This is more of an announcement than a post. There’s a fun video on writing and book marketing coming next, but first…
ATTENTION MEDIA, BLOGGERS, AND LIST OWNERS
I’ve made very few media commitments thus far related to The 4-Hour Chef and its launch November 20th.
It’s going to be bigger and badder than my last two books.
Do you have a magazine, column, blog, TV show, radio show, or mailing list? Would you like to do an interview, feature, or post an excerpt from the book? Please click here to let me know. I have a ton of material, including experiments, video, pictures, case studies, etc.
Hope to hear from you!
This is the book I’ve always wanted to write. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.
Wow. The audio submissions for the 8-second book trailer are simply AMAZING. I listened to hundreds of the almost 800 entries. So sorry for the delay in things, but I wanted to hear as many as possible. Thank you all so much for submitting!
Please help me vote for the winner with the below video form (deadline 5pm PT August 10)! To watch the video sync’ed to the music, just play the track and scroll back up to watch the video.
Here are the six finalists I picked. The winner gets $2,000!
What happens when you feed wine to a world-class motion designer like Adam Patch? Simultaneously, what happens when you want to avoid the super-long trend in book trailers?
If you think the above looks familiar, you’re right. It was converted from ridiculous to Avengers-like with post-production movie magic. The original clip was abandoned footage from The 4-Hour Body trailer. It’s embarrassing just watching it!
Think you can create a better soundtrack to the top trailer?
I’m putting $2,000 USD on the table, so show me your best on this AudioDraft page. Check out some of the tracks there, including unstarred. Really fun stuff.
If you want to try AudioDraft yourself for custom audio, use code FERRISS-JUNE to get a $99 discount until the end of June.
Hanoi toddler and b-boy, from a trip Ma.tt and I took in 2009. (Photo: Matt Mullenweg)
The next post will be an interview on writing process with the inimitable Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist and Aleph, among many others. His work been translated into 71 languages.
In the meantime, I’d like make a few offers and provide a few updates, as well as a few reading links:
1) Would you like to be in The 4-Hour Chef? I’d love for you to be.
Amazingly, it hit both #1 and #2 (for Kindle version) in cookbooks on Amazon when it was announced, and I think it could be bigger than the last two books. If you’ve had success on The Slow-Carb Diet™, have any before/after pics, and would like to be featured in the book, please click here!
2) Random articles from around the web that readers of this blog might enjoy (or find amusing):
3) The winner of the free roundtrip anywhere in the world, a prize from the Christmas Countdown experiment (intermittent fasting, plus training), is Daniel Kislyuk! There were some fantastic self-trackers, but Daniel gave constant status updates and then wrapped up with a summary post. Daniel, please keep an eye on your e-mail for a note from Amy.
Surprise + Joy = Elation. That’s my new Emotional Equation of the day. Wow, I’m elated by the response to my guest blog and how many insightful entries were submitted. Thank you so much for diving into the deep end of the emotional swimming hole with me. It seems like this book is made for these times. The more externally chaotic the world, the more we yearn for some kind of internal logic.
There were 7 entries (of the first 100 submitted, although I did read every single one of the almost 500) that deserved extra recognition. I will give an Honorable Mention to Divya (1/19 at 7:03 am), Eric Sigfried (1/19 at 8:52 am), Marcus (1/19 at 9:18 am), Susan Dupre (1/19 at 10:19 am) and Ryan (1/19 at 10:50 am).
We have a runner-up whose dissection and use of the Anxiety Balance Sheet impressed me, and that’s Ryan Riegner (1/19 at 9:22 am). Ryan, I believe you live in the NYC area and I’ll be there from Feb 19-25 for a book launch party and media tour. I would like to invite you out to a meal with me while I’m in town. This wasn’t planned to be an extra prize, but your response deserves it. And, our winner is Diego Velasquez (1/19 at 7:54 am) who will be flying out to SF to stay at our luxurious Hotel Vitale for a couple of nights and spend a day learning what it means to be a Chief Emotions Officer. For those who’d like to continue to learn more about Emotional Equations, check out our DIY contest on the Emotional Equations Facebook page, as it gives you another shot at a trip to SF and dinner with me.
Thanks once again for the phenomenal efforts and I hope you enjoy the book if you read it!
Wine tends to attract a lot of snobs who use bad French to ruin things.
Done at the dinner table, a brutal technique called “hyperdecanting” will appall that muppet with the popped collar on his polo shirt. It will also make your wine delicious, and make you a hero to everyone who wants to punch him in his smug little face. [cue 0:24]
On a practical level, you can outgun most faux-sommeliers (see what I did there?) with a little brute force. To do this, you first need to understand a bit about aeration.
