"Modernist Cuisine" now a bargain?

You may remember that last year Nathan Myhrvold published the 4-volume, 2,500 page "Modernist Cuisine", the most comprehensive guide to high-tech cooking ever. Its price was $625 and the Dover Public Library did not purchase it. Yet, it did sell over 50,000 copies around the world.

Now Myhrvolt is set to release "Modernist Cuisine at Home", the sort-of abridged version of the original, and only $140 (!) for 456 gadget-packed foodie pages. Publishers Weekly says this is the stuff for true kitchen scientists, with suggestions for digital scales, injectors, dehydraters, and blowtorches. "As a result," says the PW review, "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 listed side by side."

We've had no requests for either of these tomes but they would be fun to see. Our patrons seem to prefer to cook with the Pioneer Lady, Rachael Ray, the Barefoot Contessa, Giada DeLaurentis, Emeril Lagasse, and other more traditional chefs, yes even Martha Stewart (who did write a foreword for Myhrvold's new release). Many cookbooks are now in the $35-$50 range, but I still cannot see paying $140 for a cookbook! (Although a donation of the book would be cheerfully accepted!)