It was actually Alton Brown that got me into cooking. I happened to catch what he calls his least favorite episode (“Scrap Iron Chef: Bacon Challenge”) while channel surfing in the old days, and I was hooked. As a consequence, I eventually subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated after picking it up at Nino Salvaggio’s (Macomb County “nice” store), and loving how they described how they develop recipes.
I sometimes get Serious Eats links when Googling, but they don’t make their RSS feed obvious. A quick Google search found it; I’ll give it a go and see if it doesn’t clutter up my news!
I don’t know. He made occasional (like once, twice a season) really weird, creepy sexist remarks which if he wasn’t their boss would be fine, but since he was was disturbing.
One thing I like about the newer shows is that there’s a couple of male chefs, so it doesn’t seem like it’s Kimball in an “I Dream Of Jeanie” fantasy where two blonde chicks are doing all the work for him. And this season we’ve actually seen our first non-lilly-white person on the show (I don’t remember her name but she’s a middle aged black lady with a neon-blue patch in her hair and a much less annoying screen chatter than Julia*)
*I think. The one who’s gained a ton of weight recently who refers to her food by gender. “Look at this pork roast. Isn’t she beautiful and she smells so good.”
I think it was real, a little too subtle to have been faked or scripted. Also, (I have no cite for this, so it’s anonymous third-person gossip) a couple of years ago “I read somewhere” that he wasn’t well-liked, in part because was grab-assy with at least some of the female staff/cast.
I don’t see it, but Mrs. Cretin says his barely-veiled antipathy toward Bridgette and Julia has been obvious for years.
Dude. If you’re making “Authentic Texas Chili”, you need hot pepper…Kimball objected to it. If you’re making Schezwan food, you need some kind hot peppers. And my personal favorite example, they made some sort of Italian sausage and peppers recipe and tried to minimize the green and red peppers in the dish. And bell peppers have no heat at all.
Not all recipes need hot pepper, but if you’re going to call a dish “The Best Shrimp Fra Diavolo”, you can’t commit the cultural butchery of removing all heat.
only reason he says he dosent like it was when he was the best thing on iron chef America theyd remind him of the ic parody although he referenced it himself when they had the a making of show before the premier …I did wonder why he never was on the show himself
ATK’s ethnic recipes have always been hilariously bad and the stated reason is because they want to filter their recipes to be accessible to the middle of the road home cook which means, for anything outside of the standard Western palate, substituting ingredients and dumbing down techniques. Check out their pho recipe sometime if you want a mild bit of apoplexy.
Bumping this thread–having seen the first 11 episodes of the new season, the two women are ok, but seem too interchangable. Hell, other than the hair styles and one of them is about 30 lbs heavier than the other, I can’t tell them apart (the heavier one has a kind of annoying voice)
We’ve actually seen a tiny bit of diversity in the background and in the chefs: it’s not all white chicks. The black woman has a great TV presence and we’ve seen more than one segment this season with a guy. That’s not much, but it’s still about 10,000x more diverse than the previous 16 seasons.
The recipes: Holy shit. Last week, they made two Korean dishes, one of which I tried at home and it was great. And they didn’t panic about an ingredient that isn’t found in the Cracker Barrel-esque store near Kimball’s place. (Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste. Not hard to find, but it would NEVER have appeared on the show when Kimball was there). And the dish was actually a hair spicier than I enjoyed–not inedible, but I’m cutting back the heat maybe 5%. This week they made a gumbo and devised a new way to make a roux that looks cool.
And taste tests with no hysteria, flapping of hands and running around screaming like a spoiled 5 year old girl who sees a spider! They did smoked paprika (which they kept misprounouncing. It’s papREEka, not PAPrehkuh) and one of the two blonde ladies actually seemed to enjoy the challenge, rather than throwing a hissy-fit and snivelling about whether her tastes matched the panel’s.
Yeah, some of the food is more adventurous (and some not so, I mean really, snickerdoodles?). But the interactions are more bland, even with the added diversity. You may not have liked Kimball’s personality, but at least he had one. Everyone on screen now has on their sweetness and light face, which gets boring fast.
Still, I am continuing to watch it when I catch it. Part of the problem in this market (San Francisco) is that the show is on our 4 (or is it 6) public channels so often I never know if it’s going to be a new season show or a repeat from previous seasons until I turn it on. It’s the same problem I have with This Old House and Ask This Old House.
I agree. I still record and watch it, but it’s not as good without Kimball. He brought a sense of humor to the show that is now missing. I realize quite a few people found him annoying, but I didn’t. Watching Julia and Bridget interact is sort of painful.