When in Rome
Generally speaking, letting your wine “breathe” makes it taste better. Just like in our gluten-free kitten pancakes (see pg. 147*), a little air goes a long way… Read More
It’s rated 12+ for “Mild alcohol, tobacco, or drug use or references” and “mild profanity or crude humor.” Fun stuff, in other words. Let me know in the comments what you think of things, and don’t miss the exploding cow. The Android version is coming soon.
Two related notes, one for the book, the other for a free round-trip ticket:
For those of you waiting on the iOS version of the free 4-Hour Chef teaser app, and for anyone who’d like a cheat day experiment this weekend, I offer the following: Tobacco-infused Tequila Hot Chocolate.
It’s absurd, decadent, and more delicious than you can imagine. Here’s the kicker: I usually hate tequila, so this was a revelation.
PLEASE NOTE: This is intended as a really fun DIY project and a rocking cheat drink, not as a time-saving cocktail. There are times for efficiency, and there are times to explore and enjoy life unhurried.
This is the latter, and it’s for FUN. Notice the last part of the subtitle for The 4-Hour Chef, which is “The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life.”
“There is more to life than increasing its speed,” as Mahatma Gandhi once said.
If you choose to tackle this challenge, share your experience in the comments!
Enter The Aviary
This spectacular drink was taught to me by Craig Schoettler, the executive chef at The Aviary in Chicago, without a doubt the most awe-inspiring “bar-less cocktail kitchen” in the world.
To set the scene: There are 30+ types of ice, and the customers are prevented from harassing the bartenders by a cage barricade. Perhaps you’d like an Old Fashioned served in an ice dinosaur egg? It’s prepared with a syringe, and you drink it after shattering the bourbon-filled casing with a miniature slingshot attached to the glass. Or how about a botanical-infused whiskey that changes colors like a chameleon over the course of 30 minutes? They have that, too.
Of course, you’d expect nothing less from the owners, who also run Alinea, the highest-ranked restaurant in the United States. Bartending through the lens of world-class chefs is otherworldly… Read More
A first look at the beta-cover of The 4-Hour Chef. Let me know what you think.
The magic elves and I have been hard at work on an early Christmas gift for you all. In fact, there are quite a few goodies in this post, including 50 free Kindle Fire devices!
I’ve been keeping things under wraps, but there is one big surprise. For the last 5 years, the most frequent request from blog readers has been a guide to mental performance. In other words, answering the question: how do you deconstruct and learn any skill?
Well, I’ve been listening all along, and that book is here!
Here’s the complete title: The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life. Intended to be “the cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks,” The 4-Hour Chef will use food as a vehicle to teach the art and science of meta-learning–the skill of learning skills. Whether you want to learn a new instrument or a new sport (or anything in between), you’ll have a field-tested and research-backed blueprint. In addition to insight from world-class chefs, we’ll have an unreal cast of characters helping you to multiply your learning potential.
For a limited time, to celebrate the announcement, you can pre-order The 4-Hour Chef for 50-80% off. Instead of $30 for print, you can reserve a copy for $15. Instead of $22 for Kindle, you can get it for $5.99.
You can cancel anytime up to ship date, so there is no downside, only locked-in savings.
Sidenote…
Why might you buy the physical book, even in addition to the Kindle? Three reasons:
1) It will be gorgeous, a wonderful tactile experience, and truly unlike any cookbook you’ve ever seen.
2) I’ll be thinking up bonuses for people who buy the print edition early.
3) It would really help me out. Inexplicably, The New York Times excludes all advice/how-to books from their e-book bestseller list, so only the print edition counts towards the bestseller list. Silly, but there you have it!
See the full book description, sneak-peek photos, and more here.
A Christmas Countdown Experiment: The 4-Hour Chef Teaser
Next, I present to you the first Kindle Fire book teaser and app!
100% free and titled “A Christmas Countdown Experiment: The 4-Hour Chef Teaser,” it includes a seven-day Christmas countdown advent calendar, with unusual tips that allow you to enjoy wine, cookies, and all the other holiday vices… while losing fat.
From strategic yo-yo dieting and tequila hot chocolate, to exploding cows and tattoos, it’s full of surprises. Here’s are a few screenshots and the introduction video, followed by the download link… Read More
I love exploring and try new things. Here: failing my Maid Cafe audition in Akihabara, Tokyo. (Photo: David West)
Never before have I appeared on the cover of The New York Times, and never before have I seen such an incredible response to a single announcement involving me. From the serious (WSJ, New York Observer, Reuters, Guardian UK, etc.) to the hilarious (Gawker’s piece), it’s been a whirlwind.
In this post, I’ll shed some light on my next project, which is a first on many levels.
To start with the obvious, I couldn’t be more excited: Amazon Publishing has acquired my next book, The 4-Hour Chef, to launch its New York-based imprint.
Looking forward — and I have every intention of making this the biggest thing I’ve ever done — if you would like to contribute to The 4-Hour Chef (experiments, guest sidebars, recipes, etc.), please let me know here… Read More
