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The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

ElsieD

By ElsieD
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MelissaH

MelissaH

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I'd ordered my copy through Amazon the day it was announced. As the release date drew near, I kept checking the shipping information and getting more and more nervous when nothing had happened. The day before release, my copy still had not been shipped, and finally the day of release (AKA the day my book was supposed to arrive at my house) I got an email saying that delivery had been delayed by two more days. At that point I headed to my local indie bookstore, where they had a copy on the shelf. I bought that copy, cancelled my Amazon order, and was very happy I did.

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

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gfweb

gfweb

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Someone I know who works for a major book distributer told me they have no copies of The Food Lab in stock and 500 copies on order from the publisher.

 

Did Norton not expect to sell any, I wonder?

 

I just asked Kenji about the shortage of books. He said Amazon has a zillion copies in stock.

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

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I just asked Kenji about the shortage of books. He said Amazon has a zillion copies in stock.

 

He lies.  Amazon now shows expected stock on the 18th.  My friend's company is the primary supplier to amazon and they have no stock at all.

 

I can't hold onto my library copy because the next person on the hold list knows where I live.  Rotuts, don't be so cheap.  It's not like The Food Lab were MC, the current amazon price is only $27.47.  That's only a few days worth of happy bubble cylinders.

Edited by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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He lies. 

 

And there's a mad rush to buy his book?  :hmmm:

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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gfweb

gfweb

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He lies.  Amazon now shows expected stock on the 18th.  My friend's company is the primary supplier to amazon and they have no stock at all.

 

I can't hold onto my library copy because the next person on the hold list knows where I live.  Rotuts, don't be so cheap.  It's not like The Food Lab were MC, the current amazon price is only $27.47.  That's only a few days worth of happy bubble cylinders.

I don't think he does. He could have been lied to himself. He said the problem was distribution and that Amazon had thousands of copies.  I would bet Amazon is lying for some reason. Kenji has proven over the years to be a straight shooter.

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

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I don't think he does. He could have been lied to himself. He said the problem was distribution and that Amazon had thousands of copies.  I would bet Amazon is lying for some reason. Kenji has proven over the years to be a straight shooter.

 

Tracking shows my copy of The Food Lab "arrived at amazon facility" thirty nine minutes before your post.  It should be here tomorrow.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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scott123

scott123

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Funny, but I think most people here can cook good stuff - without Kenji's help.

 

I think it depends on the dish. If, say, you make a half decent pizza, and you want to up your game or if you're looking for authenticity, Kenji is the absolute worse person to turn to. Even if you're a complete novice when it comes to pizza, I still think the potential to pick up bad habits is enough reason to turn elsewhere. On the other hand, I've been researching and tinkering with wings for a few decades, and although I didn't incorporate all his ideas, he did help me up my game.

 

So, for pizza, Kenji's help is worse than worthless- damaging, in fact.  But for wings, he's a solid contributor- and this is coming from a guy who despises him with a passion, so when I give him credit for something, he's earned it.

 

One thing to bear in mind, though. As Kenji has performed these experiments over the years, he hasn't been publishing part of the results on Serious Eats and saving some for the book. Anything he's done has ended up on the site, so, unless having a hard copy makes you happy, the web site offers pretty much the exact same information for free and is, imo, more quickly searchable.

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CaliPoutine

CaliPoutine

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I got my signed copy on Wednesday when Kenji was at our local community college's culinary department for a "how to build a better thanksgiving demo".  I can't wait to start cooking from it.  I was not able to stay for the demo, but I saw some pics and heard from people who attended that it was amazing.  

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Randi

2girlsinthekitchen.blogspot.com

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rob1234

rob1234

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One thing to bear in mind, though. As Kenji has performed these experiments over the years, he hasn't been publishing part of the results on Serious Eats and saving some for the book. Anything he's done has ended up on the site, so, unless having a hard copy makes you happy, the web site offers pretty much the exact same information for free and is, imo, more quickly searchable.

 

Do you have a copy of the book to confirm this? I thought I read him say multiple times that the book is almost all new content not on the site. I think Serious Eats launched a magazine or e-magazine or something a year or two ago and that was all content from the site.

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scott123

scott123

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Do you have a copy of the book to confirm this? I thought I read him say multiple times that the book is almost all new content not on the site. I think Serious Eats launched a magazine or e-magazine or something a year or two ago and that was all content from the site.

 

I do have a copy of the book, and, while I've perused it, I haven't read it from cover to cover (yet), but what I have seen matches up with what's on Serious Eats.

 

Look at the recipes being discussed in this thread so far.  I count five.  All five can be found on the web site.  Five is not the biggest sampling size, but they appear to be randomly chosen. I went through each chapter and counted 302 recipes. If the book is, indeed, 'almost all new content,' then with 5 randomly chosen recipes out of 302, at least one or two should be new.

 

Last time I checked, Kenji didn't acquire the ability to clone himself.  Bloggers don't become famous by sitting on their behinds. Kenji's a celebrity, because, for the most part, he's kept the contributions flowing.  He may not average a post a day or even a post every two days, but with the time he's devoted to Serious Eats, there's not a chance in heck he's had time to write a 960 page book containing almost all new content. There's only so many hours in the day.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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I do have a copy of the book, and, while I've perused it, I haven't read it from cover to cover (yet), but what I have seen matches up with what's on Serious Eats.

 

Look at the recipes being discussed in this thread so far.  I count five.  All five can be found on the web site.  Five is not the biggest sampling size, but they appear to be randomly chosen. I went through each chapter and counted 302 recipes. If the book is, indeed, 'almost all new content,' then with 5 randomly chosen recipes out of 302, at least one or two should be new.

 

Last time I checked, Kenji didn't acquire the ability to clone himself.  Bloggers don't become famous by sitting on their behinds. Kenji's a celebrity, because, for the most part, he's kept the contributions flowing.  He may not average a post a day or even a post every two days, but with the time he's devoted to Serious Eats, there's not a chance in heck he's had time to write a 960 page book containing almost all new content. There's only so many hours in the day.

 

FWIW....

 

"How much of the book is new content, and how much will feel familiar to long-time fans of the online column?

 

The methodology and the concepts will obviously feel familiar, but as far as the actual content, it's about 75% new. I took some of the biggest hits from the column and included those, because they will be of interest to people who never read the site. But a book is a different format than a website, so my approach for what recipes to include and not include was different from how I think about what to include or not include online."

 

Source: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/max-issue.html?issue=164#m337

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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CaliPoutine

CaliPoutine

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So, for pizza, Kenji's help is worse than worthless- damaging, in fact.  But for wings, he's a solid contributor- and this is coming from a guy who despises him with a passion, so when I give him credit for something, he's earned it.

 

 

 

Wow, that is pretty harsh.  Care to elaborate?  There is an awful lot of "bad" pizza out there, but I seriously doubt anything Kenji produced could be damaging. 

Randi

2girlsinthekitchen.blogspot.com

The Senior Dining Thread

eG Food Blogs

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weinoo

weinoo

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Wow, that is pretty harsh.  Care to elaborate?  There is an awful lot of "bad" pizza out there, but I seriously doubt anything Kenji produced could be damaging. 

 

If I recall correctly, scott123 is a pizza purist.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

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