Skip to content

THE FOOD LAB

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Better Home Cooking Through Science

A grand tour of the science of cooking explored through popular American dishes, illustrated in full color.
Should meat rest after cooking? What is the best way to boil an egg and why? Why is it important to cook pasta in a lot of water? What’s necessary for fluffy pancakes? What does vodka do for piecrust? Kenji Lopez-Alt not only answers these questions and also demonstrates how he uses research to improve each recipe, providing readers with tools they can apply to anything else they want to prepare. Kenji shows that home cooks don't need a state-of-the-art kitchen to cook pitch-perfect meals. In a uniqze book centered on beloved dishes such as prime rib roast, Caesar salad, and buttermilk biscuits, Kenji explores the science behind searing, baking, blanching and roasting. in hundreds of easy-to-mae recipes with ober 1000 full-color images illustrating step-by-step instructions, readers will find out how to make perfect roast turkey with crackling skin, how to make scrambled eggs extra fluffy or creamy, and much more. Combining the unrelenting curiosity of a cheerful science geek with the expert knowledge of a practiced chef, the Food Lab gives readers practical tools and new approaches that they can apply the next time they step into the kitchen. Kenji Lopez-Alt cooked in Boston’s top kitchens after graduating from MIT. He has been co-host of America’s Test Kitchen and has written for the Boston Globe, Cooking Life, Grub Street, and Edible Boston, among others. He is the author of the James Beard Award-nominated column The Food Lab, and the managing culinary director of Serious Eats. He lives in San Francisco.
Available products
Book

Published 2015-09-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Chemistry and physics underlie all cooking. In this book, home cooks will learn techniques to make new recipes, and, more importantly, they will understand why these techniques are successful.

Kenji is the most important recipe developer to come along in a generation.

Quarantine Diet feature (April 1): Last week, New York and Grub Street asked some of our favorite past Grub Street Diet subjects to keep one-day diaries of what they eat while self-quarantining, which we'll be running over the next few days. Here, author and restaurateur J. Kenji López-Alt walks us through Monday, March 23... Read more...

The cookbook I am looking forward to the most. Nom Nom Paleo’s Michelle Tam

he Food Lab is a monumental achievement. This is sure to become a must-read for anyone who cares about cooking better food.

Kenji has created an incredible resource to support you as you explore the possibilities of amazing food in your kitchen.

interview about shopping and eating safely during virus (March 27) Read more...

Chinese (compl.): Systex Corporation ; Chinese (simpl.): Lotoscomehome ; Japanese: Iwasaki Publishing ; Korean: Youngjin ; Russian: Exem License Limited

Rare is the work that combines extraordinary passion with such obsessive scientific rigor. The Food Lab is an uncommon and invaluable contribution to our food literature.