[HN Gopher] J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is Seattle's reluctant powerful f...
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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.
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(page generated 2021-06-11 23:00 UTC)