I watched a show with just the ladies this weekend, and although I am no fan of Kimball, the women were… not so good. They tried to play off each other, but it was mostly a dud. But, the recipe looked good, and I don’t really need to be super entertained as long as they give me some good ideas for new things. BTW, this was the one with the Portuguese Beef Stew.
I’m a great fan of the show. I even went to see the road show that Kimball takes all over the country. (Not good. He brought the one guy I don’t like-- Dan, the smartass with the deadpan affect and the beard-- and NONE of the people I like. I left halfway through.)
Watching the two women together is cringeworthy. When they interacted with Chris, they seemed natural, now they are trying too hard to be themselves. Jack and Adam still seem natural, but I miss the back-and-forth they had with Chris.
I’ll keep watching it for the great cooking tips and solid information on tools and products. I have lots of their cookbooks and they are fabulous, especially the slow-cooker ones.
I’ve caught Chris’s radio program Milk Street on NPR a couple of times when I was in the car-- it’s okay.
I like the two women’s interactions all right, but not as much as when they interacted with Chris Kimball. Yeah, he could be annoying, but that’s what makes for interesting watching. The characters on TBBT wouldn’t be as funny if they didn’t have a Sheldon to bicker with; the same goes for this show.
The episode when the women made and ate warm sticky buns was pretty darned funny, though. They got into a laughing fit and couldn’t stop. And the buns looked delectable.
FWIW, I’m a woman reading this thread and it just sort of makes me roll my eyes. Many of us (women) have gotten so used to this kind of thing there’s not much else to do. I do continue to notice the casualness (one could also say cluelessness) with which these types of comments are made. Like, men who interact this way seem to genuinely have no idea how it makes them seem, to women. Maybe they don’t care, but in my experience it’s probably more likely that they DO care how they seem to women. A lot. So I chalk such nonchalant sexism up to obtuseness rather than maliciousness. Not that this makes it any better.
Regarding America’s Test Kitchen, I have what seems like an irrational dislike for the theme song of the radio show. I might go so far as to say I hate it, but I can’t put my finger on why. There’s not much music I actively dislike, even horrible TV show themes don’t make me want to punch something the way ATK’s theme song does. It’s the weirdest thing! I don’t like the show itself, either, and I loooooove many cooking/foodie shows. I dislike it enough that I have no idea the specific people being referenced in this thread, because after the first couple times trying to get through it, I started changing the channel when it comes on. Maybe I should give it another try now that this Kimball person is gone, though I don’t think the reason I’m so put off by it was due to a person.
If anybody who’s familiar with the show can point out things about it that are different than other cooking shows, it might help me pinpoint what it is about ATK that makes me stabby. Otherwise, guess I’ll just happily continue to change the channel at the first note of the AWFUL HORRIBLE TERRIBLE NO GOOD theme song!
[SIZE=“1”]Hey I did say I know it’s an irrational dislike…:rolleyes:[/SIZE]
Ohhhhh, “Milk Street.” So THAT’s Chris Kimball. I said in a different post in this thread how much I dislike (loathe, actually) ATK and that I know it might be irrational, since I can’t pinpoint the reason(s), but that I don’t think it’s due to any individual person on the show.
I would like to amend that statement, now that I know the Milk Street guy is/was also on ATK. Because he’s *just so irritating. * I haven’t yet started turning it off the minute it comes on, as I do with ATK, wanting to give it a chance. But this guy annoys the hell out of me, and I am now wondering if he actually is the reason I’ve found ATK so offputting all this time. That and the horrendous theme song. Mystery partially solved, maybe! Or perhaps I should say ignorance fought, if “why do I have an irrational dislike/hate for this show and it’s theme song?” counts as ignorance. Which, I’m sure some hardcore ATK fan can convince me the many ways it does.
Color me clueless (and I’m a BIG NPR listener), but does America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Country have a radio show, too? (Not to be confused with Kimball’s new Milk Street radio show.) Maybe we just don’t get the program in my city.
When I google >Americas test kitchen radio< I get sent to the TV show site.
Try this orthis. There are other places to find it too, I’m sure. But I don’t listen any of those ways. Well, I don’t listen at* all*, like I said, I avoid it at all costs. But I’m pretty sure I used to hear it on my local NPR station. Before they started airing Milk Street, maybe, which they definitely still do.
I’ve decided I can’t watch ATK without Chris K. Julia and Bridget are just too wooden and self-conscious trying to banter with each other. Chris was a bit arrogant, snarky, and obnoxious, but he was a natural and provided an ingredient that is now missing.
Just wanted to comment: quit dissing black pepper! If you’re not buying the pencil shavings at the dollar store, black pepper is an earthy, sweet, complex spice that carries plenty of heat if you use enough of it. It clashes with almost nothing, and should play the lead in most dishes where it’s used at all.
Of course everyone is welcome to disagree, and I won’t argue. But I feel better now.
