University of Chicago economist and Freakonomics author Steven Levitt interviewed Nathan for the podcast People I (Mostly) Admire. Among the topics they discussed in their wide-ranging conversation: how Nathan met Bill Gates and eventually became Microsoft's first chief technology officer despite never having taken a computer science class, what it was like working with Stephen Hawking and his contributions to physics, the strategies and frustrations of being a prolific inventor, the crucial role that advanced fission power can play in combatting climate change, education of highly gifted children, and Nathan's forthcoming three-volume book on pizza.
Nathan Myhrvold is a barbecue world champion who studied physics under Stephen Hawking. In this exclusive extract from GQ’s book How To Win At Life, he explains why science is your secret ingredient...
Myhrvold has been able to combine two childhood passions
Myhrvold's donation of a Modernist Cuisine dinner for 30 at his culinary lab raised $90,000 for Seattle Children's Hospital.
“Modernist Cuisine” strapped turbo boosters to the slow, iterative experiments that had been happening in restaurant kitchens, delivering hundreds of ideas, models, and scientific answers on a scale that had been previously unthinkable. (For those of more modest culinary means, there’s also the companion volume “Modernist Cuisine at Home.”)
The art and science behind the photography of ‘Modernist Cuisine'
Myhrvold’s latest tome, Modernist Bread, digs not into the modernist world of fog and foams, but the uber-traditional world of bread. Though it may not seem like the logical next step, Myhrvold is passionate about the idea of taking something so rooted in the old and finding a way to innovate. We sat down with him to talk about embarking on his love of cooking, how words like artisanal get stripped of all meaning and what it costs to take on such a massive project.
Nathan Myhrvold takes pictures of food, just like the rest of us. But with robots, microscopes, and a machine shop.
All 16 episodes, which aired from Oct. 4 2017 to Dec. 19, 2018, are now available free online.
Images from Washington currently on display include two broad landscapes of the Palouse farming region in Eastern Washington and a four-hour exposure of a red wine glass at night with the stars circling overhead, shot at Leonetti Cellars’ vineyard in Walla Walla. Two additional Palouse landscapes are waiting in the wings