No offense taken . . . i completely understand why anyone would ask, so I’ll do my best to answer from my perspective (a real reviewer may have other perspectives).
First - it is absolutely not worth the price at face value. There are far less expensive ways to get recipes about bread baking that will satisfy 99% of the people out there.
So why on earth would I spend that kind of money . . . . .
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I love really beautify printed books. I’m the person who will spend $100 for that table top art book that you see in the museum gift shop. And these are beautiful books, in a beautiful metal container, with beautiful paper, and gorgeous images. So it speaks to me on that level.
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I’m a research scientist (earlier in my career much more hardcore). So I love esoteric research and the level of scientific detail that makes most people’s eyes roll back in the heads. This is about as geeky as it gets. If you not only need to hear about gluten development, but also want to see the electron microscope images of the gluten and starch molecules . . . then you’ll get it. So I love it for its scientific take on every detail.
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I loved encyclopedias as a kid. I could spend hours flipping through them to just find random stuff and read about them in detail. So it speaks to me on that level. These are more of a reference like an encyclopedia than an actual cookbook - and having that type of a reference resource gives me the warm fuzzy feelings (I still have all my neuroscience books from grad school because sometimes I just like going through them again, even though I’m so far removed from neuro at this point . . . ).
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This has 2 (of the 5) volumes dedicated to recipes. I don’t know how many recipes that is - but flipping through it has a recipe for just about any type of bread - across cultures - that I can think about and many I don’t even know about (including gluten free breads), including trouble shooting tips. It is just bread (not pastry).
So, why did I buy them . . . . they speak to me in a way that it is as if they were custom made for me, though I know they are overkill for 99% of the population.
Thats the best I can do to explain. They are just beautiful (I keep them in a separate space from the rest of my cookbooks too).
