J. Kenji López-Alt Explained

J. Kenji López-Alt
Birth Name:James Kenji Alt
Birth Date:31 October 1979[1]
Birth Place:Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.[2]
Education:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Spouse:Adriana López
Children:2
Awards:
  • James Beard Award, General Cooking (2016)
  • IACP Cookbook of the Year (2016)
  • James Beard Award, Single Subject (2023)
Module:
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Channel Url:UCqqJQ_cXSat0KIAVfIfKkVA
Channel Display Name:J. Kenji López-Alt
Years Active:2016 - Present
Genre:Cooking, education
Subscribers:1.45+ million
Views:169+ million
Stats Update:December 26, 2023
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Gold Button:yes

James Kenji López-Alt (born October 31, 1979) is an American chef and food writer.[3] [4] [5] His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, became a critical and commercial success, charting on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for the best General Cooking cookbook.[6] The cookbook expanded on López-Alt's "The Food Lab" column on the Serious Eats blog. López-Alt is known for using the scientific method in his cooking to improve popular American recipes and to explain the science of cooking.[7]

López-Alt co-founded Wursthall in 2017, a beer hall style restaurant in San Mateo, California. He now maintains a popular YouTube channel in which he demonstrates various recipes and cooking techniques with a POV filming style. He released a children's book titled Every Night is Pizza Night in 2020 and a cookbook titled The Wok: Recipes and Techniques in 2022 which focused on the eponymous cooking vessel. Both books became New York Times Bestsellers, with the latter earning López-Alt his second James Beard Foundation Award.

Early life and education

Born James Kenji Alt on October 31, 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts; he is the son of Frederick Alt and Keiko Nakanishi. His maternal grandfather is Japanese organic chemist Koji Nakanishi.[8] He and his sisters grew up in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, one floor above his maternal grandparents, both Japanese immigrants.[9]

López-Alt attended the Dalton School,[10] and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002, where he majored in architecture.[11] [12]

Career

Early career (2000s to 2015)

López-Alt's first restaurant job was during his sophomore year of college. He attempted to take a job as a waiter at a local restaurant, but they needed a prep cook.[13] He later worked with several Boston chefs including Barbara Lynch and Ken Oringer.[14] He went on to work as a test cook and editor at Cook's Illustrated magazine and America's Test Kitchen.[15]

López-Alt was the Managing Culinary Director and is the Chief Culinary Consultant of Serious Eats, a food blog, where he authored the James Beard Award-nominated column "The Food Lab".[16] [17] He later adapted this column into his first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which was published in September 2015 by W. W. Norton & Company.[18] It was a New York Times Bestseller[19] and won the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for General Cooking,[20] as well as the International Association of Culinary Professionals awards for Best American Cookbook and Cookbook of the Year.[21] Penny Pleasance of the New York Journal of Books called The Food Lab "a seminal work that is encyclopedic in scope and can be used as a reference by even the most experienced home cooks".[22]

After The Food Lab (2016 to present)

López-Alt opened the Wursthall Restaurant & Bierhaus in San Mateo, California in 2017, with partners Adam Simpson and Tyson Mao.[23]

López-Alt started a YouTube channel in 2016, which, as of March 2022, had over one million subscribers and over 200 million views. The videos are POV-style demonstrations of recipes and cooking techniques in López-Alt's home kitchen that feature unscripted commentary and largely unedited footage.[24]

In September 2019, López-Alt became a monthly columnist at The New York Times Cooking.[25]

In 2020 López-Alt released a children's book, Every Night is Pizza Night, which debuted on the New York Times Children's Bestseller list.[26] [27]

After his move to Seattle in late 2020, López-Alt's Instagram posts became increasingly popular as he recommended various businesses and dishes around the area, becoming "maybe the most powerful food influencer this city has seen in the social media age," according to The Seattle Times.[28]

In 2022, López-Alt released a cookbook titled The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, a 658-page book focused on woks. The Seattle Times called the book "arguably the most anticipated cookbook of the year" and it debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list in the category of "Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous".[29] [30] [31] [32] [33] It won the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award.[34] The book won the 2023 James Beard Foundation Book Award in the category of "Single Subject".[35]

He remains a regular guest on the Serious Eats podcast, Special Sauce, hosted by Ed Levine.[36]

Personal life

As of 2021, López-Alt resides in Seattle, Washington,[37] after previously living in San Mateo, California, New York City, and Boston.[38] He goes by his middle name Kenji in his personal life.

