Jesse Szewczyk
Senior Test Kitchen Editor
Jesse Szewczyk is a food editor based in New York. He holds a degree from The Culinary Institute of America and has been a staff editor at The Kitchn and BuzzFeed Food prior to joining Epicurious as Food Editor. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Food Network, TODAY, Food52, The Washington Post, King Arthur Baking, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Allrecipes, Simply Recipes, Bake from Scratch, and several other publications. He was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 of Food & Drink and is the author of Tasty Pride (Clarkson Potter, 2020), a collection of 75 recipes and stories from the queer food community that raised $50,000 for GLAAD, as well as Cookies: The New Classics (Clarkson Potter, 2021), which was named one of the best cookbooks of 2021 by The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Recipes & Menus
Soy-and-Cola-Marinated Steak
Upgrade your grilled skirt steak with this Coca-Cola-spiked marinade, which both tenderizes and caramelizes the meat.
Recipes & Menus
Ginger Beer and Mustard Pork Chops
Quick-cooking, thin-cut pork chops can often get dry on the grill, but this ginger beer marinade keeps the lean cut moist and flavorful.
Expert Advice
For the Glossiest, Sauciest Sheet-Pan Chicken, Grab a Jar of Jam
With the help of soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and vinegar, a jar of apricot jam transforms chicken legs into a gorgeous weeknight dinner.
Recipes & Menus
Sheet-Pan Sticky Apricot Chicken
Grab a jar of apricot jam to make these glossy, sticky-sweet sheet-pan chicken legs.
Lemon-Blueberry Quick Bread
A classic lemon-blueberry bread is a thing of beauty. Plush lemon cake studded with jammy, perfectly suspended blueberries gets coated in a glossy, dripping glaze.
Recipes & Menus
For Punchier Pantry Pasta, Add Peperoncini Brine
Using jarred peperoncini, brine and all, in your weeknight pasta is the pro move you didn’t know you needed.
Recipes & Menus
Peperoncini Pantry Pasta
This zesty pasta relies on a jar of peperoncini—including the brine—to do the heavy lifting.
Expert Advice
The Secret to Level Cake Layers? Toothpicks
Build towering multilayer cakes with this stress-free technique.
Recipes & Menus
Smith Island Cake
This Smith Island Cake recipe boasts eight layers of yellow cake covered in a blanket of chocolate ganache.
Recipes & Menus
Pecan Sandie Wedges
Tender, buttery, and pleasantly crumbly, these salty-sweet shortbread wedges studded with toasted pecans are a grownup version of the childhood favorite.
Recipes & Menus
Crispy Fried Shrimp and Giardiniera
How do you make fried shrimp better? By adding giardiniera to the mix. Here the duo gets coated in a vodka-spiked batter to create a remarkably crisp exterior.
Recipes & Menus
Dirty Martini Chicken Thighs
This cheeky chicken recipe crams all of the iconic flavors of a dirty martini—olive brine, vodka, vermouth, and all—into a savory one-pan meal.
Recipes & Menus
Double Dark Chocolate No-Churn Ice Cream
This fuss-free ice cream doubles down on the chocolate flavor with a rich dark cocoa base and a glossy fudge ripple—no churning required.
Recipes & Menus
Earl Grey Martini
Quickly infusing vodka with earl grey tea bags creates a distinct floral foundation for this fun (and caffeinated) take on a martini.
Expert Advice
How to Keep Your Rhubarb Cake From Getting Soggy
Rhubarb is juicy, which can spell disaster in a cake. Here’s how to bake one that doesn’t sog out.
Recipes & Menus
Rhubarb Cake
This rhubarb cake recipe keeps things simple and scatters thinly sliced fresh rhubarb on top of the cake
Recipes & Menus
You Don’t Have to Be a Cowboy to Love These Cookies
With chunks of chocolate, coconut flakes, and toasted pecans, cowboy cookies cram everything good into one bite.
Recipes & Menus
Cowboy Cookies
Cowboy cookies are like oatmeal ones, but packed with hearty mix-ins like coconut, pecans, and chocolate.
Recipes & Menus
Derby Pie Is Pecan Pie for Chocolate Lovers
This trademarked chocolate chip pecan pie has been the subject of countless lawsuits, but you can still make an ode to it at home.
Recipes & Menus
Kentucky Bourbon Pie
This nut pie recipe with chocolate chips and bourbon keeps things simple and honors the hallmarks of a classic Derby pie.