Years of conclusions, rendered tactile

February 24, 2022 10:19 AM

J. Kenji López-Alt Applies His Scientific Method to Seattle’s Food Scene (Allecia Vermillion @ Seattle Met) To Seattle home cooks, his arrival was the food equivalent of Steph Curry buying a Tudor on the edge of Capitol Hill, then playing pickup games at various neighborhood parks.

He occupies an empirically weird place in American food culture. He didn’t make his name in restaurants; he’s never had a TV show. He did co-own a German-inspired sausage and beer hall in San Mateo for a while, but that didn’t happen until after he had his own Wikipedia page and a cookbook that displays its James Beard Award medallion on the cover.

posted by CrystalDave (33 comments total)

That's a nice profile. I like that it locates Kenji as an Internet-culture native. He's remarkably friendly online and spends a lot of time writing real human stuff online, say on Reddit. I'm honestly surprised he doesn't have a (visible) Metafilter account. Sad he left Twitter but can't blame him.

His YouTube channel is so great. A little sad for him that he's moved through three houses in the past two years and they all have tiny kitchens. It seems to work for him, and I am certainly sympathetic if he's budget constrained. But a big part of his profession these days is filming himself cooking in his kitchen and I'm like "man, you need more room!". Then again professional chefs are used to working in tiny spaces.

I think a lot of what works about Kenji is authenticity. His stuff is meticulously planned and produced but never feels scripted. He feels like a real person. A real person with expertise he can share in a relatable way.
posted by Nelson at 10:33 AM on February 24, 2022 [14 favorites]

Food writer Helen Rosner once said she finds optimal cooking techniques by simply googling the topic “plus the word ‘Kenji.’”

I usually use 'SeriousEats' in my search, but I really only *mean* Kenji. Should just cut to the chase, as Helen Rosner does.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:40 AM on February 24, 2022 [27 favorites]

I've followed his videos through the different houses, and I don't know if I'd agree that the two longer term places were tiny at all. Maybe my own life experience is shaping my perception here, but those are a lot larger than many of the places I've lived over the years.

Interesting that the past tense on He did co-own a German-inspired sausage and beer hall in San Mateo for a while implies he no longer is a part of it? We go to Wursthall occasionally, and now they've opened a new bar downstairs, but from what I've scene they still have Kenji's fried chicken on the menu and his book in the window. If he's no longer a part of it you can't tell.
posted by Carillon at 10:52 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

It has been SUCH an unexpected and glorious gift to have Kenji exploring our local food scene!! I love seeing him hype up small and deserving businesses, and he’s introduced me to several places I wouldn’t have known about.
posted by lunasol at 10:55 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm honestly surprised he doesn't have a (visible) Metafilter account.
Ah, that's what I forgot which I could've added! He's had a couple-few comments in here some years back, complete with

I'm currently working on my second book which has a ton more one-pot type stuff and is a lot more focused on the way I cook and feed my family at home (hint: I DON'T make three-day meatloaf or 2 million ingredient chili every night). Hopefully that'll scratch your itch!

now finding fruition years later
posted by CrystalDave at 10:57 AM on February 24, 2022 [12 favorites]

But a big part of his profession these days is filming himself cooking in his kitchen and I'm like "man, you need more room!".

1. His current kitchen is honestly amazing for Seattle. It has a gas range! Lots of cupboard space! But 2. I love how low-key his videos are. His kitchen is well-appointed but it’s an actual home kitchen of a house with two working parents and little kids. I think those kitchens help inspire confidence that the viewer could make these dishes too.
posted by lunasol at 11:00 AM on February 24, 2022 [11 favorites]

I am certainly sympathetic if he's budget constrained.

