4 ms·

Kenji's cooking methods are always 10x more effort for 10% better food. Great for supertasters, not necessary for most of us.

roughly 5y ago
I think the divide is the craft & process vs the outcome. If you like cooking as a hobby, Kenji’s methods are fun. If you’re just cooking for an outcome, you’re right, his methods aren’t the fastest. Think of it like any other weekend project you do - odds are a generous application of money or existing expertise gets the job done faster than you poking around and trying stuff, but is that really the goal?
- xdfgh1112 5y ago
  Yeah that probably explains why I don't appreciate him as much as other people do!
tshaddox 5y ago
To some extent, yeah, the whole point is to exert more effort to get better food, although I suspect your numbers are exaggerated (10x sounds extreme). But I don’t think many well known chefs would recommend doing that if you don’t at least somewhat enjoy the effort required to cook.
jghn 5y ago
I’ve seen him state that he doesn’t expect people to do all of the extra labor intensive steps. He’s showing you all the things you can do and how they enhance, you choose how far you want to take it. I’ve been following his stuff since the aughts. At this point I almost never make his recipes as stated. I’ve learned which techniques I find worth it, which I don’t, and in others I’ve folded in things he came up with later on his own journey
mabbo 5y ago
Do you have an example of something he showed the takes 10X longer? I find most of his recommendations made me a faster cook.
- qbasic_forever 5y ago
  Grinding your own bespoke mix of beef for a burger is a huge increase in time and complexity for a burger: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-the-worlds-best-burger-for-a-single-man-or-woman https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-the-worlds-best-b... Will it make an amazingly tasty burger? Yes, when you also spend as much care with the prep and cooking. Is it worth it when you want a burger on a late weeknight? It depends...
  - tptacek 5y ago
    He's writing that article because readers want to read about grinding their own meat, because it's interesting. But if you watch his smashburger videos, he's not grinding meat a la minute to make burgers on the regular. Smashburgers work just fine with pre-ground meat, and Kenji is as responsible as anyone for popularizing them for home cooks.
  - fknorangesite 5y ago
    > Will it make an amazingly tasty burger? Yes, when you also spend as much care with the prep and cooking. Sometimes that's exactly what I want to do. It's worth putting in extra effort every once in a while. I don't just down a bottle of Soylent™ every meal: I cook because I enjoy cooking - it's not merely a way to keep myself alive.
  - mabbo 5y ago
    Huh, you know, I thought you were being hyperbolic, but that actually is a great example. That said, I really had a lot of fun grinding my own meat to make burgers. Doubt I'd do it every time, but I'd definitely break it out for a BBQ with good friends. Cooking is a fun skill to learn!
resoluteteeth 5y ago
> Kenji's cooking methods are always 10x more effort for 10% better food. Great for supertasters, not necessary for most of us. I think he may have that tendency somewhat but it's not as nearly as bad as some other places like Cook's Illustrated (where I guess he used to work) which really tend to add unnecessary steps for very small improvements. At serious eats he sometimes made multiple versions of recipes, an easy version and a more complicated version, to make it possible for people to decide which they want to make. On his videos he often explains optional steps that can be omitted. Also, FYI that's not really what "supertasters" means (it doesn't mean people who have a discerning palate and can pick out subtle flavors, it means people who are hypersensitive to certain bitter flavors).
qbasic_forever 5y ago
That's just the food lab/serious eats stuff IMHO. Those things are purpose built to be "what if we turned everything up to 11 and made the best possible X/Y/Z?". If you read Modernist Cuisine it's exactly the same thing and you'll spend two days making a single cheeseburger (with from scratch bread, cheese, mayo, grinding your own beef, sous vide cooking the patty for hours, etc). Watch his youtube channel and more recent stuff, it's a lot more toned down and accessible to everyone.
- jffry 5y ago
  Coincidentally, if the idea of spending two days making a single cheeseburger from scratch is appealing to you, check out Alvin Zhou - https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinZhou1 https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinZhou1 His videos skew meditative - generally little to no talking, just relaxing music, the sounds of cooking, and beautifully cinematic shots of every step in the process.
0xcde4c3db 5y ago
This is definitely true of some of his methods, but not all. His 3-ingredient mac and cheese was a game-changer in my household. A recipe that simple has no business producing such good results.
ripley12 5y ago
I use his Food Lab book a lot, and I think most of the recipes are very practical. There are a few over-the-top recipes but they're usually paired with easy versions. Like, you could make his bolognese recipe that takes a bajillion ingredients, or you could make the quick+easy bolognese recipe on a weeknight. Same with French onion soup, or chili...

