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Not sure I completely agree with Mr. Alder there, but I do think that cooking solely based on "tradition" or "I will do this just like my grandma simply because that's how it was done" is foolish. Tradition has it's place and some techniques/methods are excellent the way they are and really do not need much improvement (making sausage for example). However, even those traditions are based, whether our forefathers realized it or not, on science. So, experimenting with the limits of those "traditional" processes and ingredients using currently available information, cooking techniques, sugars, stabilizers,...simply makes sense. Going back to the sausage analogy, maybe making sausage has not changed in the last 1000 years, but cooking it has. There is really no more efficient way to properly cook sausages to the proper temperature than in a water bath using an Immersion Circulator.
I have recently been reading the Fat Duck cookbook and I am absolutely addicted to this tome. If you don't have it, buy it ASAP. I got the newer cheaper version that was just released. It is identical to the $200 version in content and pictures, but in a less fancy and "smaller" package (still weighs like 10lbs!) Reading about his thought process and how much he pushes the limits of food is some of the most fascinating reads about cuisine out there.

Posted by: E. Nassar at November 4, 2009 11:21 AM