This seems extremely unlikely to me. I'm not saying he's filthy rich or anything, but I think one of those kitchens was a temp house before the move to Seattle from California, and I wouldn't characterize either of the bookend kitchens as tiny. People who own restaurants (of the successful variety) also usually aren't particularly poor, as the business is famously risky and really only survivable by those with sufficiently deep pockets. Obviously he's not the sole owner of a restaurant, and probably his end of the involvement is his food bona fides, but still.
posted by axiom at 11:00 AM on February 24, 2022

I think people assume that anybody they see "on tv" (whatever media that means now) is automatically money-truck rich*, but while I'm sure the family is comfortable they have lived in incredibly costly housing markets and also have a general aesthetic that I suspect means they'd rather live in a neighborhood with decent if compact kitchens than the millionaire districts. Large kitchens actually make terrible cooking show studios, and given his format if he was running around a huge kitchen with a gopro on his head people would puke from motion sickness or he'd have to edit a shitload more and that's very time-consuming.

But also, his efforts have been hugely geared toward home cooks, and most of us don't have mansion kitchens either. I love watching someone cook well and successfully with a non-commercial stove and counter space scattered with bottles and toys, with dogs underfoot.

I'm really looking forward to The Wok, and his teaser videos that have come out in the past week or two look great.

*"Owning" a restaurant these days often means your name is securing financing, with the bulk of the operating costs and profits flowing through your name to someone else's pockets. Like most venture capitalism, I'm sure the salary didn't suck but still wasn't as much money as the investors made or wrote off as a loss. Restaurants aren't terribly profitable, and less so in a pandemic.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

His YouTube channel is so great. A little sad for him that he's moved through three houses in the past two years and they all have tiny kitchens. It seems to work for him, and I am certainly sympathetic if he's budget constrained. But a big part of his profession these days is filming himself cooking in his kitchen and I'm like "man, you need more room!". Then again professional chefs are used to working in tiny spaces.

As are a lot of home cooks. I think it's very on-brand for him not to be working in a sprawling aspirational kitchen. I appreciate how The Food Lab and Serious Eats have some fussiness and gadgetry for people who want to play with sous vide or hack their wok burners, but are still very accessible to a person who has an apartment electric stove and $200 Cuisinart pot and pan starter set.

I liked the profile for filling in some of my gaps in knowledge on his career. It's wild to think he started his cooking career at Fire and Ice! That's like being a step above working at a corporate cafeteria for being the exact polar opposite of a chef'y career. Your job as a chef would've been to dice a bunch of ingredients, stock them in a salad bar, and then stir fry whatever your customers picked out, even if it's an objectively terrible combination. I love imagining him trying to subtle tricks to optimize for someone handing him a bowl of say, beef, shrimp, eggplant and okra.

I'm not saying he's filthy rich or anything, but I think one of those kitchens was a temp house before the move to Seattle from California, and I wouldn't characterize either of the bookend kitchens as tiny. People who own restaurants (of the successful variety) also usually aren't particularly poor, as the business is famously risky and really only survivable by those with sufficiently deep pockets. Obviously he's not the sole owner of a restaurant, and probably his end of the involvement is his food bona fides, but still.

A friend was involved in the financing of Wursthall. As I recall, I don't think Kenji's actually a majority owner in the restaurant. It's largely backed by a consortium of families in the Peninsula who pool funds to finance restaurants in the San Mateo/Burlingame area, and they figured getting his name attached to project, and a small ownership stake was good for publicity.
posted by bl1nk at 11:32 AM on February 24, 2022 [7 favorites]

Goodness, I didn't mean to start a speculation about Kenji's financial position! Was just trying to be polite in acknowledging the difficulty of affording space in the Bay Area and Seattle.

I'll stand by my observation that the kitchen is tiny. Maybe not by Seattle standards, but by TV celebrity kitchen standards. Obviously the big sets for professional TV are going to be large. But even the sets designed to look like home ("The Kitchen", "Pati's Mexican Table", Lidia Bastianich, Guy Fieri's shows) are way, way bigger. For that matter "The Kitchen" went through a Covid period where folks were filming from home and I was struck by how every TV chef's home kitchen was enormous. Sure they had a set dresser fix it up but it's not like they had planned to build a whole kitchen around Covid lockdown.

I like the comments above that the normal sized kitchen makes his cooking more relatable. It fits his whole personality of being just an uncommonly expert guy next door sharing his cooking with you. I bring the beer, Kenji makes the snacks.

