The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Over 1 Million Copies Sold

A New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the James Beard Award for General Cooking and the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award

"The one book you must have, no matter what you’re planning to cook or where your skill level falls."―New York Times Book Review

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 López-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 with over 1,000 full-color images, 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.

Over 1000 color photographs

J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab, The Wok and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; cohost of The Recipe podcast with Deb Perelman; and host of Kenji’s Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

"You need The Food Lab, as J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s magnum opus is 2015’s most indispensable cookbook."
― The Chicago Tribune

"[The Food Lab] promises tried-and-tested accuracy, groundbreaking technique and inarguable results. All that, plus humor."
― Washington Post

"Loaded with fascinating information…López-Alt gives you enough science for the explanations to make sense, but everything is still firmly rooted in practical home cooking."
― Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times

"Five years in the making, [The Food Lab is] a culmination of the wunderkind’s unlikely ascent into a cultish figure―and the face of a new kind of home cooking."
― Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle

"The Food Lab is a keeper."
― Chris Kimball, Wall Street Journal

"The Food Lab is The Joy of Cooking for the modern cook, and it has something to teach even the most experienced chefs."
― USA Today

"A beautiful behemoth. . . . The Food Lab’s vision of “better home cooking through science”―and, I would add, through the internet―is a convincing one."
― New Republic