J. Kenji López-Alt

Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist, the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, the children’s book Every Night is Pizza Night, and an upcoming book all about cooking in a wok, which will be released by W. W. Norton in March of 2022. He resides in Seattle with his family.

Kenji's food background started in the Boston area where he worked with Chefs Barbara Lynch and Ken Oringer’s at their restaurants, as well as a wide range of other restaurants. He was a senior editor at Cook’s Illustrated magazine before joining Serious Eats to develop the site’s recipe program in 2009. In 2017 he opened Wursthall, a family-friendly German-inspired beer hall on San Mateo, California. He's been a New York Times columnist since 2019 and has appeared in a range of cooking programs on TV and online. In 2020 he started a cooking show called “Kenji’s Cooking Show” on YouTube.

In 2015 his first book, The Food Lab, was. New York Times best seller, won a James Beard award for best book on American cookery, and was named Book of the Year by the Institute of American Culinary Professionals. In 2020 he and his illustrating partner Gianna Ruggiero released our first children’s book, Every Night is Pizza Night, which was a New York Times best seller and was one of five finalists for the Barnes & Noble picture book of the year.

Kenji's Desert Island Food: "Mapo tofu. Or pizza."

Kenji attended MIT where he graduated with a degree in architecture.

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