A few hundred miles to the north of Unicorn Precinct XIII, Nathan Myhrvold is conducting molecular gastronomy experiments that Powell can only dream of. Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft, is probably about as close as you could get to Powell's reverse image in the world of technology. He has written in favor of intellectual-property rights in the Wall Street Journal and was a major figure in a company that most hackers love to hate. But both men share the same love of MG for its own sake. The difference is Myhrvold has essentially infinite resources with which to do it. His home in Washington State is equipped with a 2,000-square-foot food-science lab and every cutting-edge piece of equipment in the world. His lab homogenizer, for example, is like a superblender - "I can get particles a full order of magnitude smaller than even the best blender in the world," he boasts. "One-micron
droplets!" Myhrvold resists the name geek gourmet, although he readily admits to being "a huge food geek." Rather, he sees the movement as "scientifically or rationally oriented cuisine."
Myhrvold knows what he's talking about when it comes to science. He has a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics, and he studied cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space-time, and quantum theories of gravitation with Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge before eventually landing at Microsoft. (Myhrvold also has degrees in geophysics, space physics, and mathematical economics.) But when it comes to cooking, he's learning as he goes. Everyone in the field is; even a culinary superstar like Adrià (whom Myhrvold once engaged to create a 42-course meal) is working in a field that is in its infancy. Myhrvold is a regular on ­eGullet.com and trades tips and suggestions with other users around the country.