Bringing Local Food into the Kitchen
Kenji López-Alt talks strategies for cooking better food, making the most of local ingredients & empowering ourselves in the kitchen
The abundance of seafood is something that Kenji loves about the Pacific Northwest. (Via Instagram)
The dominant idea of food influencers conjures imagery of clean marble countertops and aggressively white plates, everything neat and orderly. J. Kenji López-Alt does not fit into that box. And that’s what his fans love about him. Kenji is known for his down-to-earth GoPro cooking videos, cookbooks, and Instagram account, where he shares his cooking skills, explaining the steps and the techniques he’s using in a way that feels accessible and personal.
The videos, taken in his home kitchen, capture the real meals that he makes. He doesn’t hold back or hide anything from his followers, and the realness is refreshing. Viewers get to see his dogs going after the scraps that fall on the floor, and drawers full of assorted kitchen supplies. “With that messy drawer, he shows us that he's just like the rest of us. He's got stuff on the stove he's not using, the same broken salt container, and drops a piece of pasta and eats it just like I would. Despite being a chef, he shows us he's human,” a commenter noted on a recent video.
Kenji is also known for his experimental style and ability to understand and explain the science behind his cooking. His first book, The Food Lab, is full of these essential skills. Instead of focusing entirely on specific recipes and ingredient lists, the book emphasizes principles of cooking that make great-tasting food. In addition to providing nearly 300 recipes, The Food Lab also explains everything from how to sear meat to chopping an onion, and what’s inside an egg.
Kenji’s brand and influence are built on culinary science, but local food fits squarely into how he shops and cooks in his own kitchen. “Pretty early on in my career, I started working at the types of restaurants that supported local agriculture. So that's kind of always been on my radar.”
“when you cook seasonally, you cook, I think, better food. That’s the real main advantage.”
“By going to the farmers market, you're pretty much forced to cook seasonally, right? Because you're buying local stuff. And when you cook seasonally, you cook, I think, better food. That's the real main advantage,” he says. There are other advantages —like supporting small businesses and eating food that is less harmful to the environment— that are important to him. But as a chef, the quality and variety of the food are number one.
His recent video “Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage,” highlights a tip for integrating local, seasonal foods into the kitchen: learning how to group and swap ingredients. “This is typically made with broccoli raab,” the video begins, “but I found this beautiful broccolini at the farmers market.” Kenji’s ability to edit recipes based on what he has on hand makes his cooking feel authentic and accessible to fans. “An important thing is to learn how to classify vegetables, in particular, into groups that can be substituted for each other. Once you learn how to cook snow peas, you can swap in asparagus.” This approach empowers people in the kitchen and frees them to experiment on their own.
The open-minded and experimental nature of his cooking videos applies to how he shops at the farmers markets as well. Kenji says he never brings a list, but always starts out by walking around the market to observe what is available and in season. “I feel like having a list when you go to the farmers markets almost defeats the purpose because there's so many farmers doing such cool stuff and growing things that you wouldn't think to put on a list,” he says.
Strawberries from Schuh Farms are Alicia’s favorite. (Via Instagram)
Farmers markets are a great resource for discovering unique local produce. One of Kenji’s recent meals, created with farmers market ingredients, was squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and fried. The blossoms are a delicate seasonal treat found only at farmers markets. Other Pacific Northwest staples that he appreciates are the abundant seafood, mushrooms, and the variety of berries that his young children love.
Since moving to Seattle with his family almost two years ago, Kenji has been steadfast in his journey to discover the best food and experiences the PNW offers. He often shares his discoveries with his 485k Instagram followers, showing them everything from his daughter’s favorite strawberries (from Schuh Farms at the University District Farmers Market) to his go-to spot for weeknight skiing (The Summit at Snoqualmie). His Instagram has created a bit of a community of its own, with Seattleites giving him suggestions on where to find the best bagels and swapping stories of their own experiences in the city.
Going to the farmers markets is an experience that Kenji and his family love to share. It’s more than a grocery run for the López-Alts. “When we go to the farmers market, we spend the morning doing it. We can walk around, we can talk to people, we can interact with them,” Kenji says.
Alicia’s Bento Boxes are a source of inspiration for many of Kenji’s followers. (Via Instagram)
His five-year-old daughter, Alicia, uses the farmers market as an opportunity to pick out her own ingredients. The seemingly small act of choosing her own fruits and veggies can actually be empowering, in Kenji’s opinion. “The frustrating part of being a kid is that you can't control everything, right? It's like you need your parents to do things for you. But I can very easily tell my daughter, ‘Hey, you can get whatever vegetable you want, you can get whatever mushrooms you want, whatever you want, and we'll cook it at home.’ And then she's going to enjoy that meal a lot more because she chose it.”
Even at five, Alicia already has good taste, as shown in her dad’s frequent Instagram posts of the bento boxes he packs for her lunches. The bento posts are quite popular, especially with other parents of young children, many of whom are hoping Kenji will write a bento-specific cookbook. Bento-fans may have to wait a while. Kenji’s next projects will include another children’s book —His first, Every Night is Pizza Night, came out in 2020— and a cookbook centering around “Yōshoku, which is Western Japanese food. It's the kind of food I grew up with... things like katsu and curry, all these foods that are sort of very common in Japan and were influenced by foods of Western Europe or other Western countries,” he says.
Farmers markets attract all kinds of people with a variety of skills and resources to cook and feed their families at home. Whether you are a professional chef, or a student trying to fit more fresh food into your routine, pairing a trip to the farmers market with the fundamental skills and ability to adapt ingredients is a great way to continue learning. As Kenji says, “Don't be afraid to experiment. The worst that can happen, the very worst that can happen is that you're going to make things inedible, right? But chances are, you're not. So don't worry about if something comes out imperfectly. That's sort of part of what learning is, right?”