Christopher KImball and "Milk Street"

[boudin noir]

On 11/7/2016 at 10:51 PM, Norm Matthews said:

Once many years ago, I had sort of an epiphany.  I had seen many cooks hawking their new cookbooks on TV shows by presenting a recipe froheir new book. I had bought a few of them. Christopher Kimball (who I didn't know at the time) (and I wondered how could someone so skinny could be a good cook) appeared on one show with his new cook book (Yellow Farmhouse, i think it was) with a fried chicken recipe. I tried it and it was really good so I bought that book and found that there was no other recipe in the book that I wanted to try. The other books I'g got  were similar: The featured recipe on the TV show was the best recipe in the whole  book.  Since then I have been happy to try the recipe presented by a new cookbook and not buy the book.  The same is how I feel about the premier issue of the magazine.  They probably spent a lot of time making sure the magazine is going to impress enough people to sell subscriptions.  I have tried two recipe from the magazine so far and am not impressed with either. One was for scrambled eggs and one was for cheese and pasta. Neither one was very good so I imagine the future recipes won't be either.

I have subscribed to a fair number of food and cooking magazines over the years and find now that they just recycle old ideas perhaps with a few esoteric new ingredients that you may use once. If I'm looking for new ideas I google the main ingredient  and some suggested additional ingredient or cuisine and see what pops up. Works for me.

[Norm Matthews]

1 hour ago, boudin noir said:

I have subscribed to a fair number of food and cooking magazines over the years and find now that they just recycle old ideas perhaps with a few esoteric new ingredients that you may use once. If I'm looking for new ideas I google the main ingredient  and some suggested additional ingredient or cuisine and see what pops up. Works for me.

 

25 or 30 years ago in a magazine that had recipes each month by a featured chef, I found the exact same recipe, wording and all, from two different cooks probably a year apart. I don't know if it was the cook or the magazine that did it. 

  

[rotuts]

the NYTimes has an article about the settlement.

 

nothing really new about the settlement , but there was this at the end of the article :

 

""  Milk Street now has about 45 employees and a popular cooking school at its Boston headquarters, and in October will publish “The New Rules,” its fifth cookbook. ""

 

its been going for , maybe two years , a little more ?  the show is decent , and not to much CK pontificating .

 

but five cookbooks already ?  

 

i know about two .       I must have been living under a rock.

 

I know of 3 :

 

 

Churn Lives On .

Edited August 23, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

a P.S.: it seems  CK plans to issue a  " Milk Street Cookbook , the Definitive Guide "    TV series book each year

 

including what  you already have from the previous years book  

 

so there are two editions of this book    2017 - 2019 , and 2017 - 2020  

 

this is a technique Pioneered at ATK for their TV books.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

a P.S.: it seems  CK plans to issue a  " Milk Street Cookbook , the Definitive Guide "   

 

This is precisely the smug, pontificating tone that I have found a turn-off from all of CK's enterprises.    I can't accept that any one procedure is an absolute best or only way to do something.  

[rotuts]

@Margaret Pilgrim

 

I do completely agree with you.

 

however , as it Gauls me Greatly

 

the new MS TV  has a bit to recommend itself if you can see it

 

for free.  

 

and the MS Mag is decent for what one might have missed on the TV show

 

and the books from you library 

 

might be with cueing out.

 

but , under now way 

 

reward CK and the Churn

 

with your funds

 

that being said

 

no library your way ?

 

it would be fine to get one publication 

 

being carful wothj the churn

 

as there some decent surf  

 

first time around.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Okay.   Dragging feet and with teeth clenched, I have requested MS TV cookbook and some other of his from SFPLibrary.   

[rotuts]

@Margaret Pilgrim

 

OK

 

that's what our fine library system is for :

 

no churn 

 

buy it once , and provide for a Zillion library patrons !

 

like to see what you think.

 

esp the Mag.

