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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 - Ken

by prpl 5y ago

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 https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-5118015 I stopped following him a few years ago on Instagram because it was tiring. It looks like he's changed a bit.

djur 5y ago
"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.
jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago
Apparently this is news to you: nearly all writers do not get to choose their headlines, no matter the topic area. This goes from newspapers to books. If you're basing those views on the headlines vs the explicit content in his articles and videos, you've very much got the wrong end of the stick here. He goes out of his way to repeatedly emphasize "but you can do it how you like and that's ok" in everything he's done purely solo.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  It’s true that writers often don’t get to choose their titles, but in this case I wouldn’t consider it snobby or ridiculous even if he had chosen those titles himself. There’s simply no reasonable interpretation of titles like “The best X” or “Perfect X” other than as clear subjective claims based on the author’s own preferences. These titles very clearly are not philosophical treatises about how there are actually objective moral truths about different ways of preparing food, and any interpretation along those lines is either extremely misinformed or (more likely) made in bad faith.

by prpl 5y ago

djur 5y ago

"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.

jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago

Apparently this is news to you: nearly all writers do not get to choose their headlines, no matter the topic area. This goes from newspapers to books. If you're basing those views on the headlines vs the explicit content in his articles and videos, you've very much got the wrong end of the stick here. He goes out of his way to repeatedly emphasize "but you can do it how you like and that's ok" in everything he's done purely solo.

tshaddox 5y ago
It’s true that writers often don’t get to choose their titles, but in this case I wouldn’t consider it snobby or ridiculous even if he had chosen those titles himself. There’s simply no reasonable interpretation of titles like “The best X” or “Perfect X” other than as clear subjective claims based on the author’s own preferences. These titles very clearly are not philosophical treatises about how there are actually objective moral truths about different ways of preparing food, and any interpretation along those lines is either extremely misinformed or (more likely) made in bad faith.