Plated-Dish Recipes

by Nathan Myhrvold

THE RECIPES YOU’LL FIND IN THIS BOOK ARE QUITE DIFFER­ENT from those you see in most cook books. The point of Modernist Cuisine is that we’re look ing at cook ing from new angles, with a dis tinct inter est in sub jects not com monly cov ered in culi nary books. So it stands to rea son that our recipes look some what dif fer ent from those in other cook books. The goal here is to break down recipes in such a way that you bet ter under­stand not just the what (ingredients) and the how (methods), but also the why. To accomplish this, we needed a new for mat for pre sent ing recipes.

Think of this as a textbook, with recipes used in the way that other text­books might use exam ple prob lems or case stud ies. The com pact, modular form in which we present our recipes makes them a broader resource for instruction and inspiration. They’re meant to help you both under stand the prac ti cal appli ca tions of culi nary prin ci ples and visualize how you might apply those principles in other contexts.

In these four volumes, you’ll find a huge variety of recipes and foods. Although we are telling the story of Modernist cuisine, our recipes are not lim ited to cutting-edge dishes. Instead, we cover every thing from American regional bar be cue to innovative fla vored gels. The point is not to tout mod­ern approaches or sci ence for its own sake but to illus trate how the principles of Modernist cooking can, and should, be applied across a wide range of recipes.

Genres: Cooking, Cookbooks

404 pages, Hardcover

About the author

Nathan Myhrvold, founder of The Cooking Lab, has had a passion for science, cooking, and photography since he was a boy. By the age of 13, Nathan had already cooked the family Thanksgiving feast and transformed the household bathroom into a darkroom.

Myhrvold holds a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics as well as a master's degree in economics from Princeton University. He holds additional master's degrees in geophysics and space physics and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. At Cambridge University, Myhrvold did postdoctoral work with Stephen Hawking in cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space-time, and quantum theories of gravitation, all before starting a software company that would be acquired by Microsoft.

As his career developed, he still found time to explore the culinary world and photography. While working directly for Bill Gates as the first chief technology officer at Microsoft, Nathan was part of the team that won the Memphis World Championship Barbecue contest; he worked as a stagier at Chef Thierry Rautureau's restaurant Rover's, in Seattle; he then took a leave of absence to earn his culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne, in France.

Nathan retired from Microsoft in 1999 to found Intellectual Ventures and pursue several lifelong interests in photography, cooking, and food science. Unable to find practical information about sous vide cooking, he decided to write the book he felt was missing--one that provided a scientific explanation of the cooking process, the history of cooking, and the techniques, equipment, and recipes involved in Modernist cooking. Inspired by this void in cooking literature, he decided to share the science of cooking and wonders of Modernist cuisine with others, hoping to pass on his own curiosity and passion for the movement.

In the process of creating his first book, Nathan founded The Cooking Lab, hired an interdisciplinary team that included scientists, research chefs, and writers, and published the much-acclaimed six-volume,Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.