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This book is just pretentious and expensive bullshit. It is just hype to grab fools' money. If you want to know how much "science-infused" is this cooking just

This book is just pretentious and expensive bullshit. It is just hype to grab fools' money. If you want to know how much "science-infused" is this cooking just look at any picture of its author. Nathan Myrvhold is obviously overweight, a sure sign that he doesn't understand nutrition or basics of health science. You don't need spherification, sous-vide baths or ultra-speed blenders to make tasty and healthy food. All you need is lots of practice, good taste and good quality ingredients. Developed countries have this weird obsession of over-engineering things that don't need to be complicated. It is not only Americans that do that, Germans and Japanese are very much the same.

wbl 2y ago
Once I moved to California I understood farm to table.
Moosdijk 2y ago
You're jumping to conclusions that aren't logical (at least not without you listing your assumptions that led to this post). There's more science to food than just nutrition and health. Also, that you can make tasty and healthy food without the technology you mentioned, does not exclude the technology from having a place in a kitchen. Lastly, how do you objectively define "weird obsession". Can you give some examples of countries that do not share this "weird obsession"?
- diego_moita 2y ago
  > There's more science to food than just nutrition and health. Maybe. But nutrition and health is what should mater the most, if you don't want to end up with a country of overweight people. > does not exclude the technology from having a place in a kitchen Certainly. From fridges and washing machines to food processors and electric stoves technology is more than welcome to the kitchen. But is always a cost/value calculation. And if you're not a billionaire patent troll like the author of that book then a lot of the gadgets and techniques he advocates are just not worth it. > Can you give some examples of countries that do not share this "weird obsession"? On cooking? Sure! Mexico, India, Colombia, Brazil, most of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Thailand, ... all of them with fantastic cuisines based mostly on the freshness of their ingredients, with little preparation, straight from the ground/sea to the table.
  - Agingcoder 2y ago
    At least the Arab world has a very wide range of dishes which require a large amount of preparation or require a fair amount of cooking time, so I would disagree with the ‘little preparation’ and ‘straight to the table’ descriptions you’re using. I’m most familiar with the Lebanese side of things , but I understand it translates to Morocco ( eg tagine, pastilla ) as well. Now, this doesn’t invalidate your main point ( sophisticated tech is not a hard requirement for good food ) but afaik, some of the most famous dishes in the cuisines you listed do require specific equipment ( tagines, tandoors ) and don’t fall under the ‘ straight from the ground to the table ‘ umbrella.
    - diego_moita 2y ago
      Read that "Modernist Cuisine" book. It is what we're talking about in this thread, as you probably didn't notice. The tools and dishes you mention are way off-topic when compared to the chemistry lab on that book.

wbl 2y ago

Once I moved to California I understood farm to table.

Moosdijk 2y ago

You're jumping to conclusions that aren't logical (at least not without you listing your assumptions that led to this post). There's more science to food than just nutrition and health. Also, that you can make tasty and healthy food without the technology you mentioned, does not exclude the technology from having a place in a kitchen. Lastly, how do you objectively define "weird obsession". Can you give some examples of countries that do not share this "weird obsession"?

diego_moita 2y ago
> There's more science to food than just nutrition and health. Maybe. But nutrition and health is what should mater the most, if you don't want to end up with a country of overweight people. > does not exclude the technology from having a place in a kitchen Certainly. From fridges and washing machines to food processors and electric stoves technology is more than welcome to the kitchen. But is always a cost/value calculation. And if you're not a billionaire patent troll like the author of that book then a lot of the gadgets and techniques he advocates are just not worth it. > Can you give some examples of countries that do not share this "weird obsession"? On cooking? Sure! Mexico, India, Colombia, Brazil, most of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Thailand, ... all of them with fantastic cuisines based mostly on the freshness of their ingredients, with little preparation, straight from the ground/sea to the table.
- Agingcoder 2y ago
  At least the Arab world has a very wide range of dishes which require a large amount of preparation or require a fair amount of cooking time, so I would disagree with the ‘little preparation’ and ‘straight to the table’ descriptions you’re using. I’m most familiar with the Lebanese side of things , but I understand it translates to Morocco ( eg tagine, pastilla ) as well. Now, this doesn’t invalidate your main point ( sophisticated tech is not a hard requirement for good food ) but afaik, some of the most famous dishes in the cuisines you listed do require specific equipment ( tagines, tandoors ) and don’t fall under the ‘ straight from the ground to the table ‘ umbrella.
  - diego_moita 2y ago
    Read that "Modernist Cuisine" book. It is what we're talking about in this thread, as you probably didn't notice. The tools and dishes you mention are way off-topic when compared to the chemistry lab on that book.