Former Microsoft CTO Builds Kitchen Laboratory

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?"

Heston Blumenthal got there first

[Kupfernigk]

For those who don't know, this is nothing new. Heston Blumenthal, who runs The Fat Duck [fatduck.co.uk] at Bray, Berkshire, for those of you with a few hundred euros to spend on dinner, has been doing this for years. Blumenthal uses laboratory equipment because it gives better, more consistent results than standard cooking equipment and is designed to stand up to the workloads of a commercial kitchen, but he has extended this a long way to develop new ideas. I'm assuming that this guy knows about him and his work and decided to try to go one better (possibly because of his connection to a company famous for doing precisely that?)

Re:Dear Microsoft

[JohnBailey]

Thou shalt not brute-force cooking. REAL chefs will have no interest in your stupid book.

Never heard of Heston Blumenthal then...

Heston Blumethal may have some prior art.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.fatduck.co.uk/

"We embrace innovation—new ingredients, techniques, appliances, information, and ideas—whenever it can make a real contribution to our cooking.

We do not pursue novelty for its own sake. We may use modern thickeners, sugar substitutes, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, sous-vide, dehydration, and other nontraditional means, but these do not define our cooking. They are a few of the many tools that we are fortunate to have available as we strive to make delicious and stimulating dishes.

Similarly, the disciplines of food chemistry and food technology are valuable sources of information and ideas for all cooks. Even the most straightforward traditional preparation can be strengthened by an understanding of its ingredients and methods, and chemists have been helping cooks for hundreds of years. The fashionable term “molecular gastronomy” was introduced relatively recently, in 1992, to name a particular academic workshop for scientists and chefs on the basic food chemistry of traditional dishes. That workshop did not influence our approach, and the term “molecular gastronomy” does not describe our cooking, or indeed any style of cooking." - Heston Blumethal

Re:Dear Microsoft

[gstoddart]

"Thou shalt not brute-force cooking. REAL chefs will have no interest in your stupid book."

Never heard of Heston Blumenthal then...

Or Wylie Dufresne [wd-50.com], or Homaro Cantu [wikipedia.org], or the field of Molecular Gastronomy [wikipedia.org].

Lots of chefs are using cutting edge technology to do really exotic things with food both in technique and results. And, they've been doing it for a long time.

Cheers