Inventor and physicist Nathan Myhrvoll, of Norwegian descent, left Microsoft for the kitchen laboratory. Four years after the swap, the technology genius has written the world’s largest, most expensive, and most luxurious cookbook.
When Nathan Myhrvoll left Microsoft as its chief technology officer in 1999, he had become known as “Microsoft’s brain” and was worth $650 million, according to Forbes. Four years later, he splashed out on a cookbook, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking (2011), which is widely recognized as one of the world’s most luxurious, expensive, and scientifically ambitious cookbooks. It is a 6-volume, 2,438-page, 40+ pound masterpiece that originally retailed for $625.
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The book was self-published through Myhrvold’s “The Cooking Lab” and was produced on high-end paper, with thousands of original photographs, some taken with specialized, cutaway equipment, such as slicing stoves and pots in half.
It is not a traditional cookbook but a “techno-encyclopedia” covering food science, molecular gastronomy, and 1,500 recipes, designed for techniques such as sous vide, liquid nitrogen, and centrifuges.
Myhrvold led a team of over 36 researchers, chefs, and editors to produce the book over three years. The team included chefs and researchers, such as Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, who previously worked in high-end research kitchens.
The project began as a smaller, 150-page book on sous vide, but grew into an encyclopedic work over several years.
Modernist Cuisine has been recognized as a “cult favorite” by top chefs and won the James Beard Award for Cookbook of the Year in 2012.
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Follow-up Works
Following the success of Modernist Cuisine, which sold tens of thousands of copies (grossing roughly $30 million as of 2013), Myhrvold published several other “luxurious”, in-depth, topic-specific series:
- Modernist Cuisine at Home (2012): A two-volume set tailored for home kitchens.
- The Photography of Modernist Cuisine (2013): A coffee-table book highlighting the technical, artistic photography from the original set.
- Modernist Bread (2017): A five-volume, 2,600+ page set focusing on the science and history of bread.
- Modernist Pizza: An in-depth investigation into pizza, published later.
About Nathan Myhrvold
Myhrvold holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Princeton University. He researched astrophysics under Steven Hawking. He founded the patent company Intellectual Inventions. According to The New York Times, Intellectual Ventures at one point controlled nearly 70,000 intellectual property assets (patents and patents pending) that it has used to generate approximately $3 billion in revenues, primarily in the form of license fees from large corporations. The company responds that it has returned more than $500 million to individual inventors and that most of the remaining revenue has gone to its investors.
Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
Myhrvold is best friends with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. He was also an acquaintance of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and attended dinner at his house. According to an anonymous source, Myhrvold was among those who introduced Epstein to Bill Gates. According to Vanity Fair writer Gabriel Sherman, Epstein allegedly visited Myhrvold’s investment company, Intellectual Ventures, and brought young girls with him. Myhrvold denied being involved in Epstein’s criminal activities or ever having known about them. His spokesperson stated, “Back in the day, Epstein was a regular at TED conferences, and he was a large donor to basic scientific research, so while Nathan knew him and had socialized with him, that’s exactly where their association ends. “His name appears over a thousand times in the Epstein files released in 2025/6 by the U.S. Justice Department. Details corroborate earlier claims that Epstein had met with Myhrvold at his company, with an e-mail exchange detailing visitation and the appearance of a woman/girl at the request of Myhrvold.
World’s Largest, Most Expensive, and Most Luxurious Cookbook Written by
A Technology Genius of Norwegian Descent, Tor Kjolberg reporting.
Feature image (top) © YouTube.