Behind the Ingredients is McNally Jackson’s cookbook conversation series, hosted by McNally OG and cookbook buyer Cheryl Pearl Sucher. The series explores the evolution of cookbooks from literal recipe collections to photographic coffee table tomes. How do recipes come into being? How does vision turn into a book? What historical and personal influences mold a chef’s individual voice? What is the difference between cookbook writers and chefs who write cookbooks? Join us for satiating conversations with chefs from around the world. Don’t come hungry.

We are thrilled to welcome J. Kenji López-Alt to McNally Jackson, in celebration of a million copies of The Food Lab sold. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2015 James Beard Award for General Cooking and the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award.

"The one book you must have, no matter what you’re planning to cook or where your skill level falls."—New York Times Book Review

Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!)—and use a foolproof method that works every time?

As Serious Eats's culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new—but simple—techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more.

"Five years in the making, [The Food Lab is] a culmination of the wunderkind’s unlikely ascent into a cultish figure—and the face of a new kind of home cooking."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A beautiful behemoth. . . . The Food Lab’s vision of 'better home cooking through science'—and, I would add, through the internet—is a convincing one."—New Republic

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J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab, The Wok and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; cohost of The Recipe podcast with Deb Perelman; and host of Kenji’s Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington.