[HN Gopher] J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is Seattle's reluctant powerful f... ___________________________________________________________________ J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is Seattle's reluctant powerful food influencer Author : unpredict Score : 90 points Date : 2021-06-11 21:06 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.seattletimes.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.seattletimes.com) | rapfaria wrote: | Love his youtube videos, but I wonder how can someone engage in | answering so many hateful comments and such. | | To think that by the size of his channel he would put someone in | charge of this. Perhaps the "guys, gals and non-binary pals, I'll | see you next time" came from someone telling he was not inclusive | enough when saying goodbye? | egypturnash wrote: | My experience of Seattle is that "guys, gals, and non-binary | pals" feels like something totally expected out of the kind of | person who would move to Seattle. | | This article also mentions that he lives, specifically, in the | Capitol Hill neighborhood. Cap Hill is Seattle's rainbow flag | district, and anyone living there is probably gonna be | encountering enbys on a regular basis. | prpl wrote: | Kenji is very good but also highly opinionated, often bordering | on food snob. That's fine, he's often right but not always. I | think that feeds into this problem: People following him will | seek out "the best/perfect XYZ" which he looks for based on his | own obsession at the time (smashed burgers, XLB, detroit pizza, | etc...). | | If you watch old episodes of Jacque and Julia you will see how | they could easily and happily disagree on what makes something | special, and there is nuance there. That nuance is lost in | translation with cults of personality. | jghn wrote: | I get where you're coming from but don't think it's snobbery | per se. There are things he prefers that I don't prefer. Over | the years I've come to just understand that he & I have | different tastes. | | A great example would be his obsession with crispy potatoes in | all things potatoes. Sure, sometimes I love a shatteringly | crisp fry. Other times I want something mushy. Same with | roasted potatoes. But I don't ever feel put down by him for | wanting mushy potatoes. | carabiner wrote: | Snob? Have you watched the man make a pizza on a store-bought | tortilla with pineapple? | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v7nhyjCx5Q | tshaddox wrote: | That's an interesting characterization, because I would have | said precisely the opposite: I've seen that he consistently | goes out of his way to denounce notions like "it's not _real_ X | unless you make it with Y." He's pretty outspoken that it's | better to adapt recipes based on your own preferences, skills, | and ingredient availability than to try to chase | "authenticity." It's not uncommon to hear him say things like | "it's probably more traditional to include X in this recipe, | but I don't like that flavor, so I'm leaving it out." I'm | genuinely curious why you characterize him as a food snob. | criley2 wrote: | I think the characterization comes from a legion of homecooks | online going through a cooking journey and treating Kenji's | whimsical opinion as a law, especially when written down for | one recipe. | | Kenji's videos show how creative and open minded he is with | cooking, but I've also had plenty of online encounters with | folks preaching the food lab gospel. | prpl wrote: | That's different though "it's not real X unless you make it | with Y" is about authenticity. I did not bring up | authenticity in the criticism. You are right - Kenji rarely | cares about authenticity or tradition. That's fine. | | If you go through his old recipes though on SE, you'll see | "The science of the best XYZ" or "Perfect XYZ" all over the | place: | | https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-5118015 | | I stopped following him a few years ago on Instagram because | it was tiring. It looks like he's changed a bit. | legitster wrote: | I think he has leaned into the "best/perfect" as an SEO trick, | and his audience tends to treat him as gospel - but his recipes | are amazingly flexible and there is not a lick of pretense. I | still use his trick for how to fake a smoke ring when making | sous-vide brisket. | scotu wrote: | I sincerely think you missed the last 3+ years of anything he | did (I don't know how he used to communicate before) because if | there is one thing I cannot say of him is that he's a food | snob. | | He is opinionated, but explains _why_ he does things (often | offering a scientific reasoning /experiment), especially if | he's not following the traditional way, he seems to give | context on what would be more traditional, and is quick in | communicating "but you do you"... | prpl wrote: | You are right, I stopped caring around that time (~3 years | ago). That said, the science explanations are occasionally | wrong. | | If you like science of cooking you might enjoy Cooking | Issues/Dave Arnold quite a bit more. I generally prefer | Dave's cut of the jib. | jorblumesea wrote: | I really get the opposite vibe. He's a huge fan of Jacque and | tries to make his food accessible. He often mentions in his | videos that "you can do it whatever way you want, this is the | way I do it". He often makes almost junk food versions of | popular dishes (potato chip tortillas). | Exuma wrote: | Kenji AKA Peel ginger with a spoon!!! | dataviz1000 wrote: | What type of savage doesn't peel ginger with a spoon? Learned | that from a Tibetan making momos. He would then use the side of | a clever to crush the ginger before mincing. | ipsum2 wrote: | People have been doing this for forever, it's not a new | technique by Kenji. | kixiQu wrote: | I remember hearing lynne rossetto kasper interviewing the host of | america's test kitchen one time, and him just being extremely | aggressive about the idea that he was here to come and | Objectively Improve on the way your grandmother used to do | things. what I love about j kenji lopez alt's stuff is that he | does.... very much not that, even while he's experimenting to get | into the nuts and bolts of a recipe. he's respectful of | traditions and individual taste and shortcuts that may be worth | it to home cooks even if they're not The Right Way. | jypepin wrote: | Just wanna say that I'm a huge fan of Kenji. His Youtube channel | is simple, interesting and the opposite of snob. A true food | passionate that is doing whatever he can to go against gate | keeping. He's been inspiring me to cook more (and successful at | it!) for a couple years. | | https://www.youtube.com/user/kenjialt | tootie wrote: | He's talking about this story on a reddit thread: | https://old.