Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The culinary revolution that has transformed restaurant menus around the world is also making its way into home kitchens. The Cooking Lab, publisher of the encyclopedic six-volume set Modernist Cuisine, which immediately became the definitive reference for this revolution, has now produced a lavishly illustrated guide for home cooks, complete with all-new recipes tailored for cooking enthusiasts of all skill levels. Modernist Cuisine at Home, by Nathan Myhrvold with Maxime Bilet, is destined to set a new standard for home cookbooks. The authors have collected in this 456-page volume all the essential information that any cook needs to stock a modern kitchen, to master Modernist techniques, and to make hundreds of stunning recipes. The book includes a spiral-bound Kitchen Manual that reprints all of the recipes and reference tables on waterproof, tear-resistant paper. Drawing on the same commitment to perfection that produced Modernist Cuisine, Modernist Cuisine at Home applies innovations pioneered by The Cooking Lab to refine classic home dishes, from hamburgers and wings to macaroni and cheese. More than 400 new recipes are included, most with step-by-step photos that make it easy to bring dining of the highest quality to your own dinner table.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

It is instructive to know that before Myhrvold became an expert on the science of cooking, he was the first chief technology officer at Microsoft. Aided by deft, culinary handyman Bilet, he has assembled a "device" that is as visually stunning as it is scientifically vigorous and mathematically complex. Essentially a desktop version of the authors' 2,400-page mainframe (Modernist Cuisine, 2011), the book is divided into two sections. Part one focuses on the machinery of the modernist kitchen, exploring the tools needed to pull off such inventive restaurant techniques as sous vide, and expounding upon the joys of whipping siphons, blowtorches, and pressure cookers. Many of the accompanying photos provide striking cutaway views of gadgets. It's Popular Science on steroids. Part two is a collection of 406 recipes, primarily comfort foods that have found their way into a lab to have their DNA experimented upon. There are more than a dozen variants of chicken noodle soup, from pho to goulash broth, and nine types of mac and cheese, including a mac with jack and stilton. Each entry is a study in metric system precision, with ingredient charts listing not only amounts (in grams), but also volume, as well as a scaling percentage to be used in calculating the number of servings. Photos illuminate every step of the instructions for more than 100 of the recipes, and notations are made when special equipment and ingredients are required. As a result, it is a safe bet that their turkey confit recipe is one of the very few places where the terms needle-nose pliers and duck fat can be found listed side by side." (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Dr. Nathan Myhrvold is chief executive officer and a founder of Intellectual Ventures, a firm dedicated to creating and investing in inventions. In addition to stimulating the invention of others, Myhrvold is himself an active inventor, with nearly 250 patents issued or pending--including several related to food technology. Before founding his invention company, Myhrvold was the first chief technology officer at Microsoft. He established Microsoft Research, and during his tenure he oversaw many advanced technology projects. He left Microsoft in 1999 to pursue several interests, including a lifelong interest in cooking and food science.

Myhrvold competed on a team that won first place in several categories at the 1991 World Championship of Barbecue, including first prize in the special pasta category for a recipe that Myhrvold developed on the day of the contest.

After working for two years as a stagier at Seattle's top French restaurant, Rover's, Myhrvold completed culinary training with renowned chef Anne Willan at the Ecole De La Varenne. In addition, he has worked as Chief Gastronomic Officer for Zagat Survey, publisher of the popular Zagat restaurant guidebooks. Through his many visits to the world's top restaurants, Myhrvold has become personally acquainted with many of the leading Modernist chefs and the science-inspired cooking techniques they have pioneered.

Myhrvold is himself an accomplished practitioner of Modernist cuisine. He has contributed original research on cooking sous vide to online culinary forums, and his sous vide techniques have been covered in the New York Times Magazine, Wired, and PBS's "Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie" television series.

Myhrvold's formal education includes degrees in mathematics, geophysics, and space physics from UCLA, and PhDs in mathematical economics and theoretical physics from Princeton University. In his post-doctoral work at Cambridge University, Myhrvold worked on quantum theories of gravity with the renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking.

Maxime Bilet received a BA in creative writing, literature, and visual arts from Skidmore College. Bilet then graduated with highest honors from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. He completed a stage at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar and was quickly hired to the head chef position there by Jack Lamb. Moving to London, he accepted a stage with Heston Blumenthal's development team at The Fat Duck. Just prior to joining the culinary team as head chef for recipe research and development at The Cooking Lab, Bilet trained as sous chef to open the London branch of Auberge de L'Ile. In 2011, Bilet was named to Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 list in the category of Food and Wine.