Chef J. Kenji López-Alt Talks Science Communication

For award-winning chef and author J. Kenji López-Alt, factoring science into culinary processes comes naturally. Both his father and his grandfather were scientists, and López-Alt grew up in a household he describes as “science literate.”

After starting his career serving and cooking in restaurants, López-Alt gravitated toward science communication, including roles at Cook’s Illustrated magazine and the food blog Serious Eats.

He’s noted for bringing rigorous science into everyday cooking and for explaining the scientific principles behind cooking techniques in ways that are easily understandable. The title of his bestselling book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, makes his perspective on science clear.

López-Alt knows that talking about science isn’t always easy for food science professionals. Fortunately, he’s got some suggestions for improving the odds of successful communication. He’ll share some of them in the opening keynote address on Monday, July 13, at IFT FIRST, and he recently took time out to respond to questions for the Brain Food blog.

What has your career as a writer and speaker taught you about science communication?

When I'm writing about relatively complex scientific or technical details in cooking, there are a couple things that I always do. One of them is that I try and anchor it with something that people know. So, if I want to talk about how an emulsion works, I can work that into a story about the sauce for macaroni and cheese or the mayonnaise on your BLT. I find that, for me at least, I learn best when the lesson is folded into something that doesn't even feel like a lesson.

What else would you suggest in order to improve science communication?

The other thing that I really often try and do is incorporate both humor and understandable metaphors—non-food-related metaphors. A scientific paper doesn't employ either of those things. And they tend to be very dry and very direct because they have to be precise and communicative to a specific audience.

But an audience that doesn't typically read scientific papers is not attracted to that language. So, using metaphors that people understand and making the writing fun, I think, is really key. That said, writing—just like science—is a muscle you have to exercise and a skill you have to learn, and it's not one that just automatically comes. … You need to practice communication in the same way that you practice science.

What are some of the misconceptions about food that you’ve observed among consumers?

A lot of them surround food safety. [Food safety regulations] are designed to ensure that even someone who doesn’t fully understand the protocols will be able to arrive at a safe place. I’ve done ServSafe programs for professional kitchens, and there are these sorts of things that you learn where it’s like 40°F to 140°F is the danger zone and food can’t spend more than four hours in that area. And while that’s true, it’s not quite as simple as that. There are bacterial reduction curves. Bacterial reduction occurs at a range of temperatures.

Another big one is expiration dates on foods at the supermarket, which people think [mean that] it’s safe to eat up until this date. And then suddenly on that date, it’s going to make me sick, whereas the reality is that those dates have nothing to do with food safety and are more about a manufacturer’s best guess at food quality. I think people are afraid in situations where they don’t necessarily need to be, and I think that can impact their cooking.

Do you agree that it’s difficult to communicate about science because science is nuanced and it evolves?

The goal of science is not to uncover all truths because that’s impossible. It’s to get closer and closer [to the truth.] And that means constantly questioning things we have accepted.

An inherent part of the scientific process is that you want to try and prove yourself wrong in order to be able to say that you’re probably right. And because of that, I think there’s also this idea that science is uncreative and all you have to do is open up the book and follow the steps. But scientists have to be extremely creative all the time because you’re given a set of clues, and you have to try and figure out what’s going on and then come up with creative ways to test that.

Given the fact that science is complicated, what’s the key to building trust in science?

The key to good science is to always show your work and explain how you know the things you know and ideally explain it in a way that people can understand. And when you do that, you do earn a certain level of trust and authority, but it's hard.

Hear J. Kenji López-Alt in Person

Chef J. Kenji López-Alt will present the IFT FIRST opening keynote address titled “The Science of Flavor: Transforming Culinary Experiences Through Research” on Monday, July 13, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Register now for IFT FIRST.