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/nwtg18/j_kenji_l%C... | jghn wrote: | I've been following Kenji since his earliest days on | SeriousEats. He's great, and I'm so glad he has had the | opportunity to change all of our lives for the better. | | I'm not a fan of watching video content, much prefer reading | text. My Kenji consumption has dropped by quite a bit since | he's moved to mostly Youtube. He's doing what he wants/loves | though, and that's what matters. | sondr3 wrote: | I agree with you in that I prefer written material most of | the time, but for food I actually prefer video over text. | Mostly because it allows me to see and get a feel for the | workflow, the timings and such that are impossible to get | across from just a recipe. Especially for baking videos have | been great because when it says "should be tacky to the touch | but not sticky" it's always "how sticky is sticky, what is | tacky, how do I know what it feels like etc" and seeing a | baker doing it helps immensely. Once I've gotten a good grasp | for the process though I far prefer using a recipe. | timeinput wrote: | It reminds me of the related story [0] titled " I Found the Best | Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It." The author tried | hundreds of burgers around the US and deemed one the best and the | business seemed to overwhelm him. | | [0] https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed- | will-... | tptacek wrote: | His Youtube is very, very good. Two Kenji videos that changed my | life a little during the pandemic, in that I now make these | things all the time: | | Spanish tortilla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPYk9W9v-bI | | Oyakadon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXzpCqKdUA | | I feel like --- I might be wrong here --- Kenji's origin story is | the Cook's Illustrated vodka pie crust, which replaces water in | the dough with vodka to minimize gluten formation (the alcohol | cooks off). I think that's where I first heard of him, and I've | been following ever since. He's pretty great. | jdmichal wrote: | I know him from Serious Eat's "The Food Lab": | | https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-5118015 | | I think this is the first article of his I found. An adventure | into how to make fries like McDonald's: | | https://www.seriouseats.com/perfect-french-fries-recipe | zerocrates wrote: | Oyakodon is worth it just for the little chuckle over its name | alone ("oya": parent, "ko": child, and the dish includes both | chicken and egg). Like many sources describing this dish, Kenji | mentions this basically immediately, as they well should. | | I'm a devotee of his book The Food Lab and his prior work there | on Serious Eats, but haven't gotten into his videos much. I | should. | jghn wrote: | Yes. He created the vodka pie crust recipe at CI. After Cooks | he started showing up here and there on Serious Eats (iirc "A | Burger Today"?) before going all in there. | legitster wrote: | I've used that recipe for years! I only just recently learned | he was behind it this whole time. | kop316 wrote: | Wait, he made the vodka pie dough recipe??? | | That is an awesome recipe I use all the time, it is brilliant. | afcapel wrote: | I'm a Spanish person, living abroad and with a penchant for | cooking, and I was too very gratefully surprised by Kenji's | Spanish tortilla video. Also by his other Spanish recipes such | as Gazpacho[1] or Paella[2]. | | It's not that they are very orthodox recipes, cut and paste | from a traditional recipe cookbook, but instead very good | adaptations of them, taking into account ingredients | availability and different contexts. | | I can't really tell about other cousines, but judging how he | cooks Spanish food I'd say he knows what he's talking about. | | Add to that that he seems like a very decent and empathetic | person and I'd say he's someone you want to listen to if you | are looking for cooking advice. | | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD3WyeqCDHw | | [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASP74I0B7zo | AdmiralAsshat wrote: | His wife is Columbian, IIRC. | gerbler wrote: | I love his food lab book, and overall he seems like such a nice | person. The book is a bit dense, but it has such great info that | really helps deepen your cooking skills. | jasonwatkinspdx wrote: | Kenji is a fantastic author and now video maker. I've learned a | ton from him. | | My two favorite things about him are firstly, everything he talks | about is backed by a scientific approach, and secondly he has a | decidedly unfussy "but you can do it your way if you like" | attitude as well. He's like Pepin meets molecular gastronomy. | hiei wrote: | Huge Kenji fan. Probably not the first to do it but his no | commentary Go Pro first person cooking videos are quite | addicting. | unpredict wrote: | https://archive.is/QtAxQ | lacker wrote: | Serious Eats is a great source. Their writing on how to cook a | steak in a cast iron pan is excellent, a really useful and | interesting read for anyone who likes cooking steaks in cast iron | pans. | | https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-p... | user982 wrote: | I haven't visited ever since their redesign a few weeks ago | removed their RSS feeds. | eutropia wrote: | For any food I have never attempted cooking, I always default to | searching "<food> recipe serious eats" (After working through | Food Lab almost religiously). Every single time, the Serious Eats | recipes (even the ones not by Kenji) are excellent. | | Huge fan. We need more like him. :) | drenei wrote: | If you haven't read it, I highly recommend his book: | https://bookshop.org/books/the-food-lab-better-home-cooking-... | | It's a pragmatic, and opinionated general purpose cookbook. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-11 23:00 UTC)