“In those rare cases in which you have a dull knife and cooking to do, but no ceramic in sight, the top edge of a rolled-down car window will work just as well. Even a smooth stone or slab of concrete outside can work in a pinch.”

American chef and food writer

J. Kenji López-Alt is an American chef and food writer known for bringing a scientific approach to home cooking. He wrote The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which grew out of his Serious Eats column of the same name. The book became both a critical and commercial success, reached the New York Times Best Seller list, and won the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for Best General Cooking cookbook. His work often explains why recipes behave the way they do, while showing how science can make familiar American dishes more reliable.