Tim Chin

Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who started contributing to Serious Eats in early 2020. He cooked for years at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and most recently, BiSq. He also spent three years at America’s Test Kitchen, creating and testing recipes. He is passionate about sourdough, funky hot sauce, and sustainable agriculture. Outside of cooking, Tim spends most of his free time rock climbing and trying not to kill his house plants.

After forgoing a career in biochemistry, Tim got a degree in Classic Pastry Arts at The International Culinary Center. After some stints working in New York, he traveled to Basel, Switzerland to work at places such as Confiserie Brandli and the Cheval Blanc. He spent 3 years at America's Test Kitchen, working as a recipe developer and writer. He helped launch Cook's Science, a cutting edge online vertical focused on food science and food journalism. After ATK, Tim went back to restaurants, working in Boston and eventually traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark to stage at the now-shuttered restaurant Relae.

His work is featured in several books published through America's Test Kitchen. He was a principal developer for titles such as Sous Vide for Everybody and Vegetables Illustrated (winner of the 2020 James Beard Award).

Tim's Desert Island Food: "Chicken Mai Fun. It's basically chicken soup with thin rice noodles. You can dress it up or down—however you want. Vegetables? Cool. Fish balls? Awesome. Loads of white pepper? Sign me up. It's neither light nor heavy—straight up comfort food. And for some reason, the noodles go down easy, which makes putting down bowl after bowl pretty light work. I grew up on the stuff—it was a cheap, satisfying meal that my Dad made for us on the fly; simple but effective. Would it do well on a desert island? I'm not so sure. Soup doesn't really travel well."