The Food Lab with J. Kenjie Lopez-Alt
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Barnes & Noble Corte Madera to Host SeriousEats.com Superstar
J. Kenjie Lopez-Alt for Book Discussion & Signing
Barnes & Noble Corte Madera store will host J. Kenjie Lopez-Alt for a book discussion and signing of his new cookbook, The Food Lab: Better Homecooking Through Science, on Friday, October 9 at 7:00 p.m.
“Hugely informative. . . . This indispensable kitchen manual . . . makes food science accessible.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“This is a remarkable piece of work that stands up to its culinary comrades, and is a terrific starting point for home cooks interested in perfecting their techniques.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“With this book—precise and serious, witty and relaxed—
Kenji joins the glittering constellation of men and women who have, over the past thirty years, brought the ancient human art of feeding ourselves into the scientific age.”
—Jeffrey Steingarten, food critic, Vogue, and award-winning author of
The Man Who Ate Everything
“In this book, home cooks will learn techniques to make new recipes, and more important, they will understand why these techniques are successful.”
—Nathan Myhrvold, coauthor of Modernist Cuisine
“Kenji is the most important recipe developer to come along in a generation.”
—Ed Levine, founder of SeriousEats.com
The long-anticipated cookbook from Serious Eats superstar J. Kenji López-Alt finally arrives, a masterful single volume for anyone looking not only for great recipes but also an understanding of what makes them so great. With a preface by Jeffrey Steingarten, THE FOOD LAB: Better Home Cooking Through Science incorporates everything that has made the blog of the same name a smash hit with hundreds of all-new recipes and over 1,000 color photographs.
López-Alt comes from a family of scientists, and the MIT grad describes himself as “part mad scientist, part cook.” As he explains in the book’s introduction, his job is simple: he will prove to readers that the simplest of foods—hamburgers, mashed potatoes, chicken soup—are every bit as fascinating, interesting, and delicious as what chefs slave over in their fancy kitchens. His techniques are equally simple—and scientific. He makes a recipe over and over again. He tinkers with it. He messes up. He makes it better. And the method to his madness is to get everyone, from novice to established cook, to understand the underlying code of a recipe, figuring out which parts are essential to the quality of the finished product and which parts are just decoration. As he writes, “Once you understand the basic science of how and why a recipe works, you suddenly find that you’ve freed yourself from the shackles of recipes.” You’ve become a better cook.
Organized around the categories of foods you already love, this cookbook begins with the science of breakfast, and it covers stock, fast-cooking foods (steaks, chops, chicken, fish), vegetables, ground meat, roasts, pasta, salads, and frying basics. Recipes include perfect poached eggs, super-flaky buttermilk biscuits, a 30-minute minestrone, super-crisp roast potatoes, an all-American meatloaf, classic diner-style smashed cheeseburgers (to accompany spectacular French fries), ultra-gooey stovetop macaroni and cheese, and a Caesar salad featuring a dressing with a homemade mayonnaise base.
Throughout, López-Alt asks and answers the questions cooks want to know. What’s the best way to freeze stock? How do you wash mushrooms? What color onion should I be using? Is grass-fed beef really healthier than grain-fed? And many more.
He demonstrates key knife skills like how to butterfly a chicken; how to buy, store, and prepare fish for cooking; the five essential vegetable preparation techniques; the five rules for better burgers; a better way to cook risotto; and the balance of acid and oil that guarantees a tasty vinaigrette.
THE FOOD LAB breaks down the key components of a dish by analyzing the flavors, ingredients, and steps to achieve the desired end result. This workflow is ideal for mastering the foundation—and then some—of cooking, guaranteed to improve your food and inspire innovation and creativity in your repertoire of dishes. Home cooks will understand why their fried chicken skin gets crisp, how to make a foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, and much more.
An incredible resource, THE FOOD LAB outlines the cornerstone of a well-stocked kitchen: the eight pots and pans you’ll reach for again and again, with added information on what tools are worth the splurge, and how to care for your equipment.
This is the cookbook of the year, a must-have for anyone interested in food.
About the Author:
J. Kenji López-Alt is the managing culinary director of SeriousEats.com, author of the James Beard Award–nominated column The Food Lab, and a columnist for Cooking Light. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Adriana.
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