A fascinating insight into modernist cuisine with its sous-vide vacuum sealers, ultrasonic homogenizers and centrifuges

Dwight Garner of the New York Times went to dinner with Ferran Adrià, the Catalan chef, at the home laboratory of Nathan Myhrvold, the Microsoft multimillionaire and inventor turned cookbook writer.

Garner's report on "The End of Cuisine" gives a fascinating insight into "the culinary movement that’s become known as modernist cuisine, one that’s pushed chefs and intrepid home cooks to master a new batterie de cuisine (sous-vide vacuum sealers, ultrasonic homogenizers, centrifuges) and to fill their pantries with staples like xanthan gum and liquid lecithin."

 Or, Dwight Garner might have added, about wine:

The “America” portion of the menu, which included “Baked-potato Soup,” “Salmon,” “Roast Chicken,” “Rye” and “Pastrami,” were demonstrations of farm-to-table on a high level. It also included “Wine,” which he likes to salt. He does this because it balances the wine’s flavors, especially those that are harsher and more tannic, but also because it’s a lively way to flush out the snobs. “Doing something like this is such a strong cultural taboo that it freaks people out,” Myhrvold said. “The way we treat wine is governed by an implicit set of rules and strictures that rival fundamentalist religions in their severity and intensity. It shocks people to put salt in wine. But why? It’s just food!”