$625 Cookbook Brings in $20 Million in Sales

Nathan Myhrvold's 'Modernist Cuisine' is raking in the bucks

By Marcy Franklin, Editor

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The Modernist Cuisine cookbook has sold 45,000 copies so far.

Credit: Courtesy of Modernist Cuisine

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May 03, 2012 @ 10:55 AM

Would you buy a $625 cookbook? Chances are, you might have already: new reports show that the enormous volume of cooking literature, Modernist Cuisine, has brought in nearly $20 million in sales.

Author (and former chief of technology officer at Microsoft) Nathan Myhrvold told the Wall Street Journal this week that his book has sold about 45,000 copies and has been translated into multiple languages. We hope he's recouped his money he put into producing the book; 36 researchers, chefs, scientists, and photogrpahers helped him prep the book for three years. In response, Myhrvold said he was "thrilled" with the sales of the book. Myhrvold said to the WSJ, "This wasn’t my big money making scheme in life. From the beginning, I realized I could have lost every penny,"

Although the book is already an award-winner, gourmands will find out this week if the in-depth look into avant-garde cooking will win a James Beard award this Friday.