Sorry, but I find this ridiculous

[Pete]

I was surfing the web and came across Ferran Adria's cookbooks, both his first one and his new one "El Bulli 1994-1997". The old book was priced at over $320 and the new one priced at $220. I'm sorry but does anyone else consider this to be outrageous, even if cloth bound and accompanied by a CD-ROM? Who in their right mind is going to pay that much for such cookbooks? Is Ferran that hard up for money, or has all the press finally gone to his head? Ok, rant over. Please continue on with your lives.

[kokopuffs]

Who is the author that is charging so much for the book?

[Fuil Moinn]

Ferran Adia / Juli Soler / Albert Adrià. I did a quick search on him and came up with a couple prices on Amazon . First, for a copy with a little bit of damage - $324.95 - and for a new copy - $339.95. 496 pages

[phatch]

Are they both in print still? If out of print, demand for the books will drive prices up like that in some cases.

Phil

[foodnfoto]

Yeah, that's a crazy price for a cookbook, especially since the recipes are not ones that anyone could or would make in their home kitchen. So, I guess it's not really a cookbook, per se, but a publication of his distinctive techniques and approach to cuisine. Since Feria is all the rage among people who like to travel to eat expensive and interesting foods (foams and so forth) the cookbook amounts to a pricey souvenier. My hunch is that he sets the price high because it may reveal his culinary trade secrets to food professionals wishing to expand their expertise by copying or adapting his style.
Attention to Spanish cuisine flits in a out of popularity about once every 4-5 years or so. I guess Feria is doing the equivalent of making hay while the sun shines.
He's almost old news already.

[lamington]

This is a combination of the economics of publishing, plus a degree of prestige.

Books are very expensive in small print runs (and all the Adria/El Bulli books are small runs), and the production values of these books are very high -- the artwork is generally very good, the photography too. These are high quality books, and as such probably need to be regarded as something other than a mere book about food (and they definitely aren't cookbooks in any conventional sense) -- that doesn't mean I think it's necessary for books like this to exist!

I have two inordinately expensive food books: Los Postres de El Bulli (Albert Adria), and Dessert Cuisine (Oriol Balaguer). They both cost in the order of US$130. OUCH. But they are very special and convey knowledge and ideas which I couldn't have found elsewhere.

Academic books which aren't going to be bought in their 1000s by students frequently exceed $100 by a considerable amount, and there isn't any prestige-premium (or superfancy colour photography) involved there, I assure you!