Kiki & Lala

I’m saving my pennies to buy The Modernist Cuisine. Its a 5 volume book on cuisine.

It looks at cuisine more than just an art but as a science.  It debunks old myths and answers festering questions like:

• Why plung­ing food in ice water doesn’t stop the cook­ing process; Uh-oh…
• When boil­ing cooks faster than steaming;
• Why rais­ing the grill doesn’t lower the heat;
• How low-cost pots and pans can per­form bet­ter than expen­sive ones; Yes!
• Why bak­ing is mostly a dry­ing process;
• Why deep-fried food tastes best and browns bet­ter when the oil is older;
• How mod­ern cook­ing tech­niques can achieve ideal results with­out the per­fect tim­ing or good luck that tra­di­tional meth­ods demand

So it’s a very technical and scientific approach to cooking and for information obsessed Geminis like you and me, I think this would be a great way to understand the world of cooking.  The book is the  brainchild of a bunch of scientists and cuisine artists: Nathan Myhrvold, an inventor and founder of Microsoft research; Chris Young  and Maxime Bilet from the Fat Duck.

It costs close to $500.  So perhaps you could pass the hat back home and get me this for my birthday?