Nathan Myhrvold — a photographer, chef, scientist and author best known for the book “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking” — opened his fourth Modernist Cuisine Gallery June 19 at 1241 Prospect St. in downtown La Jolla.

The gallery features Myhrvold’s unconventional style of cutting cooking equipment and food in half and then photographing it with custom-built lenses that put ingredients under a microscope. His first book came out in 2011, and three other books followed: “Modernist Cuisine at Home,” “The Photography of Modernist Cuisine,” and “Modernist Bread.” He’s currently working on his fifth book: “Modernist Pizza.”

His Modernist Cuisine galleries were born out of his fans’ desires to purchase the photos from the popular books.

“The idea for those cookbooks was to have really compelling photos because I always loved photography,” he said. “Then people starting asking us if they could buy them. So after receiving enough of those questions, we looked into it and started our own galleries.”

Myhrvold’s other three galleries are located in Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Seattle. He said La Jolla was an easy choice for the next location. 

“La Jolla’s got all of the right characteristics,” he said. “It’s a place where people love food, and it’s a place that has other photography galleries.” 

“It also helps that my mother lives in La Jolla. So when I was visiting mom, I checked out the local scene there.”

While new cookbooks and more galleries are certainly on the horizon for Myhrvold, he said he just looks forward to expanding the original Modernist Cuisine concept and seeing where it can go.

“Originally, the book was about cooking techniques that had come up in the last 20 years,” he said. “Most cookbooks that were out around that time, and today even, mostly focused on cooking techniques that were 30 or 40 years old.

“But I’ve wound up writing about all types of cooking. So it’s gotten a broader range than just a newer style.” 

As for the gallery, Myhrvold hopes attendees will discover their favorite foods in a whole new light.