Chris Morocco Is the Most Analytical Member of the BA Test Kitchen

Every Monday night, Bon Appétit editor in chief Adam Rapoport gives us a peek inside his brain by taking over our newsletter. He shares recipes he's been cooking, restaurants he's been eating at, and more. It gets better: If you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get this letter before everyone else.

Of all the editors in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, Chris Morocco is the one you could imagine having aced his SATs. He approaches a recipe not so much as a meal in the making but as a vexing problem waiting to be solved.

When tasked with giving readers a recipe for a “simple” roast chicken, he wrestled with how to achieve the crispiest skin, the juiciest white meat, done-enough dark meat and, because as if that weren’t enough, he also challenged himself to figure out how to cook the potatoes in the same skillet as the chicken itself—because why would you want all that salty, tasty chicken fat to go to waste?

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Having made his skillet-roasted chicken several times over (and did you know that the original article featuring it got nominated for a National Magazine Award?), I can vouch for the fact that it is mind-bogglingly good while still, somehow, being simple.

Sometimes I like to give Chris a hard time for being a bit too analytical, for pacing about the test kitchen like Professor Morocco, apron cinched, Sharpie and digital thermometer at the ready.

And sometimes Chris gets back at me, proving that he can do basic too. Like when he realized that while our Lasagna Bolognese recipe is truly epic and delicious, it’s a smidge too epic. So he set out to make a more user-friendly BA’s Best Lasagna—not only creamy, rich and irresistible, but also eminently makable for the average home cook.

Same goes for his Basic Bulgogi recipe, his at-home tribute to the Korean BBQ classic. Staying true to the original, he includes shredded pear in the marinade, but he also works to fast-track the entire process, including instructions to sear the the thinly sliced, marinated boneless short rib (or chicken breast, or pork loin) on your stovetop in case you’re not in the mood to fire up your grill.

Other Morocco hits (of which there are many) include his Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles, his Gluten-Free Carrot Cake and, God bless him, his Spicy Chicken Katsu Sandwiches.

The only thing Chris does as well as develop recipes is talk about them. He’s a frequent, always-analytical guest on the Bon Appétit Foodcast, and you’ll always spot him in the BA Test Kitchen on our YouTube channel, hosting his own videos or popping into his colleagues’ with a well-timed assessment of their latest recipes.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what he did with his spiffy SAT scores, he attended Oberlin College. No word on whether he held down a kitchen shift at the co-op.

Get the recipes:

Cast-Iron Roast Chicken with Crispy Potatoes
Lasagna Bolognese
BA’s Best Lasagna
Basic Bulgogi
Spicy Sweet Sambal Pork Noodles
Molten Caramel Cakes
Spicy Chicken Katsu Sandwiches