[9] He and his sisters grew up in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, one floor above his maternal grandparents, both Japanese immigrants.

[10] López-Alt attended the Dalton School,[11][12] and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002, where he majored in architecture.

[18][19] He later adapted this column into his first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which was published in September 2015 by W. W. Norton & Company.

[23] Penny Pleasance of the New York Journal of Books called The Food Lab "a seminal work that is encyclopedic in scope and can be used as a reference by even the most experienced home cooks".

[24] López-Alt opened the Wursthall Restaurant & Bierhaus in San Mateo, California in 2017, with partners Adam Simpson and Tyson Mao.

The videos are POV-style demonstrations of recipes and cooking techniques in López-Alt's home kitchen that feature unscripted commentary and largely unedited footage.

[38] As of 2021, López-Alt resides in Seattle, Washington,[39] after previously living in San Mateo, California, New York City, and Boston.