The amazing 'Modernist Cuisine' of Nathan Myhrvold

Here's another interesting TED Talk presentation by Nathan Mhyrvold who wrote "Modernist Cuisine". At first, I thought here's another take at fusion recipes that would end up as being "pautot" or pretty food that's pretty unpalatable. however, after seeing his Ted talk, this is obviously not the case. Rather, this is kitchen geekness at its finest.

Click on the picture to go to the book's Facebook page

What he did was the equivalent of poking through meat as it is being grilled and opening a bottle of pickles being pasteurized. He basically cut things in half, cooked through them to see what happens to food as it is being cooked.

The guy is a polymath who used to work with Microsoft and in 1999, put his energy into different interests like archeology, photogrpahy and world barbecue championships. It's not surprising then that the cookbook is a documented journey to the inner sanctums of gastronomy.

Watch out for the popcorn and the gelatin videos... and wish me luck in getting a copy of the 6th edition that has washable pages.

Click on the photo to watch the TED Talks video

Food TED TALKS- Dan Barber's Foie Gras parable

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Had my first foie gras when I was already an adult. Goes without saying that learned about gavage, or the act of force feeding a duck so its liver gets fattened 6 times the normal size. The thought of the cruelty puts some conscience on the table. But as Dan Barber said, "It's just freaking delicious!"

 Some controversy has come out of his farming ethics but this geese farmer, Eduardo Sousa, is amazing in his conviction to raise the animals in a more 'natural' setting.

As I sit here, typing, dreaming of a culinary tour of Spain, I am adding a visit to his farm and tasting the foie gras that promises to bring the taste of sunshine to my humble palate.

On TED TALKS- An 11-year old kid talks about what's wrong with our food

This kid can make you feel guilty about the food you're eating but he's got a point.

Click on the photo to go to the website

His profile from the TED TALKS website:
11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production.