I'm nothing if not endlessly fascinated by Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine cookbook. Not enough to actually buy the 40 pound, $625 tome; but I do perk up and watch in rapt attention when it pops up in the news.
Last Friday, the ex-Microsoft CTO who holds more advanced degrees than some people parking tickets showed up in a lengthy segment on ABC's Nightline to talk about the project. He hints that there may be a second set of books on the way; but mostly the video provides a fascinating glimpse into his mad-scientist's lab and a demonstration of a few recipes, including a mac and cheese that the modern-day Renaissance man claims anybody can do at home.
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I say “claims” because it assumes you have the iota carrageenan and sodium citrate that the recipe calls for. If you don't happen to have them in your pantry (and you call yourself a cook?) and you decide you want to attempt the dish as a side for Myhrvold's idea of a perfect hamburger, there's plenty of time to find those ingredients: the hamburger takes 30 hours to cook.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.