The Food Lab

Better Home Cooking Through Science

By: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!) - and use a foolproof method that works every time?

As Serious Eats's culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don't work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new - but simple - techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2015 J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (P)2019 Tantor

Best book I've hear and read for food health!

easy to read, listen to and great information! I will continue listening to this book for good information.

great read

it was fun to listen to a lot of great cooking theories I strong recommend this to anyone who likes to cook and bake. I will be going out and buy the physical copy for my library

A genuine love for food

This book shows the author’s genuine love of food and has inspired me to try new ideas.

understanding the science of food preparation

as a culinary student too often you're instructed to perform preparations without a clear understanding of why. Even with the most experienced instructors their knowledge of a process is based on their experience, which might have been taught in a certain way, not necessarily the best. This book provides the why and, as tested by the author, the best way of preparing the dish and explains the understandable science of why there are better ways to prepare food. An excellent supplement to the culinary school experience

Excellent

Helps a novis like myself improve and understand what’s happening in the pan. Great book with interesting stories.

This is for serious cooks

I thought this was one of the best food books I have ever listened too. Kenji’s approach to food, science, prepping, and technique is absolutely amazing. I have tried quite a few techniques and styles and some I already knew about and already practiced. This book has opened me to a lot of new things that are now a part of my cooking. The recipe/method that knocked it out the park was his take on potatoes gratin. Next method I am going to try is French fries/pomme frites. I have been doing the double fry for years. Time try his take on it. Thank for this inspiring book.

Well seasoned

Informative useful hands-on great book! Seasoned with a jolly good mood and clever nerdy references.

Amazing book - But almost no metric units

This book is magnificent!

I have learned so much about cooking and the science behind, all while being thoroughly entertained by the author's humorous writing.

The only downside:
There are almost no metric units mentioned. Temperature is mentioned very often and always in Fahrenheit, making it hard to relate to and remember.

The bonus PDF contains many great recipes, but is a bit disorganized and it is not clear how the audio content relates to the pdf content.

Would still highly recommend this book, and I think a physical copy would be a good addition to my library.

Perfect listen for falling asleep

I have read some reviews which seem just silly. In those, it's said they want a hard copy for the recipes. You are given a PDF attachment, so the book is simply taking up space on your cookbook shelf.

This is NOT a cookbook! It is a nice story of the author and narrator recounting his kitchen experiments. For the reason that I find his manner friendly and kind, but while humour is a good thing, he has missed the mark for me, I can personally rate the overall story a 3 out of five.

I have been listening to this to fall asleep at night. It is not that it is boring, it really is entertaining. What it lacks is a cohesive plot from start to finish. You can start at the beginning of any chapter, and you have missed nothing essential to understand the current point. That makes it relaxing.

I have learned a couple things. First, is how to cook eggs. The whites and the yolks cook very differently. Also, bacon cooks so that the fat and meat buckle because they are very different, and a wet cured supermarket bacon can be up to 12% water, and we all know, water will cook food, but no amount of fat in the water will lwt the meat brown. Pasta doesn't require boiling water to cook. The exception is fresh egg pasta, but neither need to be boiled in gallons of water, but the water MUST be salted. That's for flavor, not to speed up the process. Also, al dente pasta, that which is slightly textured at the bite, wasn't known until after WWII. Even as late as 1902, the US Navy required macaroni to be boiled for at a minimum of 30 minutes! (That is true, but not mentioned in the book).

Sauces, meats, greens, bread, it's all in here. Just listen. It's an easy relaxing way to learn, besides the entertainment.

Great book!

I liked this book so much I wanted to buy the actual book and realize it was almost $50! But it’s probably worth it. I would like to be able to look up some things easier than I can on audible. Worth the read. Lots of great tips and tricks with a thorough explanation of each.