I've tried lots and lots and lots of cookbooks. Some get used a lot, other's collect dust and the rare great ones revolutionize the way we cook.

I LOVE to cook and I've taught myself a lot about cooking. Kenji in this MASTERPIECE of a cookbook TOTALLY gets it right. He dives into the details like I do and when you do that and do it right, it revolutionizes the way you cook.

For example, we all grow up measuring out our ingredients with cups, spoons and all different sizes of measuring pieces and we dirty up a whole lot of dishes in the process. So what if we change that up drastically? Why not weigh the ingredients with a scale with a pull out screen? You dirty only 1 container (the main one that everything goes into). And everything is more precise because it is weighed and you don't have to worry if the ingredients were too packed or if it is leveled or heaping or whatever.

His attention to detail makes a huge difference. For example, I'd been doing hard boiled eggs like America's Test Kitchen hand recommended to avoid grey centers. That worked to avoid the grey centers, but the shells would stick like crazy because they tell you to start the eggs out cold. Kenji tells you to start them out hot because starting them hot makes the shells easier to peel.

Sure, people like Ina, Julia, Pepin, America's Test Kitchen, etc. have all written some good cookbooks but I like none of them as well as this cookbook. Get this cookbook and learn to become a great cook.

FYI - Just a little about the author.... He's an MIT grad, so he's a science geek, but he didn't wasn't to take a job in his fancy degree bio degree. So he started out in a little pizza restaurant down around Cambridge I think and worked his way up through some of the fanciest restaurants in all of Boston (full of great food and old money). Then he became an editor for Cook's Illustrated (they make America's Test Kitchen). And now he is a writer for a great food blog. Basically, he knows the ins and outs of the science of cooking to the extreme.

I love J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's work. I've learned a lot from his work over the years (prime rib science!). His approach resonates with my engineer brain. I can't cook by feel. :)

Most, maybe all, of these recipes can be found on the website, but having them in one place where I can share them with my wife has been fantastic. We've already cooked a bunch of things that we wouldn't have run across otherwise. I think my wife has been more excited about it than I am.

Lastly, I'm glad to purchase the book and support work that I love. Been wanting to purchase this for a long time. Finally pulled the trigger. There is a lot of teaching that goes along with the recipes. Would be great for that engineer in your life who is just learning to cook meat, or wants to expand their knowledge.

Literal textbook-style cookbook. Lots of context and different techniques, and which technique is best to use in practice. Personally, I have always used YouTube or a blog to learn recipes, but when I read this book in store, I had to buy it. If you have absolutely no clue how to cook, this book will explain it to you. It leaves out no details for the recipes within this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to cook.

My favorite cookbook! Doesn't just give recipes, but also discusses the "why" behind the recipes so you can understand how the ingredients come together and what each contributes. It's also just fun to read; the author's prose is amusing and insightful. I look up a lot of recipes online otherwise, but this is the physical cookbooks I actually use most.