Modernist Cuisine

DR. NATHAN MYHRVOLD is chief executive officer and a founder of Intellectual Ventures. Before founding his invention company, Myhrvold was the first chief technology officer at Microsoft. He left Microsoft in 1999 to pursue several interests, including a lifelong interest in cooking and food science. Myhrvold competed on a team that won first place in several categories at the 1991 World Championship of Barbecue, including first prize in the special pasta category for a recipe that Myhrvold developed on the day of the contest.

After working for two years as a stagier at Seattle's top French restaurant, Rover's, Myhrvold completed culinary training with renowned chef Anne Willan at the Ecole De La Varenne. In addition, he has worked as Chief Gastronomic Officer for Zagat Survey, publisher of the popular Zagat restaurant guidebooks. Through his many visits to the world's top restaurants, Myhrvold has become personally acquainted with many of the leading modernist chefs and the science-inspired cooking techniques they have pioneered.

Myhrvold's formal education includes degrees in mathematics, geophysics, and space physics from UCLA, and Ph.D.s in mathematical economics and theoretical physics from Princeton University. In his postdoctoral work at Cambridge University, Myhrvold worked on quantum theories of gravity with the renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking.

CHRIS YOUNG opened the experimental kitchen at The Fat Duck and worked under world-famous chef Heston Blumenthal to oversee development of his most innovative dishes. With degrees in mathematics and biochemistry from the University of Washington, Young oversees original experiments and recipe development for The Cooking Lab.

MAXIME BILET was educated in the humanities at Skidmore College and graduated with highest honors from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. Before joining the culinary team at The Cooking Lab, Bilet completed stages at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, The Fat Duck, and Auberge de l'Ile in London.