirical evidence over personal beliefs.

Empiricism and Food Philosophies:
The importance of an empirically oriented approach to cooking is emphasized. Nature’s behavior dictates the outcome, regardless of personal preferences or ideologies. Some individuals hold food philosophies that border on religious beliefs, leading to resistance to scientific findings. The potential negative perception of science in the kitchen is discussed.

The Role of Science in the Kitchen:
The speaker emphasizes that the laws of physics govern kitchen processes, and ignorance of these principles leads to misconceptions and errors.

Wine Myths and Experiments:
The speaker debunks common wine myths, highlighting experiments that demonstrate the subjective nature of wine tasting. An experiment with white wine dyed red and another with a high-end wine and its cheaper second label showed that people’s taste preferences can be easily influenced.

Challenges in Distinguishing Subtle Differences:
Triangle tests, where participants are asked to identify the odd sample out of three, reveal that distinguishing subtle differences in taste can be challenging, even for experts.

Steam Ovens and Rotor-Stator Homogenizers:
The speaker suggests that steam ovens, which offer an alternative to water baths for sous vide cooking, and rotor-stator homogenizers, which are more efficient blenders, could potentially transition from lab to home use.

Book Availability:
Due to overwhelming demand, the speaker’s book experienced a stockout. A new batch of 25,000 copies is expected to arrive in June and July, with full restocking on Amazon anticipated by mid-August.

Shipping:
Amazon and other retailers place service centers in locations that are quick to reach for in-stock books but difficult to access for shipments from overseas. An example is a service center in southern Illinois that receives books from Seattle by rail and truck, adding 10 days to the shipping process.

Ingredients:
Sodium citrate, also known as sour salt, can be found in the kosher section of grocery stores and is used during Passover. Xanthan gum is available in the Bob’s Red Mill section of pancake mixes and flowers at stores like Safeway and Whole Foods. Chef Rubber, a website that originally sold flexible molds to pastry chefs, now offers a variety of unusual ingredients.

Book Design:
The design team for the books included a full-time art director who previously worked at Scientific American. The team opted to hire an art director directly rather than work with an outside art director, as they found it more effective.

Creating a Unique Cookbook:
The science magazine model was chosen for the cookbook, combining photos with technical information. The art director and author collaborated on the design, with two photographers capturing most of the images.

Health Implications of New Ingredients:
A chapter dedicated to food and health addresses concerns about the safety of unfamiliar ingredients. New ingredients have been tested, while older ones have not, leading to a perception of safety. GRAS (generally recognized as safe) classification means no formal testing has been conducted.

Statistical Evidence on Health Claims:
Statistical studies show weak or no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease or cancer. Similar findings for fiber and colon cancer; correlation may be due to food companies’ marketing efforts. Controlled studies on fiber supplements showed no effect on colon cancer.

The Nurses Study:
A study of 86,000 nurses over 25 years revealed no higher coronary death rate among butter eaters. Margarine eaters had four times the death rate due to trans fats, which were used in margarine at the time.

Favorite Recipe:
A simple but delicious scrambled egg recipe is a personal favorite of the author. The secret lies in using two whole eggs and one egg yolk for a richer flavor and texture. Cooking in a steam oven or sous vide ensures perfect results every time.