Photo: Courtesy modernistcuisine.com

Many foodies wouldn’t hesitate to spend $15.82 per pound on a fantastic cheese. What about that price for a book? A 39.5 pound book? Your total is $625.

Shop online for it and, no surprise, pay less: $467.62 or $11.84 per pound.

In a review of said book, “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking” by Nathan Myhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, NY Times writer Michael Ruhlman described it as “descending this week on the culinary scene like a meteor.” Knowing the weight of the work, the paper’s metaphor may not be far off.
Culinarians recognize Ferran Adrià for founding this modern movement with the development and popularization of molecular gastronomy. Myhrvold’s book, however, takes this concept further. Much, much further.

Nathan Myhrvold, 51, is the former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, an award-winning nature photographer and an inventor. Oh, right, he also managed to squeeze in a side career as a culinary professional. Now he is perhaps the most talked about, well-respected author on cuisine in this decade as well.

His book includes 1,522 recipes and 3,216 photos in 2,438 pages. A mammoth six volumes, the book stands as a compilation of Myhrvold and his team of 45 others’ five-year efforts to document this monumentally important approach to cooking. (Take an interactive look at an exerpt here from the Wall Street Journal.)

The Times’ Ruhlman estimates that the project cost between one and ten million dollars. At that expense, the least we can do is give it a leaf-through, if not an actual read. But if you’re short on space, or cash, it might have to be from the public library.

I, for one, can’t wait to get on that waiting list.

*Note: Sources vary on the weight of the book from 39.5 pounds to 42 pounds. Regardless, it’s heavy.