Before it was published last year, Modernist Cuisine, a 2,400 page, 47-pound , five volume food science cookbook co-written by Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft, drew smirks. What exactly, pundits asked, was the target market for a $450 cookbook? Who but a small cadre of professionals wanted to understand the thermodynamics of a broiler or how to make carrot butter in a centrifuge?

At least 45,000 buyers worldwide is the answer, Mr. Myhrvold said when we spoke to him last week. The book has been...