What the nutrition expert wants for the holidays

Cathy Chan has the recipe for a gourmet gift for the modern foodie.

We asked some of our experts what they wanted under the tree this holiday season. Here's what they told us.

Who

Cathy Chan, nutrition researcher

What she wants

Modernist Cuisine At Home, a lushly photographed companion to the five-volume Modernist Cuisine cookbook

Why she wants it

"This book has beautiful pictures, and I'm a visual person. I like to know what the person who writes the book thinks the recipes should look like. This book makes everything look super-delicious, and if you are going to try something new, you have to have something to rely on as the gold standard of what the finished dish should look like."

Chan, who co-wrote the Pure Prairie Eating Plan (think Mediterranean Diet for people living on the prairies), also likes the rich educational detail served up in Modernist Cuisine.

"It's got material on food safety, ingredients, even cooking tools you might want to invest in. It's useful for people who might not have learned how to cook at their mother's elbow."

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