[M4R5H4LL]

Is this an advertisement for a 5-cookbook set at $625? If I were a beginner, I would spend that money on a carbon steel pan, one Staub pot, a good kitchen and paring knife, one peeler, and I’d have some left for high-quality ingredients to experiment with myself. If I were more advanced, I would look into professional culinary institutes’ books. Everything in between is easily accessible on YouTube. An expensive book as beautiful as it is will never make a good cook; only good tools, ingredients, and practice will do.

[skyyler]

> If I were a beginner

This book is not for beginners. It's not even for home cooks.

Also, hilariously, there's a list of equipment provided in the version for home cooks. It's quite different from what you're suggesting to a beginner, because even the version of this book that is for home cooks is not for beginners.

[sleepybrett]

I'd say it's not really for anyone

[skyyler]

It's for Nathan Myhrvold

[jofer]

I'd hesitate to call this a "cookbook". It's closer to a coffee-table photography book. It's somewhat more art than instruction, though it is both. It's inspiring, for sure, but is very different than most.

I also thought it had been out of print for years, but it seems I'm wrong... Perhaps this is news because it's no longer out of print? Or was I just misremembering?

[Eric_WVGG]

I was given a "copy" about ten years ago. It came in a lucite box. I brought it home on the subway, and when I took off my pants later that night I found a horizontal line of bruises across my thighs.

As of a couple years ago there’s a gallery around Seattle’s Pike Place market that displays various photographs from the series.

[shalmanese]

Per pound, the book is actually a lot more affordable than most cookbooks.

[danielmarkbruce]

maybe check out the content first...

[42772827]

The book set has been circulating in very good PDF form for about 10 years.