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Seeking Modernist Cookbook Help

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I am seeking help in choosing a cookbook to give to a young cook that highlights modernist cooking techniques, that will inspire them to push their cooking boundaries. Ideally the book will contain food porn images, amazing recipes, but also contain something that a starving student can try to replicate. Price point ~USD50 (sorry MC and MC@H your are too expensive for this).

I am thinking of Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook, but I hear the recipes are volumetric not weight based - not ideal for a modernist book.

Anyone have other ideas?

Cookbooks that I am reading at the moment, that I am also thinking of include:
Au Pied de Conchon, Martin Picard (not very modernist but great book)
Mourad - New Moroccan, Mourad Lahlou (very good)
Degustation, Alain Fabregues (very expensive here in the US, but great small plate classic French inspired dishes)
Quay, Peter Gilmore (wonderful book, but the ingredients are not that easy to find)
Marque, Mark Best (not the easiest recipes to follow, but one of the top 3 cook books I own)
Joe Beef, Frédéric Morin, David McMillan and Meredith Erickson (it must be that I was born north of the 49th parallel, but I enjoy cookbooks from crazy Montrealers)

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Comments

Corey_37766

Recently got this: http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Michael-Elfwing/dp/9814328391

Very solid recipes utilizing modernist techniques, and Australian/Malaysian influences. Michael Elfwing is executive chef at Senses in Kuala Lumpur.

susan_fox_33805

Wow @Tim you just made my year! Glad I spent my lunch hour with the great ChefSteps community!

Jack_Mayer_85396

Thanks @Tim!

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Search "pdf modernist cuisine books free" of something like that and you can find links for the books. You can also find MC @ Home.

I find the pdf good for reading the text sections of the book, but the recipes I find difficult to follow and the large cut away photos lose all of their impact. This is due to the book been designed as a large format book to be read on a table. It is also a pain jumping to a known page in the book, for Volume 1 you need to subtract 16 to the pdf page to get that page in the book i.e. pdf page 116 is page 100 in the book. Volume 2 is subtract 10 pages and so on. As an interim it does mean you can find (eventually) the recipes.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Grant - do you have a link for the pdf of MC? Thanks!

seijoed

@Grant, are we supposed to have that?

grant

You can also download a free pdf of MC online. All the students at Johnson and Wales University have it.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

The Alinea book is great and it is actually next to my keyboard now (stole the lettuce ice from it for last night's salad). For under $40 it will keep you busy in the kitchen for years.

grant

Late to the game here but I think the Alinea cookbook is the best bang for your buck these days, hands down for me.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Great now my Amazon wish list is even longer.

As I only have two helpers for my event (seven said they were interested) I bought them both Modernist Cuisine at Home.

Corey_37766

Ideas in Food by Aki and Alex of the very same blog is a good resource. No pictures, but it's already inspired me to make some vinegar and a few other projects.

I also recently picked up Elements of Dessert by Francisco Migoya which is a CIA textbook. This is an incredible resource for ALL chefs - not just pastry. He touches on both classical and modernist methods.

Also, Bentley by Brent Savage is great. It incorporates a lot of modernist techniques, but the recipes are very accessible (to this community anyway). The restaurant is based in Australia so I had never heard of it. I bought the book sight unseen, but I don't regret the purchase one bit.

I basically can't stop buying books

seijoed

I'm politely gonna point out that there are many strange/conflicting things in Under pressure.

jim_53915

I would agree with 11 Madison park as a good intro book because it highlights some modern techniques but also the classic standards too. The French Laundry Cookbook is also a must along with Under Pressure by Thomas keller. The Fat Duck Cookbook is great and definitely well worth picking up if the MC & MC@H cookbooks are out of reach financially. Alinea is nice, but I believe that some of the details are omitted from the book when trying to replicate recipies and it does not explain much to beginning chefs. The other books do however help beginning chefs by laying out basic foundations on which to build and experiment.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

I got Happy in the Kitchen after working with a guy that worked with Michel Richard at Citronelle in DC. I agree the book is very good.