Has he ever talked about his kitchen design? Sometimes he talks about specific appliances, etc. His current stove seems small to me: it's 4 burners plus a griddle burner squeezed in the middle of.. a 24" or 30" cooktop? I also laugh about how he never uses an electric igniter on his stove. In his first house I thought maybe it was broken (just like mine!) but after two more houses it's clear he prefers just to light it with an electric match.

I'm so grateful for Kenji's role in cooking and the Internet. If you want another sample of the fandom check out the Serious Eats subreddit, which is about 80% commentary on Kenji's recipes. Every day there's a new post about "I made his Foolproof Pan Pizza" and it turns out, yes, it's foolproof. (Also delicious and indulgent, it's a favorite of mine.)
posted by Nelson at 11:35 AM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes, he should win a prize for recipe and the reverse sear prime rib recipe if nothing else.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:40 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm a huge fan of Kenji, he is a level above other YouTube chefs. In one clip about lemon pasta I watched him get all bashful and nervous in front of the Milk Street guy (Chris Kimball, whose pbs-funded show about world cuisine dishes is actually really good and I've watched all of those too). I'm like, Kenji you are so amazing and inspiring in your own right, you do not need to be kowtowing like that in front of him!
posted by polymodus at 11:40 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

polymodus - I think that's more a reflection of Kenji's past as a prep chef on Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. It's weird and awkward working with an old boss, even if you've since surpassed them in your own right!

(and my impression is that Kimball never likes being the junior partner in any collaboration)
posted by bl1nk at 11:51 AM on February 24, 2022 [8 favorites]

I just this moment finished off two slices of Kenji's Foolproof Pan Pizza. I've probably made it once a week for the past two years. I almost always some of this pizza dough in the fridge for when I can't be arsed to make anything else for lunch.

(and my impression is that Kimball never likes being the junior partner in any collaboration)

Honestly, if you go by his body language he never likes anything. I just assume he has some sort of physical disconnect in addition whatever interpersonal sourness that was part of the ATK breakup drama (and I say this as a Milk Street subscriber and fan and an ATK fan).
posted by srboisvert at 12:16 PM on February 24, 2022 [10 favorites]

He feels like a real person. A real person with expertise he can share in a relatable way.

This is what drew me to him.

I love cooking shows but had never heard of him until sometime during the early 2020 quarantine, when YouTube recommended one of his videos. I had been devouring cooking videos as an attempt to distract myself from ::gestures vaguely:: and I assume it must have gone viral elsewhere on social media, so the algorithm presented it to me, and I watched it. And then another, and another, and another.

Before watching his videos, every cooking show or YouTube channel I'd seen had all, as a matter of course, felt produced.

Good Eats, America's Test Kitchen, Munchies, Binging with Babish, Maangchi, Helen Rennie, Joshua Weissman, Adam Ragusea, far more than I can name offhand, they all have some level of production value, planning, and polish. Title cards, theme songs, voiceovers, b-roll, soft even lighting, beautiful spotless kitchens.

And then suddenly there's Kenji's face, cold open, strapping a GoPro to his forehead in his messy kitchen as his dogs snuffle the floors in search of crumbs, speaking far too quickly one moment and then struggling to organize his thoughts the next, with a sudden jump cut as he apologizes for the interruption but his daughter wanted some cheese and milk for a snack, as he effortlessly and deftly chiffonades some ingredients on a butcherblock the size of my coffee table and then scoops them up and mostly into the pan while managing to drop nearly a third of it either onto the floor or directly onto the burner, all while explaining what he's doing and why. And then there are his "Late Night" videos, featuring a mute Kenji, breathing heavily and knocking back a half empty beer, as he whips up a greasy midnight snack.

They felt authentic and genuine and comforting and touching in a way I still struggle to explain or properly put into words, in a way that still starts to choke me up just trying to describe it. I had no idea who he was, or what his credentials were, but he obviously had experience chopping things, and he explained his reasoning behind just about everything, either through his own research or by citing the work of others. He came across as approachable and exceedingly unpretentious in a way that reminded me partly of Jacques Pepin, partly of Bob Ross. Discovering his channel was an inextricable part of my pandemic experience.

