It's no surprise that this year's James Beard Journalism Award for Cookbook of the Year went to Modernist Cuisine, the 2,400 page tome that catalogued and codified many of the techniques that chefs and food scientists have developed over the last few decades. Last year we were fortunate enough to get a look behind the scenes at the labs where a team of cooks, researchers, writers, and photographers worked for years to produce the book. Now seems like a good time to dust off that old slideshow which offers a unique look at some of the food and techniques that went it it. More

Do you have an aspiring modernist cook on your shopping list this year? Here are some items that will pay themselves off in spades if you think about all of the exciting food they'll (hopefully) feed you as a result. Starter kits, books, grown-up Pop Rocks, and more. More

Modernist cooking may be all the rage today, but back in 2004 it was just getting started, with few resources and even less press. That's when the husband and wife team H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa began their blog Ideas in Food, a digital notebook that chronicled their experiments with hydrocolloids and sous vide machines, and propelled them to the forefront of a whole new world of cooking. Today their work is some of the most authoritative writing on modernist cuisine for professionals and home cooks alike. They shared two recipes with us: macaroni and cheese and chocolate pudding. More

These brilliant gems are the perfect antidote to a sickly-saccharine Halloween because the pumpkinseed oil helps them toe the line of savory/sweet. If you're grown up and fancy, you might try serving them as a mignardise during a swank Halloween soiree. More

Hydrocolloids. Reverse spherification. Sous vide. The terminology alone could turn you off. Then there's the tech: low-temperature ovens, iSi whippers, vacuum sealers. Stuff that sounds like it belongs more in a lab than a kitchen, and way outside your price range. Intimidated yet? I am. But whether you like it or not, modernist cuisine (better, though less accurately, known as molecular gastronomy) is here to stay. Truth is, it's a lot less intimidating and weird than you think. And there's nothing stopping you from bringing it to the home kitchen. More

Nathan Myhrvold of Modernist Cuisine stopped by the Colbert Report yesterday to chat with Steven and make 72-hour pastrami and 100% pistachio ice cream. Check out Colbert's reactions to Myhrvold's book. Here are some highlights: "God ordained that things should be boiled, or baked, or fried. Those are the missionary positions of cuisine—you're getting freaky here." "Am I going to die from eating this?... That's just like leaving a piece of beef out in August for three days, and now you want me to eat it." More

Where were Martha Stewart, Padma Lakshmi, Daniel Boulud, Ruth Reichl, Andre Soltner, Tim and Nina Zagat, Wylie Dufresne, Michael Lomanoco, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Johnny Iuzzini (plus myself and Kenji) at 9 this morning? Eating breakfast at Jean-Georges and listening to Modernist Cuisine's Nathan Myhrvold—in town for a week-long whirlwind PR blitz that's drawing attention from the best culinary and scientific minds in the city. More

If you've already had a chance to look at the photos insane dinner I had at the Modernist Cuisine Cooking Lab in Seattle a couple weeks back, you may be interested in knowing what goes into preparing all that food, and the book. Before the meal, we took an extensive tour of the massive warehouse space that houses the Cooking Lab. Ever seen a microwave cut in half? More

The awesome wok shot was made by cutting a wok completely in half and cooking in it. This shot, on the other hand, was an even simpler one: only the lid was cut in half in order to demonstrate inefficiencies when a pot gets heated. More

With stunning images like this, you'd think that computers and Photoshop played a huge role in the production of the artwork from Modernist Cuisine. You'd be wrong. How did they get a shot of noodles being tossed in half a wok? Easy. "We cut a wok in half and tossed noodles in it," explains Nathan Myhrvold. More