Chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chaf and food writer who has written for the New York Times, Cook's Illustrated, Serious Eats, and more. A lot of his recipes perfect the staples including steak, potatoes, beans, eggs, mayo, and mushroom soup. If you are a home cook, odds are you have a recipe from Kenji you swear by. In 2015, he compiled a lot of his signature recipes in his award winning book The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science . This year, López-Alt has followed up The Food Lab with a very different kind of cookbook. It is called The Wok: Recipes and Techniques. It is nearly 700 pages and includes not only recipes but a guide to acquainting, understanding, and eventually mastering one of the most versatile pans in the kitchen. J. Kenji López-Alt talks with Jesse about the new book and some of his favorite meals to make with a wok. He also shares how he used science to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Plus, he talks about how he balances inclusivity and appropriation when making recipes from other countries.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.3	From MaximumFun.org and NPR, it's Bullseye.
0:24.3	Let me ask you this, how many times have you roasted potatoes?
0:28.3	It's 10 or 20 times, maybe it's up 100 or 1000 times.
0:32.2	I don't know.
0:33.2	I don't know your life.
0:35.4	But I'm willing to bet that no matter how many times you have roasted potatoes, it is
0:40.6	not nearly as many times as Jake Kenji Lopez alt has.
0:46.0	He put in the work, folks, and he found it the best way to roast potatoes.
0:51.6	I have roasted potatoes in the Jake Kenji Lopez alt manner and it rules.
0:57.8	It is perfect.
1:00.0	Lopez alt is a food writer and a chef.
1:02.3	He's the child of two scientists and he approaches cooking with a methodical and careful approach.
1:09.6	A lot of his recipes perfect the staples, steak, potatoes, beans, eggs, mayo, mushroom soup.
1:17.2	And what's great is, despite, or I don't know, maybe because of all that science, Kenji's
1:22.8	work is pleasant and approachable and readable and non-judgmental.
1:28.4	If you cook at home, I'm willing to bet that one of the recipes that you use is either
1:34.1	directly Kenji's or relies on his work.
1:37.6	In 2015, he compiled a lot of his signature recipes into an award-winning book, The Food
1:43.2	Lab, Better Home Cooking Through Science.
1:46.3	Now in 2022, Lopez alt has followed up the Food Lab with a very different kind of cookbook.
1:52.7	The Walk, Recipes and Techniques.
	...

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