Wine-Spilling Robots Provide a New Way to Look at Food

Nathan Myhrvold has done many things in his 59 years of life. In no particular order, he has: been chief technology officer at Microsoft Corp., worked with Stephen Hawking, graduated from La Varenne culinary school, been a member of a winning team at the Memphis World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and co-authored the groundbreaking Modernist Cuisine and a succeeding series of cookbooks.

Along the way, Myhrvold became obsessed with the art of photography. One of the reasons his books are so singular (and expensive) is the minute detail of the food and equipment in his pages. His cutaway shots—a cross section of, for instance, a pressure cooker filled with a raw pork shoulder, water, and aromatics—are a stunning and instructive look at the process of cooking. He even dedicated an entire book to the subject, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine. (At $108 from Cooking Lab, it’s a bargain compared with his other books, which can cost up to $625.)