Nathan Myhrvold used to be the chief technology officer for Microsoft, then he retired and co-authored the $625, six-volume cookbook, "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking." The book embraced the burgeoning field of molecular gastronomy and used some extreme techniques, including sawing cooking equipment in half, to demonstrate their techniques visually.
Of course, for a cutting edge cookbook, that was so last 2011. This October, Myhrvoid and crew are poised to release a followup book titled, "Modernist Cuisine at Home" for the slightly more reasonable price of $140. Their goal with this book appears to be taking the advanced concepts and techniques of molecular gastronomy (or as they want to rename it, Modernist cuisine) and translate those recipes into something mere mortal home cooks can make without a thousand dollar homogenizer.
We have to admit, the book does look very attractive and practically designed. The main book, which talks primarily about equipment and techniques, contains 456 pages. While the main book contains some recipes, it also comes with a waterproof and spiral-bound tabletop reference book with recipe cards, relevant tables and other immediately helpful information.
Here's a couple photo excerpts from the book. You can check out the whole gallery on their webpage.