Jack_Mayer_85396

I'll second the recommendation for Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen! Lots of modernist concepts before anyone was calling it that.

prince_of_porcelain

One I don't see get too many mentions is Mission Street Food. I found it to be a great book that dabbles in some modernist ideas, but is extremely accessible. It's a little light on recipes though. Science of Good Cooking is a good choice, but On Food and Cooking is better. Neither have much in the way of food porn imagery though. I like the Alinea and Fat Duck books, but both could be overwhelming (or inspiring!) as starters. Momofuku is good. Happy in the Kitchen is one that somebody here recommended and I picked up recently. Still going through it, but it fits all the categories you're looking for. I think this would be a great option.

Volt, Blais and Joe Beef are on my list to check out, but haven't got to them yet.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Tim, I just picked up a copy of The Science of Good Cooking at Costco for cheap (at the Dallas Tollway and Park Blvd location).

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Under Pressure I find dated now, but it was great 3 years ago when it was the only SV cookbook out there. I prefer The French Laundry for inspiration.

I have Volt, Inc but I haven't flicked through it in a while. I'll have another look.

The Fat Duck I have had for a number of years and I find it great. I have showed it to culinary students/line cooks before and they get scared of the walls of text before they try the recipes. I have been impressed with Heston's cooking shows so I may look at books related to those shows.

I need to go to a bookstore to see LudoBites and Modernist Cusine Made Easy. Another book I have been impressed with is the Cook's Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking.

Modernist Cuisine Made Easy - Getting Started

seijoed

I don't know if they are entry level or modernist but two fantastic books are Alinea and L'Astrance - if only for pictures.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Corey -- thanks for the heads up on the Blais book, I'll check it out.

@Johan, I agree with your assessment of Keller's book.

seijoed

@Sumit - under pressure isn't what I'd recommend as a starter book, as a coffee table book it is great, many of the recipes also have strange temps and a very large amount of ingredients, especially the desserts.

Corey_37766

I would agree with all the suggestions above and also add the new Richard Blais book Try This at Home. The recipes are a very good compromise of accessibility and modernist flair. The price is awesome as well at $17.00 from Amazon.

Don't be afraid to buy used from Amazon from reputable sellers. With your budget you could get 2-3 excellent books.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Tim, another possibility for you is "Modernist Cuisine Made Easy - Getting Started" by Jason Logsdon. I got my copy from Amazon again for about $20-$25.

matthew.snyder77

Can't recommend the Fat Duck Cookbook enough for this. The food science portion of that book was, imo, the reference point for graduate-level cookery before Modernist Cuisine was published. As the blurb on the back says, the material is so voluminous they had to shrink the font size to get it all in the book. If I'm not mistaken ChefSteps' own @Chris was responsible for writing most (if not all) of that material, so it's sort of like the rough draft of MC.

Also must second the motion for "Volt, ink." This book has a cache of modern techniques, but I think it's best value comes from the imaginative ways unexpected flavors are brought together. (YMMV, but to me this is the real heart of modernist cooking.) For example, I just opened my copy to a random page and got this dish: Venison, Root Beer Molasses, Butternut Bark, Charred Sprout Leaves.

Another book I'd recommend - even tho the author claims to now be 'over' modern cooking - is LudoBites by Ludo Lefebvre. If for no other reason it will get you his fried chicken recipe, which is worth the price of the book alone.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Tim check out "Volt, Inc." from the Voltaggio brothers. I just ordered it from amazon for $17 plus shipping ($3.99). If you want to look it over first, Williams-Sonoma at Norhtpark mall has it. Hope this helps!

tonybatty_36486

Heston Blumenthal at Home is a good book with modernist approaches to doable food. Some might find it at not stretching enough in modernist terms in comparison with MC and MC@H, both of which I have, but I found it to be a good introduction. Also relatively cheap at least on Amazon UK. You will have to check if the UK book (everything by metric weight ) has had an american makeover to volume measurements which sometimes happens.

Sumit__65166

how about under pressure from thomas keller?

Brendan_Lee_56950

I have the EMP book. It's beautiful but that's my biggest gripe with it as well. I haven't cooked anything directly from it for that reason. It's very inspiring though.