I just finished the first section of Modernist Cuisine which goes over the history which eventually lead to this book being written. This is my first impressions as I begin to immerse myself in this six volume tome.
The first thing that strikes me is that the books are huge, beautifully illustrated works of art. Except for the last volume, which is more of a quick kitchen reference, each book is in itself a coffee table book which can be left out for guests to leaf through and admire. This is where the first fault becomes evident. In its attempt to be a work of art it forgets that its utilitarian purpose is to be read. This is made difficult by the size and weight of each volume (the whole set weighed in around 47lbs.) which requires a coffee table or desk to read. While not a deal breaker it does put a crimp on being able to read a couple of pages before I go to bed each night. The book more than makes up for this short coming by sporting easy to read text and an easy to follow writing style.
As I had stated, the first section revolves around the history of cooking leading up to the modernist style. While very well written and packed full of informational tidbits such as short exposes on most of the important figures in modernist cooking today, it does show the inherent short comings of history being written by an impassioned insider instead of an objective historian. The text often comes off as defensive, lamenting on how the movement is often misunderstood and then aggrandising itself by drawing comparisons to the Impressionist art movement. This would be a completely valid comparison if done by an impartial observer but comes off a bit self serving when written by someone who can be considered a participant in said history. To the author’s credit, he does acknowledge it is a history as far as he saw it and others may have different versions to tell. The text also seems schizophrenic at times. At one point it seems to lament on the lack of legal protections for recipes but then tells us that a good modernist chef rejects secrets and instead seeks to share their knowledge with others. A more objective writer might have balanced the discussion of intellectual property by musing on whether or not the lack of legal protections has in fact fueled the creativity that is the hallmark of the modernist movement.
Once past these few glaring injections of the author’s ideologies, the book is actually shaping up to be a great read and a good start to what could be the seminal cookbook on modernist cuisine. It will also probably be the first one I read cover to cover instead of just rifling through to find some ideas for dinner. The next few chapters consist of a microbiology primer and fundamentals of food safety. I will post another review when I am done with those.
[read this post in: ar de es fr it ja ko pt ru zh-CN ]
I think this is a bit expensive for me at the moment.
I also think that the time of modernist cuisine is probably over, with the return to natural cooking and focus on ingredients over process.
Comment by Christof — April 26, 2011 @ 4:45 am
It is expensive but then again it is laid out like a whole graduate course in cooking and these are just the textbooks. Put into that perspective it is actually quite a good deal (being that textbooks these days run about $100 a pop).
I actually think this book will kickstart modernist cuisine. Harvard just had a lecture series on it and I wouldn’t be surprised if Harvard and MIT start offering it as a regular degree at some point.
I do agree with your assertion that we will start to focus more on the ingredients than the process (in fact that is already happening with local farms and farmers markets growing exponentially). I got the books to become a better cook by understanding the properties of food, but that is how it has always been. Let the modernists, the avant guard, innovate without boundaries and let the rest of us learn from their techniques to bring our own take on food within our own self imposed boundaries. That is the nature of progression.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive. The modernists put a high premium on ethically sourced food. Chemicals are a small portion of what goes into cooking. Certainly less than today’s highly processed foods. Some chemicals are wholly natural such as agar agar which is simply a seaweed extract that has been consumed for thousands of years in Japan. In the case of ln2, the nitrogen boils off and has no way of staying within the food that is cooked in it. In fact ln2 can be thought of as the same as fire but on the other end of the heat spectrum. It is a cooking agent, not an ingredient. Also lye, a powerful base that would kill you instantly if you drank it, has been used in pretzel and bagel making for a long time to create those amazing crusts (the base properties of the lye cause a chemical reaction with the bread but you don’t end up consuming the lye in the final product).
Cooking and eating is one big chemical reaction (or a multitude of smaller ones depending on your point of view).
Comment by J5 — April 26, 2011 @ 12:02 pm
I look forward to your opinion while you progress through them. Maybe you wet my appetite
I am going to put them on my wish-list anyway. Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine is also on there.
I just bought Vefa’s Kitchen, which is one of the nicest cook books I have (and I have quite a collection), it is about traditional Greek cuisine and very well written and illustrated.
I live in Barcelona and I always wanted to go to El Bulli, but never made it through the reservation progress.
Comment by Christof — April 26, 2011 @ 4:27 pm