For a moment, I thought that “the onion problem” related to some challenging issue of topology or group theory, before my brain finally sorted through its connections to identify Kenji Lopez-Alt as a chef and not a mathematician.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt _was_ actually mentioned (featured?) in alt-weekly The Onion this month. The problem, though, was that it was in an un-funny piece about the beef dimension, and it is not worth footnoting here. I guess they should have researched this 2021 article and spun off of it instead. But maybe a Quanta Magazine and infowars joint venture could enter the beef dimension. An onion with too many alt-layers.
I thought it was funny. Probably the first funny thing I've seen from the Onion in years, actually.
He's not a chef either he's a food writer and recipe tester. I don't mean this as disrespect at all just they are very different professions, using different skills and producing different outputs.
Before he was a food writer he worked in a number of fairly high-end restaurants in Boston (which he talks about occasionally on his Youtube channel), and then he opened his own restaurant in 2017ish. Not sure how that's "not a chef"
I simply didn't realize he had ever run a restaurant.
I feel like you have an overly restrictive definition of "chef". Owning a restaurant doesn't make you a chef, cooking food professionally does. Even if he never set foot in a restaurant kitchen, the man cooks food all day long for his job. That makes him a chef.
I have a chef's definition of a chef. You're welcome to use whatever one you prefer though.