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A review by ninabina
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt
3.0
Maybe 3.5? I loved all the graphs and explanations for why you should or shouldn’t do different steps. Everything else was meh.
To address a point some of the other reviewers brought up- the personal anecdotes can be hit or miss depending on the person, but I didn’t find them particularly problematic (granted I skipped the ground meat section).
Another negative point is that a lot of this info can be found online— I borrowed the book from the library, so I didn’t pay $30+ for it, which I think was ideal because I wasn’t annoyed when I found a lot of this information for free online on the serious eats site. If you’re thinking about buying it, maybe check out the website first to see if there’s an article talking about whatever you’re curious about.
A cookbook can sometimes be worth it because of the organization, but the author organized things based off of his personal preferences, so I don’t think that’s an advantage that this book has. I would’ve preferred if the book was split up like the salt, fat, acid, and heat book. Having the science and explanations in the front with the recipes in the back would’ve saved me a good amount of time.
To address a point some of the other reviewers brought up- the personal anecdotes can be hit or miss depending on the person, but I didn’t find them particularly problematic (granted I skipped the ground meat section).
Another negative point is that a lot of this info can be found online— I borrowed the book from the library, so I didn’t pay $30+ for it, which I think was ideal because I wasn’t annoyed when I found a lot of this information for free online on the serious eats site. If you’re thinking about buying it, maybe check out the website first to see if there’s an article talking about whatever you’re curious about.
A cookbook can sometimes be worth it because of the organization, but the author organized things based off of his personal preferences, so I don’t think that’s an advantage that this book has. I would’ve preferred if the book was split up like the salt, fat, acid, and heat book. Having the science and explanations in the front with the recipes in the back would’ve saved me a good amount of time.