Soon after finding his videos, my partner and I got his book, The Food Lab. We pull it off the shelf at least once a month, if not for whole recipes then for the references, guides, and tables. Anytime we're discussing plans for dinner, have questions about a new recipe, or are looking for a way to improve something that didn't quite work for us the last time we made it, one of us will invariably look to the other and ask "well, what does Kenji have to say about it?" And lo, Kenji has indeed looked into it and meticulously explored three different methods, of which he recommends this one for this reason.

And perhaps my favorite thing about him is that even with all the meticulous testing and research and citing of sources, he never concludes "therefore THIS is the ONE TRUE WAY to do it!" Nope. Do it the way you prefer doing it. Work with what you have. Do not let Authenticity get in the way of what you like, what works for you, or what you have on hand.

I guess all of this is just to say, I appreciate his contributions to my culinary experience, and I'm happy to have found his work.

Thanks for sharing this article; it explains a lot about his background experience that I'd been missing before he turned up on my digital doorstep, and backs up a lot of the conclusions I'd come to.
posted by rustybullrake at 12:20 PM on February 24, 2022 [22 favorites]

I don't think of Seattle as having small kitchens, and am puzzled by the statements here and in the article about that. I'm in the suburbs now, but none of my former kitchens were particularly small. (I've lived in many places, and Manhattan is the only one where I'd expect kitchens to be small.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:27 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I will be making Sichuan eggplant tonight, in fact. And the Food Lab is a revered and honored book in our house. One of the things we love so much is that it feels rare to see someone at his level and still say "ah, this is a person like me." Like, I can follow a Child or Pepin recipe, and it will probably be great because they are amazing artisans and they will tell me what to do and I just have to make sure to pretend to be them as perfectly as possible for things to work. But my family can cook off of a Lopez-Alt recipe and even though (because?) it's build on precision science, it feels like an amazing guy we know gave us some tips that lead the way to have a fantastic dinner. The incorporation of international flavors is also a big plus. Honestly, I read the article with trepidation - I didn't want to find out that I might not like him. Fortunately I still do.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 1:44 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm Spanish and I have two gazpacho recipes and one of them is Kenji's.

"Kenji" is indeed a synonym for "best" when googling recipes.
posted by kandinski at 1:58 PM on February 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

I usually use 'SeriousEats' in my search, but I really only *mean* Kenji

Ditto, almost. Some of Gritzer's stuff in the style of Food Lab is really good, e.g.-- like, I forget they're not Kenji's recipes.
posted by supercres at 1:59 PM on February 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm glad he's here, but his recent concentration on the Seattle bagel scene has been rough for at least this gluten free fan.
posted by sapere aude at 2:22 PM on February 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

To Seattle home cooks, his arrival was the food equivalent of Steph Curry buying a Tudor on the edge of Capitol Hill, then playing pickup games at various neighborhood parks.

I don't know what this means.

I don't cook much, but as a Seattleite, I was interested in reading this--though I'm kind of put off by sports metaphors (I assume this is a sports metaphor?) as a general rule because I can't follow what the writer is supposedly saying.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 2:44 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Good question. I'll try a whack at this.

"the food equivalent of Jean-Michel Basquiat buying a Craftsman in Fremont, then sitting in on paint-n-sips around town"

"the food equivalent of Lin Manuel Miranda buying an A-frame in Magnolia, then buying a season ticket to Theatre Off Jackson"

Translated, "this person, who is famous within their domain & at the top of their career so far, moving to Seattle (presumably a quieter city for that thing than wherever they're coming from), interacting with the community on a more individual basis, rather than as celebrity (and also not swinging in & starting up a business either)"
posted by CrystalDave at 3:21 PM on February 24, 2022 [12 favorites]

I only just learned from this article that Serious Eats was not Kenji's website; I had no idea that he was just a contributor. I thought he had sold the website or something, which is why it's mostly a ghost town (no offense to Daniel Gritzer, who I do enjoy and trust). Oh, I'll also speak up for Stella Parks as a great contributor to that website, everything I've read from her has been very instructive and no fussier than necessary. But she's no longer a contributor either.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Kenji, but have only just started watching his Youtube channel, which I've enjoyed. It's a very different vibe that the SE recipes, very casual, most measurements are eyeballed, cooking times are approximate, it's like like cooking impressionism.
posted by skewed at 3:42 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

SE is definitely not the same without Kenji, although it is still high quality and my go-to when I’m looking for something new and different but still delicious. Gritzer’s recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara referenced above is bullet-proof and what I always use after years of struggling with inconsistent results.

