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

Re:J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food i... by annexrichmond on Friday June 11, 2021 @07:03PM (#27479558)

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 material from Kenji, Babish for example tilt more on the food snobbery side that demand several hour long recipes[1] and vast number of expensive ingredients.

[1] Compare https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chili-recipe with https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/244558/beef-bean-and-beer-...

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Re:J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food i... by djur on Friday June 11, 2021 @08:12PM (#27480050)

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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Re:J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food i... by drivingmenuts on Friday June 11, 2021 @07:36PM (#27479822)

Personally, I’m torn between Chef John and Adam Ragusa. Both produce attainable recipes, but Ragusa goes a bit further with pieces about the history and cultivation of food. An excellent example is found here: https://youtu.be/hQD9-FBs2qQ

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Re:J. Kenji López-Alt is Seattle’s reluctant powerful food i... by systemvoltage on Friday June 11, 2021 @11:54PM (#27481389)

Homogeneity! He kept saying that in every video and it was so offputting. I get it it's a cool fancy word but I don't don't like his style too much. Adam's tech knowledge is top game though - he researches everything so deeply and provides historical context.

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