Nathan Myhrvold Explains Modernist Cuisine at Harvard

It's Nathan Myhrvold to take a turn at the Harvard lectern, and he talks about many, many things (the video below is an hour-and-a-half long) but mostly his megacookbook, Modernist Cuisine. Below, Myhrvold discusses why it was necessary to write the five volume, 1500 recipe work, the wonders of pressure cookers, and the importance of creating watermelon chips: "If you can make watermelon chips, you can kind of do anything."

Also, just before the hour mark, Myhrvold is asked to compare the necessity of sharing techniques in the culinary world to the patenting process at his company Intellectual Ventures, which has been called "patent troll public enemy #1": "Most cooking things aren't actually relevant for patenting because they're neither the type of thing that is covered by patents nor are they the type of thing you can actually make money on." That didn't stop him from patenting a technique or two in the book, though.

Video: Harvard Cooking & Science Lecture Series: Nathan Myhrvold

· Harvard Cooking & Science Lecture Series: Nathan Myhrvold [YouTube]
· All Nathan Myhrvold Coverage on Eater [-E-]
· All Harvard Cooking & Science Lecture Series Coverage on Eater [-E-]