I watch all of Kenji’s videos — they always strike me as spontaneous and off-the-cuff but his deep knowledge and understanding of the science of food preparation means he always nails the finish.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:28 PM on February 24, 2022

Interesting how the profile talks about how he was almost another overly-aggressive dude-bro chef but timely intervention from people close to him helped him reflect on changing his behavior towards others.

Not something I would have expected from the guy who signs off his videos by bidding friendly farewell to “guys, gals, and non-binary pals”.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:51 PM on February 24, 2022 [10 favorites]

I love his stuff and The Food Lab is amazing. My biggest gripe with Serious Eats is that they seem to be really slow with adding content now. I’ll also bring up the YouTube series Chinese Cooking Demystified which are amazing. Like Kenji, Steph and Chris just make stuff in their tiny kitchen or on their patio. What’s great about them is they talk a lot about the history of a dish and it’s role in a city or region in China. Really great stuff.
posted by misterpatrick at 6:59 PM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

Everything positive that everyone has said about Kenji I support 1000%. I love the fact that he cooks in kitchens that everyone can relate to. I'm exaggerating, and I'd never lay this on his shoulders personally, but he seems to embody the promise of what the internet could have been in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and which has obviously not come to pass.
posted by mollweide at 7:18 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just dropping in to say that Kenji's "Every Night Is Pizza Night" is legitimately one of the best kids books around. It got our kids interested in a ton of new foods-- they are tagine machines!-- and finally got me into making pizza at home (despite having an excellent pizza joint literally down the block). If you have kids or know kids, get a copy.
posted by phooky at 7:50 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm also going to credit this book with getting me into grapefruit in a bit way.
posted by phooky at 7:51 PM on February 24, 2022

polymodus - I think that's more a reflection of Kenji's past as a prep chef on Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen. It's weird and awkward working with an old boss, even if you've since surpassed them in your own right!

OK but another factor to consider is, Kenji's MIT pedigree shows in the very way he works with food and explains it with science. And whatever is in the water at MIT, the students have been selected into a culture of being very independent minded thinkers, students who turn into leaders whereever they may go afterwards. The idea that you would be subservient toward a current boss, let alone an old one--it's just not how they do things there. So the juxtaposition is that Kenji's from an elite world-renowned school and yet has also worked at high-end molecular gastronomy restaurants in Boston.

If anything that tells me that restaurant culture in general is so entrenched in its social hierarchies that even a cream-of-the-crop education might not counteract that.
posted by polymodus at 8:47 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Big new Helen Rosner profile of Kenji in the New Yorker: J. Kenji López-Alt Says You’re Cooking Just Fine.

Ahead of the release of his new book, “The Wok,” the food columnist reflects on kitchen-bro culture, who gets credit for recipes, and how not to be an asshole.

posted by Nelson at 7:32 AM on February 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also another nice profile from the MIT newspaper in Feb 2020. This one focusses on his experience as an undergrad. Kenji López-Alt: The Nerd King of Internet Cooking.

As a part of the international Number Six fraternity on campus, López-Alt had all his meals cooked by the house chef until the cook was fired for theft. López-Alt then started cooking all the dinners for his fraternity, replacing the professional chef.

posted by Nelson at 7:36 AM on February 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Kenji's new book The Wok is out and it's good. I like that it's not a traditional cookbook but more a collection of techniques and ideas. I mean there's recipes too, but then there's pages and pages of things like "this is how a stir fry works. here's a table of 50 things good in stir fry and how you should prepare them."

To our discussion about kitchen size the intro has this quote

I now have a normal-sized American kitchen though I dearly miss my small, extraordinarily functional New York galley-style kitchen (I actually have to walk between my counter and my stovetop, much to my chagrin.)

Not sure we ever saw the New York kitchen in his videos; if we did it was a long time ago.
posted by Nelson at 8:35 AM on March 18, 2022