It probably tastes good but nothing can taste *that* good (as in, to be worth all the effort, money, and hype). Besides, it's over-complicated; a hamburger should be simple. Get some good ground beef with a bit of fat, not too much. Make patty with whatever seasonings you like in it. Put on grill. Get a decent bun from a store bag (yes -- just make sure it's not stale), toast it a little on the grill. Add your favorite toppings -- whatever you like, even if it's that "cheese food" that comes in individually wrapped slices. Eat. There, that wasn't so hard -- and no liquid nitrogen need be involved. (I've been leery of liquid nitrogen ever since that X-Files episode where the guy's head gets frozen and smashed.)

While ultimately I have to agree with Andrea, that graphic is making me crave a ridiculously overpriced burger in the worst way. If it were scratch & sniff, I'm pretty sure people would be forking over untold sums just for a taste.

I was sort of hoping to have it on one or more of Myhrvold's billions and billions of dimes.

I would like to see a video of that poor soul who does the liquid nitrogen to hot oil transfer. Step back. Way back.

Or maybe Nathan just build a robot for the task.

Jesus Mary and Joseph, God save us from culture vultures.

Guys like that could fuck up a wet dream, and will never, ever, get how staggeringly boring they are to everybody else.

He wants to pump sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere to fight global warming. So he's not just cuisinely insane, but a renaissance lunatic, if you will.

There's no bacon. I realize the whole bacon-worship thing is, at this point, staggering towards any movement it detects slurring the word, "braiiinnnsss!", but there's no bacon on his stupid, costly cheeseburger.

I have no interest in being lectured to on the subject of the perfect cheeseburger by a perfect effing ignoramus.

"I was sort of hoping he'd invite us all out for some burgers."

What interest would he have in letting someone have a taste? It would reveal how profoundly clueless he is*, and make people feel cheated of their time, and money.

*See the whole "no bacon on his stupid, costly cheeseburger" thing above.

Regardless of the ingredients and price, it all turns to shit.

According to him, they've sold 35,000 copies world wide and the french, german, italian, and spanish editions have just been released. That means a gross revenue so far of $21,875,000.

Wonder what the book's going for on ebay?

They're selling because of his name and reputation, not because of true worth. Coffee table cover for the other rich and famous-es.

Four pounds of ink per copy. Wow, I don't use that much ink in my printer in ten years or maybe ever. Muy extravaganza!

I did enjoy the detailed description of the burger. He should subject this tasty morsel to a market test. Open a restaurant and see how many people will pay him $50 or more for Wimpy's preferred food.

Well, I thought liquid nitrogen ice cream was a stupid over-the-top idea, and it turned out to be delicious as well as awesome to watch being made.

So if somebody offered to make me a liquid nitrogen donut-fried hamburger, I'm certainly open to having one (and to standing at a distance, watching it made).

I'm pretty sure that none of the world's greatest hamburgers of the last century or so were made with liquid nitrogen.

Also, he lost me with the mushrooms. Blecch.

So is the name of this pièce de culinary résistance in French called Cuisine à la Merditerranéenne?

You can buy Cooking With Pooh for as much as 50 bucks or as little as 17 bucks at Amazon.

$21 million for a book on cooking chemistry? I am so going to write a book. Maybe, on make-up chemistry.

I just got back from Vons. They were out of liquid nitrogen, and vertically ground rib.

JWM

How the f**k do you "vertically grind" meat anyway? What does that even mean?

Don't know, but this man not only has a kitchen he has a machine shop as well.

I knew he was an idiot when he didn't use a Ciabatta roll. At Casa de Casca, we serve Black Angus Chedder & Bacon burgers that we get out of the freezer case at WalMart. We get the Ciabatta rolls there too, and prefer the onion ones, but take what they have as long as it's not multi-grain. Grab some Jalapeno Cheese slices, and a bottle of Southwestern Spicey Mustard while you're there. Saute onion slices in olive oil until they're on the edge of carmalazation, then assemble the ingredients in any way that makes sense to you.

Cheese steaks are still much better than burgers, especially with grilled onions and mushrooms, on homemade rolls. Not the over hyped Philly style with 'wiz' neither. But the very delicious Lancaster County variety.

36 hours to prepare an effing hamburger?!

They keep using that phrase "ultimate hamburger." I do not think it means what they think it means.

Ultimate in that it is the last thing you eat before you die, maybe.

Or they keep telling themselves that to justify the time, effort, and money expended on a piece of seared dead animal flesh.

One of my major gripes about living in AL is that the supermarkets here don't carry potato rolls. Nothing better for burgers & dogs.

You know, that top bun reminded me from the start of the photos of nuclear bomb fireballs. And I can't stop seeing it that way, arrggghhh.

Liquid smoke soaked lettuce? He may be a genius but he obviously has at least one white trash gene.

We sell potato rolls up here in Amishland. I make potato rolls that are so good, the Amish would kill just to know how to make them.