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Former Microsoft CTO Builds Kitchen Laboratory

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-do-you-want-to-eat-today dept.

circletimessquare writes "Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft, is self-publishing a cook book with scientific underpinnings. The man who presided over the original iterations of Windows has built a laboratory kitchen, hired 5 chefs, and plays with misplaced lab equipment: using an autoclave as a pressure cooker, using a 100-ton hydraulic press to make beef jerky, and using an ultrasonic welder for... he's not sure yet. The article includes a video on how to cryosear and cryorender duck. 'It's basically like a software project,' Dr. Myhrvold said. 'It's very much like a review we would do at Microsoft.' Is it possible to BSoD food?"

2 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Patent troll or genuis (or both ?) by iMaple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The was an article on him a few years ago which seemed to suggest that he was being a patent troll and his 'inventions' just a cover (though to be fair he is a real super genius... worked with Stephen Hawking, publications in Nature and Science and even a paper on paleontology !!! ):

    http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/07/10/8380798/

    (Who's afraid of Nathan Myhrvold?
    The giants of tech, that's who. And they have a nasty name for the former Microsoft honcho: "patent troll."
    FORTUNE Magazine
    By Nicholas Varchaver, FORTUNE senior writer
    June 26 2006: 1:20 PM EDT)

    Patent troll or not, I have to admit that kitchen would have any tech savy cook drooling :) :)

  2. Re:Heston Blumenthal got there first by RMH101 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm assuming you've not eaten at the Fat Duck? It's not won the "world's best restaurant" title for nothing. Whilst you can take this too far and create some truly out-there dishes (HB's famous "Sound of the Sea" for example, the idea of taking a scientific approach to cooking, rather than the Mrs Beaton hand-me-down-old-wives-tales, isn't a bad one. You can use great, natural ingredients but cook them in accurate, innovative methods. Much like military/aeronautic technology trickles down to the consumer eventually, so might this: e.g. sous vide cooking in the home, etc.