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J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

seattletimes.com

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Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#71

Post by s09dfhks »

egypturnash wrote: post #17
rapfaria wrote: post #11

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?

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.

to be fair, he signed off his videos with that line even when he still lived in San Mateo

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#72

Post by hnick »

prpl wrote: post #15

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 disa…

I think he is opinionated, in that he knows what he likes so will do that and not waste time on anything else. But snob implies he'd judge you for not liking the same things, which I definitely disagree with. I do agree he has a bit of a cult following.

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#73

Post by hnick »

Exuma wrote: post #16

Kenji AKA Peel ginger with a spoon!!!

I read this a lot, but I've always had better results using the back of my knife. The top of the blade is squared off and peels ginger perfectly (better than when I tried a spoon) and I'm already holding it.

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#74

Post by ethbr0 »

sondr3 wrote: post #36
jghn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

Watched for the first time just now. I love the PoV videos! It's really helpful to see just what the hands are doing, and no cuts.

The biggest gaps in written IMHO tend to be (a) things people do but don't realize they do, (b) things people do but assume everyone else already knows, (c) things people do more efficiently but don't think to mention (obvious example: use a cook time break to clean prep-ware).

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#75

Post by notyourwork »

annexrichmond wrote: post #56
deadite wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reads like what he did is in such bad taste that you have to let it be known, on a site that is pretty well established to be anti-MAGA, how you disapprove of this person's choice to also be anti-MAGA, and you're still trying to maintain your elitism and stature by saying "I lost respect" to continue to fit in on the site. You're playing edge lord on easy mode. Why even bother posting this?

It's not about anyone's stance on "MAGA". It's about about his divisiveness, and comparing roughly 40% of a country to Nazis and the KKK

There's an old saying, "if it walks like a duck".

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#76

Post by djur »

prpl wrote: post #27
tshaddox wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

"The best X" is just good marketing. I've generally found him to be very up front with the criteria he's using to judge a particular food, and where there's a well-known broad range of tastes (like with chocolate chip cookies), he often includes information on how to get different results than he personally prefers. But the goal of those articles _is_ to find the best way to make (a particular style of) that dish, so the title is fair.

Sure, he could put "in my opinion" and "to me" all over the place, but that would just be useless clutter. Everyone knows that "best" when referring to an aesthetic experience is always a subjective matter.

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#77

Post by hnick »

tptacek wrote: post #5

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 mini…

If I may share a recipe, his par-boiled baking soda roasted potatoes are a simple but amazing addition to my kit.

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-roast-potatoes-ever-rec...

I doubt he invented it, but I don't doubt he tested and researched it exhaustively. For me it comes down to three things: the baking soda eating the exterior and making a "fluffy" (surface area) result, the infused oil for flavour without burning the herbs, and the placement on a bare metal baking tray for crisping.

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#78

Post by ethbr0 »

tshaddox wrote: post #19
prpl wrote: post #15

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 disa…

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…

Ironically, I stumbled across an example pretty quickly: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CXTnq7srJRs&t=7m34s

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#79

Post by rootusrootus »

ethbr0 wrote: post #74
sondr3 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Watched for the first time just now. I love the PoV videos! It's really helpful to see just what the hands are doing, and no cuts. The biggest gaps in written IMHO tend to be (a) things people do but don't realize they do, (b) things people do but assume everyone else already knows, (c) things people do more efficiently but don't think to mention (obvious example: use a cook time break to clean prep-ware).

> I love the PoV videos!

I would much prefer a stable camera video. The PoV videos are unwatchable for me unless I take dramamine.

Re: J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food influencer

#80

Post by djur »

annexrichmond wrote: post #40
prpl wrote: post #15

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 disa…

Yeah I usually prefer Chef John. I feel like his recipes are creative and practical, and he's also just a hilarious super down to earth person. He comes up with methods that pretty much get you 95% of the way there at a fraction of the time and cost. His Chicken Tikka Masala recipe is the best I've had (homemade or at a restaurant) and among the simplest. He also has a famous method for Demi-glace IMO, a lot of the m…

I'm a big fan of Chef John as well. The value I find with Kenji is less the recipes themselves than the articles that come along with them. He explains how he arrived at each of those ingredients:

https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-the-best-chili-ever-...

What's useful here is that you can make less ambitious versions of the full recipe (using canned beans and/or cheaper meat, using ground spices rather than grinding your own, etc.) while still benefitting from some of the tricks he found (chocolate, vinegar, liquor, soy sauce/Marmite, etc.).

I also want to point out that not all of Kenji's Serious Eats recipes are "the best X ever". Some are simpler and quicker, like this chili recipe. This is much closer to Chef John's recipe in terms of complexity.

https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-pork-three-bean-chili-food-...

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