J. Kenji López-Alt
Chef and food writer · The Food Lab
Chef and writer who read architecture at MIT, cooked on the line in Boston restaurants, then went to Cook's Illustrated and Serious Eats. His Food Lab column there tested cooking questions one variable at a time. That became The Food Lab in 2015 and The Wok in 2022, both bestsellers. He wrote a New York Times column and films a mostly unedited YouTube show with a camera strapped to his head. With Deb Perelman he co-hosts The Recipe. Home is Seattle, where he lives with his children.
- Entries
- 25
- Does
- 18
- Recommends
- 6
- Discusses
- 1
Gear
17 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Our Place cookware
The titanium-oxide surfaced pans he helped Our Place develop have become his go-to for virtually all of his cooking, he says. His reason is that they heat like tri-ply clad steel while releasing food almost like a coated pan. This is his own collaboration, and the sort of partnership his ethics page says can pay him in sales revenue, equity or other compensation.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 2025 Holiday Gift GuideVisit fromourplace.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Bench scraper
By his own account he has used OXO's bench scraper for virtually his entire career. He puts it to work on loose high-hydration pizza dough and on dividing proofed dough into balls. It also cleans the counter and the peel and moves chopped ingredients from board to pot.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 12 Gifts for Pizza LoversView item: Bench scraperOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Carbon steel wok
One carbon steel wok lasted him more than twenty years of near-daily use at home before it finally gave out, around the time his book on the subject came out. He calls it the most-used piece of equipment in his kitchen, and not just for Asian dishes. Writing the brief for a replacement, he asked for a flat bottom and 13 to 14 inches, his favorite size for feeding a family.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: The Wok of My DreamsView item: Carbon steel wokOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Cast iron skillet
A 12-inch pre-seasoned Lodge sits on the list of tools he says he actually uses, filed under kitchen essentials rather than among his collaborations. It gets no write-up and no comparison on that page, just a line between the sheet pans and the cooling racks.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: ShopView item: Cast iron skilletOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Digital kitchen scale
Weighs dough ingredients rather than measuring them. The scale is OXO's 11-pound model, with the display that pulls out on a slide so a big mixing bowl cannot hide the numbers. He calls a scale essential for getting the flour-to-water ratio right, and says this one has stayed fast and accurate over years.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 12 Gifts for Pizza LoversView item: Digital kitchen scaleOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Enameled Dutch oven
Keeps a 5.5-quart round Le Creuset and a Le Creuset casserole dish with a lid, both on the same list of what he cooks with at home. He makes no case for either. The page exists because people kept asking him what he uses, so the pots are an answer rather than a sales pitch.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: ShopView item: Enameled Dutch ovenOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Head-mounted action camera
Films his YouTube channel by strapping a GoPro HERO8 Black to his head and cooking, with no separate microphone; the camera's own mic takes the audio. He told GoPro's blog the idea arrived at 1 a.m., when he wondered what cooking would look like shot that way, and he has not changed the setup since.
Source: Tasting Table: Why J. Kenji Lopez-Alt Calls His YouTube Channel An Anti-Cooking ShowView item: Head-mounted action cameraOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Immersion blender
A Braun MultiQuick is the stick blender on his list of tools he actually uses. It shares that page with a Breville food processor and a stone molcajete, three ways of breaking things down that he keeps rather than picking between.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: ShopView item: Immersion blenderOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Japanese chef's knife
He has cooked with KAN's Japanese knives for about eight years and given a lot of them away to friends and colleagues. Five years went into his own shape with bladesmith Gordon Hanson, the shi-toku. It is a santoku profile with the curved tip of a Western chef's knife, so it can rock-chop. Both knives sell under his name. His ethics page counts such partnerships among the paid ones.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 2025 Holiday Gift GuideView item: Japanese chef's knifeOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mandoline slicer
Names a Benriner among his kitchen essentials, the cheap Japanese mandoline that turns up on most professional prep tables. It sits on the same list as the spider strainer and the bamboo steamer, in the plain-tools half rather than among the collaborations.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: ShopView item: Mandoline slicerOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Manual meat grinder
Grinds his own beef because he wants control over the grind, while saying store-bought ground beef is fine. He used to run an electric grinder and moved off it: for the amounts a home cook deals with, he finds a clamp-on manual one does the job faster and with less trouble.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 7 Gifts for Burger LoversView item: Manual meat grinderOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Outdoor pizza oven
Says he has tested nearly every outdoor pizza oven released in the past decade, and the Ooni Koda 16 has stayed his favorite. The reason he gives is the L-shaped fire bar, which heats evenly and cuts down the turning. He points out that the 16-inch stone will take a quarter sheet pan or a large cast iron skillet.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 12 Gifts for Pizza LoversView item: Outdoor pizza ovenOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Predictive cooking thermometer
Cooked with every version of the Combustion Inc. probe since the first one, and reports that its founder credits him as the heaviest tester it has had. What he values is that seven sensors work out where the center of the roast sits, so he is not hunting for it. The other thing he values is the prediction of how much longer the meat needs.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 2025 Holiday Gift GuideView item: Predictive cooking thermometerOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Stainless steel griddle
