Two years ago in Paris, Nathan Myhrvold wandered the Louvre on a mission, camera in hand, documenting every image of bread he could find.

“Sadly, art historians don’t catalog paintings by whether or not there’s bread in them,” he said.

So Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft and a founder of the investment firm Intellectual Ventures, built his own catalog. That day, he shot about 100 buns and rolls that peeped from beneath oil-rendered French linens and gleamed in dark Dutch still lifes.

Each one became a data point in his obsessive study of bread and how it’s changed through the ages: “Modernist Bread,” a five-part cookbook released last week by the Cooking Lab, Myhrvold’s own publishing house.

Written with chef Francisco Migo­ya, the book is a follow-up to “Modernist Cuisine,” the encyclopedic 2011 boxed-set that used hard science to demystify culinary techniques, and dazzled cooks with its cross-sectional photographs showing hidden processes inside pressure cookers and charcoal grills.

The new book — over 2,000 pages, with step-by-step images and a hefty list price of $625 (to order go to modernistbread.com) — chronicles the history and science of bread-making in depth, breaking frequently for meticulous, textbook-style tangents on flour and fermentation. Its recipes require a commitment to close reading, and to flipping back through the books for deeper explanations. But each has useful variations that work with many kinds of mixing and cooking methods, for both professional and home kitchens.

Above all, the book is a call for cooks to rethink one of the world’s oldest foods — to understand how bread is made, using more than their instinct and intuition, so they can push the craft forward.

“You do things one way, until you learn there’s a completely different way that’s even better,” Migoya said. “And there’s always a better way.”

Migoya, 43, was born and raised in Mexico City. He worked as a pastry chef at the French Laundry, and later as a teacher at the Culinary Institute of America, and wrote several cookbooks as well as the “Quenelle,” an early food blog with a cult following in the restaurant industry.

He was running his own chocolate shop in the Hudson Valley when Myhrvold, 58, tapped him to head up the Cooking Lab’s kitchen in 2014.

One mystery eluded Migoya as he worked on the book: understanding the specific, glorious smell of just-baked bread. “Sure, there are a lot of compounds transforming during the baking process,” he said, “but there isn’t a complete answer as to why bread smells so darn good.”

Early in the book’s genesis, Migo­ya worked for months on a bread family tree — lean, enriched, flat, bricklike — tracing relationships in ratios and practices across the world, narrowing categories and setting down definitions.

“The history of bread is full of human folly, which is great,” he said. “It’s part of what is beautiful about bread.”

CHOCOLATE-CHERRY SOURDOUGH BREAD

An advanced bread-making project from “Modernist Bread” that reflects the meticulous nature of the boxed set

• 1 heaped teaspoon (8 grams) instant dry yeast
• 3/4 cup (185 grams) warm water
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (230 grams) liquid sourdough starter
• 1-2/3 cups (225 grams) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/4 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon (15 grams) espresso or very strongly brewed coffee
• 1-1/8 teaspoons (7 grams) fine salt
• Canola or other neutral oil, for greasing bowl
• 1 cup (160 grams) dark chocolate chips
• 1 generous cup (160 grams) dried cherries

In a wide mixing bowl, whisk together yeast and water; let yeast bloom, about 1 minute.

Whisk sourdough starter into mixture until dissolved, then add flour, cocoa powder and coffee. Stir ingredients into a shaggy mass. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 20 minutes.

Add salt, incorporating well. Transfer to a lightly oiled plastic container and cover with plastic wrap; it will be sticky.

Rest dough 30 minutes, then lightly oil hands to fold: Pull one edge of the dough up and press it down into the center of the ball; repeat with the 3 other edges of the dough, then cover dough.

In 30 minutes, repeat folding, this time incorporating chocolate chips and cherries.

Repeat folding every half-hour, for a total of 6 folds.

Check for gluten development: Pinch a piece of dough between your fingers and stretch it. It should stretch out to a thin, transparent membrane before tearing. If not, repeat folding and check again.

Turn bread onto a lightly floured surface and gently tuck the edges up toward center of the dough, then flip dough over so it’s seam-side down, and gently round with your hands. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 20 minutes.

Tuck edges down toward seam, to shape dough into a tighter ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 10 minutes.

Transfer to a flour-dusted wicker bread basket, seam side up. Slide basket into a plastic bag, closing it. Proof in refrigerator 14 to 16 hours, until dough has increased in size, and springs back slightly to the touch.

Transfer dough, smooth side up, to a large cast-iron pot (with a lid) lined with parchment. Be careful not to over-handle dough and lose air bubbles, pinching the seam shut if necessary. Cover and bring to room temperature, 1 to 2 hours.

Heat oven to 500 degrees with baking rack in center of oven. Score a cross on top of dough, 1/8- to 1/4-inch deep.

Bake covered 33 minutes. Remove lid and bake another 10 minutes, cracking open oven door for last 5 minutes. Internal temperature should read 195 to 200 degrees.

Cool slightly on rack, then carefully remove paper and let cool completely. Makes 1 loaf.

Nutritional information unavailable.

© 2017 The New York Times Company