Have you ever wondered, pound for pound, which costs more, Modernist Cuisine at Home or Parmesan cheese? Nathan does the math in the Google Talks video above, and, as it turns out, our new book is a steal. Nathan also discusses printing quality, why you shouldn’t dismiss blowtorches, how he found inspiration on eGullet, and much, much more.
Dr. Nathan Myhrvold,
I’m a senior in high school in Park Ridge, Illinois, right outside of Chicago. I’m fascinated by molecular gastronomy, pretty much the entire concept of the way chefs, like you, use science to create works of edible art.
I’m doing a research paper on molecular gastronomy. Could you share with me why this cuisine has taken off the way it has? Or how it compares/contrasts with a more traditional way of cooking?
Yours truly,
Ivana Osmanovic
So, just as another antedoce in the don’t try this at home with LN category, when I was a kid growing up in Irvine, CA, we would go each year to the UC Irvine Open House where various departments would put on displays and demonstrations, including fun stuff from the engineering and physics departments (like tours of the nuclear reactor before having one became somewhat less trendy after Three Mile Island). One year (circa 1971) there were some students who had a huge glass dewar full of liquid N to probably 20 inches in depth or so. One of them would plunge his entire arm into this up to nearly the shoulder for several seconds, providing the most impressive demonstration of the Leidenfrost effect that I’ve ever seen.So, ya know, the whole fingers thing just isn’t that impressive by comparison G.