In 2009, López-Alt married Adriana López, a software engineer from Colombia, and they combined Adriana's birth surname, López, with that of Kenji, Alt.[39] The López-Alts have two children, the second of whom was born in September 2021.[40] [41]

In January 2019, López-Alt tweeted that "if you come to my restaurant wearing a MAGA cap, you aren't getting served, same as if you come in wearing a swastika, white hood, or any other symbol of intolerance and hate"[42] and "If you’re comfortable sitting next to a MAGA wearer I’m probably not interested in serving you either."[43] He later apologized and deleted the tweet.[44] [45]

Filmography

YearShow titleTypeNotes
2016The ChewTelevision seriesSeven episodes[46]
2017Guy’s Grocery GamesTelevision seriesSeason 14, Episode 1, “Blogger Battle” (competitor) & Season 14, Episode 3, “GGG Jrs.” (judge)[47]
2019The Burger Show Television seriesSeason 3, Episode 3, "J. Kenji López-Alt Debunks Burger Myths"[48]
2020Somebody Feed PhilTelevision seriesSeason 4, touring the Mission District[49]

Publications

Notes and References

  1. J. Kenji López-Alt Uncommon Sense . . Yankee Publishing, Inc. . October 6, 2020 . November 2020 . 26 . July 22, 2022.
  2. J. Kenji López-Alt . September 23, 2020 . Ask Kenji Anything #1 . September 28, 2020 . 15:45 .
  3. News: Fall 2015's Best Cookbooks: Cooking Pros Bring It Home. Eater. 2017-12-27.
  4. The Ultimate Book for Science Nerds Who Cook. Pearlstein. Joanna. WIRED. 2017-12-27. en-US.
  5. News: A SIDE OF SCIENCE - The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com. 2017-12-27.
  6. Web site: The 2016 Book, Broadcast and Journalism Awards: Complete Winner Recap. 26 April 2016. 3 July 2016. James Beard Foundation.
  7. News: Syckle . Katie Van . Cooking With a Dash of Science . 16 August 2021 . The New York Times . 16 August 2021.
  8. Web site: Robertson . Blair Anthony . 2015 . Science becomes delicious in 'The Food Lab' . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151216095413/http://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article49010860.html . 2015-12-16 . 2019-11-13 . The Sacramento Bee . His father, Frederick Alt, is a professor at Harvard Medical School.
  9. News: López-Alt . J. Kenji . 2023-06-16 . A Star of Kenji López-Alt's Childhood Breakfasts Shows Its Versatility . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-06-19 . 0362-4331.
  10. Web site: Dalton 100-1998 . The Dalton School . 2022-03-02.
  11. News: Franson . Paul . Notes from the 'food nerd in chief': J. Kenji López-Alt publishes 'The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science' . . April 11, 2016 . en.
  12. Web site: Alumnus takes food out of the kitchen and into the lab. Morell. Nicole. MIT Technology Review. en-US. 2019-11-14.
  13. Web site: Q&A With James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author J. Kenji López-Alt. 2016-10-03. 7x7 Bay Area. en. 2019-11-14.
  14. Web site: Alumnus Chef One-Ups (OK, Maybe Two-Ups) KFC. slice.mit.edu. en. 2017-12-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20161026084415/https://slice.mit.edu/2010/04/28/alumnus-chef-one-ups-ok-maybe-two-ups-kfc/. 2016-10-26. dead.
  15. Kenji López-Alt's Obsessive Kitchen Experiments. Killingsworth. Silvia. 2015-10-03. The New Yorker. 2017-12-27. 0028-792X.
  16. Web site: Masthead. www.seriouseats.com. en. 2017-12-27.
  17. Web site: The Complete 2015 JBF Award Nominees. www.jamesbeard.org. en. 2017-12-27.
  18. Web site: The Food Lab. books.wwnorton.com. 2017-12-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20161102180235/http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Food-Lab/. 2016-11-02. dead.
  19. News: Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous Books - Best Sellers - December 20, 2015. The New York Times. 2017-12-27. en.
  20. Web site: The 2016 Book, Broadcast, and Journalism Awards: Complete Winner Recap. www.jamesbeard.org. en. 2017-12-27.