roughly 5y ago

I think the divide is the craft & process vs the outcome. If you like cooking as a hobby, Kenji’s methods are fun. If you’re just cooking for an outcome, you’re right, his methods aren’t the fastest. Think of it like any other weekend project you do - odds are a generous application of money or existing expertise gets the job done faster than you poking around and trying stuff, but is that really the goal?

xdfgh1112 5y ago
Yeah that probably explains why I don't appreciate him as much as other people do!

tshaddox 5y ago

To some extent, yeah, the whole point is to exert more effort to get better food, although I suspect your numbers are exaggerated (10x sounds extreme). But I don’t think many well known chefs would recommend doing that if you don’t at least somewhat enjoy the effort required to cook.

jghn 5y ago

I’ve seen him state that he doesn’t expect people to do all of the extra labor intensive steps. He’s showing you all the things you can do and how they enhance, you choose how far you want to take it. I’ve been following his stuff since the aughts. At this point I almost never make his recipes as stated. I’ve learned which techniques I find worth it, which I don’t, and in others I’ve folded in things he came up with later on his own journey

mabbo 5y ago

Do you have an example of something he showed the takes 10X longer? I find most of his recommendations made me a faster cook.

qbasic_forever 5y ago
Grinding your own bespoke mix of beef for a burger is a huge increase in time and complexity for a burger: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-the-worlds-best-burger-for-a-single-man-or-woman https://www.seriouseats.com/the-burger-lab-the-worlds-best-b... Will it make an amazingly tasty burger? Yes, when you also spend as much care with the prep and cooking. Is it worth it when you want a burger on a late weeknight? It depends...
- tptacek 5y ago
  He's writing that article because readers want to read about grinding their own meat, because it's interesting. But if you watch his smashburger videos, he's not grinding meat a la minute to make burgers on the regular. Smashburgers work just fine with pre-ground meat, and Kenji is as responsible as anyone for popularizing them for home cooks.
- fknorangesite 5y ago
  > Will it make an amazingly tasty burger? Yes, when you also spend as much care with the prep and cooking. Sometimes that's exactly what I want to do. It's worth putting in extra effort every once in a while. I don't just down a bottle of Soylent™ every meal: I cook because I enjoy cooking - it's not merely a way to keep myself alive.
- mabbo 5y ago
  Huh, you know, I thought you were being hyperbolic, but that actually is a great example. That said, I really had a lot of fun grinding my own meat to make burgers. Doubt I'd do it every time, but I'd definitely break it out for a BBQ with good friends. Cooking is a fun skill to learn!

resoluteteeth 5y ago

> Kenji's cooking methods are always 10x more effort for 10% better food. Great for supertasters, not necessary for most of us. I think he may have that tendency somewhat but it's not as nearly as bad as some other places like Cook's Illustrated (where I guess he used to work) which really tend to add unnecessary steps for very small improvements. At serious eats he sometimes made multiple versions of recipes, an easy version and a more complicated version, to make it possible for people to decide which they want to make. On his videos he often explains optional steps that can be omitted. Also, FYI that's not really what "supertasters" means (it doesn't mean people who have a discerning palate and can pick out subtle flavors, it means people who are hypersensitive to certain bitter flavors).

qbasic_forever 5y ago

That's just the food lab/serious eats stuff IMHO. Those things are purpose built to be "what if we turned everything up to 11 and made the best possible X/Y/Z?". If you read Modernist Cuisine it's exactly the same thing and you'll spend two days making a single cheeseburger (with from scratch bread, cheese, mayo, grinding your own beef, sous vide cooking the patty for hours, etc). Watch his youtube channel and more recent stuff, it's a lot more toned down and accessible to everyone.

jffry 5y ago
Coincidentally, if the idea of spending two days making a single cheeseburger from scratch is appealing to you, check out Alvin Zhou - https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinZhou1 https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinZhou1 His videos skew meditative - generally little to no talking, just relaxing music, the sounds of cooking, and beautifully cinematic shots of every step in the process.

0xcde4c3db 5y ago

This is definitely true of some of his methods, but not all. His 3-ingredient mac and cheese was a game-changer in my household. A recipe that simple has no business producing such good results.

ripley12 5y ago

I use his Food Lab book a lot, and I think most of the recipes are very practical. There are a few over-the-top recipes but they're usually paired with easy versions. Like, you could make his bolognese recipe that takes a bajillion ingredients, or you could make the quick+easy bolognese recipe on a weeknight. Same with French onion soup, or chili...