The New Face of Modernistcuisine.com

If you’ve logged on to modernistcuisine.com recently, you probably noticed some changes, which include our new bread project and a few personnel additions to the Modernist Cuisine team. We’ve been working hard to improve our website in order to satisfy our main goal: to make it more user-friendly, while providing an experience that truly reflects everything we love about Modernist Cuisine: gorgeous photography, solid design features, and useful information. You’ll also find new content—tour the volumes of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, explore the anatomy of a Modernist Cuisine at Home recipe, or strike up a conversation with Nathan about Modernist cooking.

What is yet to come?

We’re still in the first phase of construction, but you can expect even more content in the coming months. Many of you have expressed concern about our full-text search: we know this is a valuable resource, especially when it comes to working through Modernist Cuisine. We are working to create a more user-friendly experience so that it is easier to find information and navigate through the volumes. You can expect an updated, comprehensive gear guide, as well as recipes developed exclusively for the site.

What about the forum?

When we sat down to begin mapping out the new site, one of our biggest questions was, “What do we do with our forum?” As many of our readers noted, our forum had become plagued with spam, making it difficult to use and for the Modernist Cuisine team to respond. We want to provide our forum members with a space that will foster learning and conversations about Modernist recipes, techniques, and ingredients, so, after putting considerable thought into it, we determined there is no better home for these discussions than our good friend, eGullet. Their site is a tremendous resource for both professional chefs and home cooks who have an interest in Modernist cooking. In fact, the origins of Modernist Cuisine can be traced to the infamous eGullet thread about cooking sous vide that was started by Nathan. That discussion was the inspiration for Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.

Here’s what you need to know about the transition:

  • All content from the modernistcuisine.com forums has been directly integrated into the eGullet forums. You’ll be able to search eGullet for any topics posted on our site; all imported content has been tagged as “Modernist Cuisine Forums,” so it’s easy to find. Our team will now be weighing in on topics and answering questions through eGullet.
  • Your privacy is important to us, which is why we anonymized every post imported to eGullet. No personally identifiable information was transferred, and no IP addresses or related information were retained. Read eGullet’s privacy statement here.
  • It will be easy to continue your discussions in the forum’s new home, but that choice is entirely yours. To facilitate the transition, eGullet created easily activated dummy accounts for each member of the Modernist Cuisine forum. If you decide to create an eGullet account, every post you make on the modernistcuisine.com forum will appear with your new username.

To activate your account on eGullet, send an e-mail to feedback@egullet.org using the account you registered with Modernist Cuisine. Please include the username you wish to use, or, if you are already an eGullet member and would like your accounts merged, let us know in the e-mail.

We hope you take some time to explore and enjoy the new modernistcuisine.com.

The Art and Science of Bread

We are frequently asked what our next big project will be, and for almost a year we’ve alluded to “having something in the works.” In actuality, our culinary team has been working overtime baking and learning about bread. From crust to crumb, we are excited to finally reveal that our next book will be entirely devoted to the art and science of bread.

Why bread? Because it’s so ubiquitous that we now have vast, daunting selections of breads to choose from at most grocery chains. Many of us have started taking the bread course for granted when dining out. But bread shouldn’t be an afterthought on the table or simply a building block for sandwiches—breaking open a good loaf of bread, fresh from the oven, is an experience that can evoke nostalgia for years to follow. For many of us, however, baking bread at home is intimidating and shrouded in mystery. Unlike cooking, most breads are made by varying the amounts of four simple ingredients: flour, water, salt, and, of course, yeast. Yet the simplicity of these ingredients is complicated by the intricate science of the bread-baking process and by the fact that bakers must contend with an ingredient that is alive and sensitive to its environment.

With thousands of years of wisdom that inform techniques still used today, the art of baking bread is steeped in tradition. As such, we are researching bread’s rich past and studying the science therein. We have been fortunate to meet a number of talented bakers and chefs who are sharing their expertise and knowledge with us, and we remain on the lookout for new experts and resources.

This project comes with another exciting announcement as we welcome to our team Francisco Migoya as head chef and Peter Reinhart as assignments editor. We are incredibly lucky to have recruited two individuals whose contributions to pastry and baking have already set the bar high.

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Under the leadership of head chef Migoya, our bread program has blossomed in a relatively short time. His passion has led him to push the boundaries of pastry arts in savory, pastry, viennoiserie, and bread. Chef Migoya pairs sublime flavors with Modernist techniques to create exquisite, avant-garde pastries and chocolates that are almost too stunning to eat. Having worked as executive pastry chef at The French Laundry, and most recently as a professor at The Culinary Institute of America, his work has earned him recognition as one of the top pastry chefs in the country by both the Huffington Post and Dessert Professional, and he has been imparted Medal of Master Artisan Pastry Chef by Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona. Chef Migoya has authored three pastry books, winning a 2014 award for The Elements of Dessert from International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

Peter Reinhart Photo Credit Ron Manville

One of the leading authorities on bread, Peter Reinhart will lend his extensive expertise to this project. As a full-time chef on assignment at Johnson & Wales University, Peter teaches courses on baking and the juncture of food and culture. A best-selling author of nine books, his approachable methodologies and techniques have been embraced by home bakers and earned him numerous awards, including Book of the Year (2002) for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice from both IACP and the James Beard Foundation. Additionally, he won James Beard Foundation awards for Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads (2008) and Crust and Crumb (1997), with a nomination for Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day. His newest book, Bread Revolution, will be released in the fall of 2014.

Our hope for this project is that, by revealing the history, science, and techniques of baking bread, we will create an in-depth multivolume set of books that will be useful and accessible to amateur home bakers, passionate bread enthusiasts, restaurants, and small-scale bakeries alike. But because we are in the beginning stages of this book, we do not know how many volumes it will be or when it will go on sale. There is a lot for us to decide, but we will stay true to the approaches used for Modernist Cuisine, so readers can expect the same level of rigor and detail in our writing, illustrations, and photography as we attempt to showcase bread in a new light.

If you have a burning question about this project, or would like to contribute your expertise, we would love to hear from you. Please contact breadcontributions@modernistcuisine.com.

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