  21. News: Winners - IACP. IACP. 2017-12-27. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20181205135436/https://www.iacp.com/awards/cookbook/winners/. 2018-12-05. dead.
  22. Web site: The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. New York Journal of Books. Pleasance. Penny. 2015. 3 July 2016.
  23. News: Internet Food Guru J. Kenji López-Alt Opening Real Life Beer and Sausage Hall. Eater SF. 2017-12-27.
  24. News: Martin . Kalea . Why J. Kenji López-Alt Calls His YouTube Channel An 'Anti-Cooking Show' . 9 March 2022 . TastingTable.com . 2 March 2022.
  25. News: J. Kenji López-Alt Joins Food. New York Times. 2020-10-03. en.
  26. News: Kennedy . Mark . 'Every Night is Pizza Night': Chef and writer J. Kenji López-Alt cooks up a kid's book . 17 September 2020 . USA TODAY.
  27. News: Every Night Is Pizza Night . 17 September 2020 . wwnorton.com . en.
  28. News: Vinh . Tan . J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle's most powerful food influencer — and its most reluctant one . 9 March 2022 . The Seattle Times . 10 June 2021.
  29. News: Vinh . Tan . The year's biggest cookbook is here. Seattle author J. Kenji López-Alt shares his favorite recipes in 'The Wok.' . 9 March 2022 . The Seattle Times . 8 March 2022.
  30. News: Julian . Sheryl . It's high time you heard of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt . 9 March 2022 . BostonGlobe.com.
  31. News: Bhabha . Leah . J. Kenji Lopez-Alt Explains Why a Wok Is the Only Pan You Need . 9 March 2022 . Vogue . 8 March 2022.
  32. News: John . Steven . Chef And Author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt On Cookbooks, Woks, And A Late Start In The Kitchen - Exclusive Interview . 9 March 2022 . Mashed.com . 8 March 2022.
  33. News: Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous Books - Best Sellers - Books - March 27, 2022 . 25 March 2022 . The New York Times.
  34. News: Macdonald . Moira . Here are the winners of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Awards . January 6, 2023 . . January 6, 2023.
  35. News: Canavan . Hillary Dixler . Here Are the 2023 James Beard Foundation Media Award Winners . 5 June 2023 . Eater . 3 June 2023 . en.
  36. Web site: Special Sauce . 2023-06-19 . en-US.
  37. Web site: Vinh. Tan. January 23, 2021. A new vegan restaurant from an 'Iron Chef' contestant and 12 other openings around Seattle. 2021-01-28. Seattle Times.
  38. News: Mr. Wizard's Food Lab: J. Kenji López-Alt's unlikely path to stardom. San Francisco Chronicle. 2017-12-27.
  39. Web site: Alumnus Takes Food Out of the Kitchen and into the Lab. 2017-01-11. MIT Alumni Association. en. 2019-11-14.
  40. Rosner . Helen . J. Kenji López-Alt Says You're Cooking Just Fine . 9 March 2022 . The New Yorker . 27 February 2022.
  41. News: Vermillion . Allecia . J. Kenji López-Alt Applies His Scientific Method to Seattle's Food Scene . 15 March 2024 . Seattle Met . 24 February 2022.
  42. Web site: Miller . Ryan W. . 31 January 2019 . San Mateo Eatery Bans 'Make America Great Again' Hats . CBS Bay Area.
  43. Web site: Miller . Ryan W. . January 31, 2019 . 'Like white hoods except stupider': California chef says he won't serve diners wearing 'MAGA' hats . USA Today.
  44. Web site: February 2019 . San Mateo Restaurant Owner Apologizes for 'MAGA' Hat Ban . CBS Bay Area.
  45. Web site: Filloon . Whitney . February 2019 . Kenji López-Alt Backtracks After Saying His Restaurant Won't Serve MAGA Hat Wearers . Eater.com.
  46. Web site: The Chew Season 5 Episodes. 2020-11-02. TVGuide.com. en.
  47. Web site: GGG Blogger Battle. 2021-04-16. Hulu.com. en.
  48. Web site: J. Kenji López-Alt Debunks Burger Myths, The Burger Show. 2020-11-02. Complex. en.
  49. Web site: de Guzman. Dianne. 2020-10-31. Netflix show features Bay Area chef superstars in SF episode. 2020-11-02. SFGATE. en-US.

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