For burgers he argues against cast iron and carbon steel and in favor of bare tri-ply stainless, because the surface has to grip enough to let a patty spread to paper-thin edges. Keep it dry before the smash, he adds, and oil it when you want eggs. The Balmuda plug-in griddle is the one he says he loves.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 7 Gifts for Burger LoversView item: Stainless steel griddleOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Stiff metal spatula
Calls the Vovoly the stiffest tool in his bain marie, which is the whole reason it is there. A spatula that flexes is no use for smashing a ball of beef or lifting a stuck patty. Beveled edges slide under the crust, and flipped over the same edge scrapes the griddle clean.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 7 Gifts for Burger LoversView item: Stiff metal spatulaOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Wok spatula
Earlywood's carved wooden turners, rolling pins and tasting spoons have been his defaults since he found the company. He says they draw more questions than almost anything else in his kitchen. Dozens of iterations went into the spatula he made with them, which follows the curve of the 14-inch wok he cooks in most. His ethics page lists it among his own collaborations.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 2025 Holiday Gift GuideView item: Wok spatulaOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Baking steel
Points home bakers at a slab of steel instead of a pizza stone. Higher thermal capacity and better conduction, he says, mean faster bakes, puffier crusts and better-charred bottoms out of an ordinary oven. Copies have piled up over fifteen years and he still tells people to buy the original.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 12 Gifts for Pizza LoversView item: Baking steelOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Books
5 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Every Night Is Pizza Night
Wrote it as a parent thinking about the adults who would be reading it aloud night after night, so he built it to work on more than one level. The story sends Pipo out to prove pizza is the best food and lands on the idea that best depends on who you ask. Gianna Ruggiero illustrated it.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 68 Gifts for Cookbook and Food Writing LoversView item: Every Night Is Pizza NightOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques
This is the book he credits with starting his culinary education, and he still counts it among his favorites. He describes the photo-driven instructions as old school video demos from before web video existed, and calls its author the greatest teacher he has known.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 68 Gifts for Cookbook and Food Writing LoversView item: Jacques Pépin's Complete TechniquesOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
On Food and Cooking
Harold McGee's book is by far the most referenced on his shelf, he says, and he is on his third copy after wearing out two with heavy use and sticky notes. Dense as a cookbook but very readable, in his description, and the one he treats as necessary for anyone who wants the chemistry.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 68 Gifts for Cookbook and Food Writing LoversView item: On Food and CookingOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Food Lab
His own 2015 book, which he describes as the one he would have wanted when he was learning to cook. The stated aim is not the recipes: he says he is teaching fundamentals so that a reader stops needing recipes. He left it off his own gift guide at first and put it back to avoid a conversation with his publisher.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: 68 Gifts for Cookbook and Food Writing LoversView item: The Food LabOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Wok
He calls the wok his favorite pan and says the book is as much about ideas as recipes: how heat, oil and motion produce wok hei, how massaging meat turns it velvety, how a crust stays crunchy under sauce. His hope for it is modest enough, that more people pick up a wok and keep using it.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: The Wok of My DreamsView item: The WokOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Habits
3 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Says he has reached a point where he can either work harder at being better known or accept that he has been lucky, and spend the time on his family and on projects he takes for fun. He picked the second. Nobody, as he puts it, wishes they had spent less time with their kids.
Source: The Sporkful: Kenji Lopez-Alt No Longer Calls His Recipes The BestHe cooks dinner at home most nights, and says his daughter cooks with him most of those. Missing it, when violin practice ran late, is what she takes as the punishment. The YouTube channel fits around that. A video only happens if the meal was one he was going to cook anyway.
Source: The Sporkful: Kenji Lopez-Alt No Longer Calls His Recipes The BestTalks about Twitter turning him into the worst version of himself, and about how odd it is to hold a megaphone while still feeling like a normal person. He weighs that against the books it sells, then asks whether it is worth it. Quitting is not something he says he has done.
Source: The Sporkful: Kenji Lopez-Alt No Longer Calls His Recipes The Best
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“I had used the same carbon steel wok for over 20 years in my home kitchen until it finally broke just after my book, The Wok came out. I loved that pan and used it nearly every day.”
kenjilopezalt.com: The Wok of My Dreams (opens in a new tab) “as founder Chris Young has said, there is nobody in the world who has tested it as thoroughly as I have through years of use in my home kitchen, including every single model since the first one.”
kenjilopezalt.com: 2025 Holiday Gift Guide (opens in a new tab) “It is by-far the most referenced book on my shelf (I'm on my third copy after destroying the first two with heavy use and post-its)”
kenjilopezalt.com: 68 Gifts for Cookbook and Food Writing Lovers (opens in a new tab) “my criteria for when I'm shooting a video for that is it has to be something that was going to cook anyway, and it has to be something I'm cooking when there's nobody else in my family in the kitchen. If those two criteria are met and the camera battery is charged, then I'll probably shoot it.”
The Sporkful: Kenji Lopez-Alt No Longer Calls His Recipes The Best (opens in a new tab) · 14 Mar 2022 “For the best burgers, I strongly advise against non-stick or semi-nonstick surfaces like cast iron or carbon steel.”
kenjilopezalt.com: 7 Gifts for Burger Lovers (opens in a new tab)
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.