My favorite book may be an oddity to some, but as someone who enjoys cooking and is also inquisitive, this book by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt fulfills both of those requirements. Kenji has made a career by teaching cooking science. This cookbook might just have more food experiments than actual recipes. The point of this book is not to just list out recipes, but to inform you as to why you do the things you do when cooking. That’s what intrigues me the most with this book. I love knowing how and why things work. He answers questions such as: Why does a potato take longer to bake than to boil? Why is pasta cooked in a large volume of water? These questions are the ones that I love learning the answers to.
As good as the design of this book is, the content is what hooked me in. Kenji blends recipes, personal stories, and food experiments extremely well in this book. It makes the book easy to read and keeps you guessing as to what’s around the corner. I should also mention that I discovered Kenji on YouTube where he does POV videos of recipes where he goes in depth and shows you every part of making the recipe. My favorite part about his book and YouTube channel is how he never cuts out his failures.
I have this book at my house and it is amazing, and I also follow Kenji’s content on YouTube. So good. My brother lives in Seattle and saw Kenji and a local pub actually, but my brother was too afraid to go up and talk with him haha.