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, rotuts said:

the NYTimes has an article about the settlement.

 

g

 

but five cookbooks already ?  

 

i know about two .       I must have been living under a rock.

 

I know of 3 :

 

 

According to Ina Garten, the books are where the money is. Her TV show feeds the book business

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by gfweb (log)

[rotuts]

see

 

TV ,  feeds the books

 

if the books have nice and new content 

 

OK

 

but churn ?

 

pls support your local library 

 

or some sort of 

 

FileServer.

[Kim Shook]

As much as I like the fact that there is another actual cooking show on TV (as opposed to half hour commercials and competition shows), I've never seen a dish on Milk Street that I would make.  It just isn't my kind of food.  ATK and Cook's Country, on the other hand, make things that I would actually cook.  Having said that, while I completely understand the issues that folks have with Kimball, I find ATK and CC very flat without him.  I find Julia and Bridget tiresome.  Kimball's questions (when he was host) often were the same questions that I had.  Just my 2 cents.

[ElsieD]

Actually, I still like Bridgette but I wish Julia could tone down showing off her pearly whites.  It  makes her seem...insincere..

Edited August 24, 2019 by ElsieD
Fixed a typo (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Okay.    Two of my library requests have come in.   I picked up The Complete Milk Street TV Show Cookbook yesterday.    (Since they each weigh over 4 lbs, I only brought one home.   Will return it and exchange for the second tomorrow.)    I have gone through it, page by page, and found little that I wanted to try.    Ironically, the most interesting ideas were in desserts, a section usually of negligible import to me.

 

In savories, the Trapani Pesto looked worth a go, as did a roasted mushroom pizza with fontina and scallions, which is based on a fontina-parmesan cream.     Will try Taiwanese Flaky scallion pancakes to see if it's better than what I'm now making.    In a few minutes, I will make the French apple cake, using a bag of homegrown Gravensteins I was gifted.    A ricotta Semolina cheesecake sounds worth a try, as does a Stovetop (steamed) chocolate cake.   

 

I admit that my appraisal is colored by my intense dislike for CK and for the pedantic tone of the book.     Others' mileage will probably vary considerably.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 8/23/2019 at 3:12 PM, Kim Shook said:

I've never seen a dish on Milk Street that I would make.  It just isn't my kind of food. 

My feeling exactly about the companion book.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Okay.   Here is the French Apple Cake.

 

 

Recipe called for brandy or calvados.   I used calvados.    I added softly whipped cream.

 

i found it blah.    The apples gave off extraordinary aroma before being added to the batter.    it was lost in the baking.     Will not  repeat.   Might add that it was a tedious recipe to follow.   

Edited August 31, 2019 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[rotuts]

I prefer MS over ATK due to international-ish Rx's

 

that being said , I have not made a MS Rx , nor an ATK in a long long time.

 

I do get ideas from each 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Returned the TV book and checked out Milk Street Tuesday Nights            

I am finding it very interesting, probably useful, full of dishes I would actually cook and probably enjoy.

 

A copy of Milk Street Magazine had also come in, and it too has some usable content.    

 

Surprise, surprise!    Never too old to learn new tricks.

[rotuts]

"" Tuessay Nights "

 

is in their magazine  

 

just remember :

 

Support your Local Library

 

not so much CK.

 

its all going to be there, at your Local

 

pre-paid.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

KC is now pimping  Lebanese sea salt as the latest be-all and must-have.    For sale, surprise, surprise, on his website or newsletter.     His praise is diametrically opposed to French friends/authorities who eschew salt from the supp;osedly much more contaminated Mediterranean Sea in favor of Brittany's Guerande purer waters.   

[btbyrd]

I loathe Chris Kimball. Christ, does this man ever miss an opportunity to talk about himself or his famous food companions or his worldly travels or that time he had that one dish with that one famous chef on that one worldly travel where he gave an amusing anecdote about dining with Julia Child? Yeah, no. I can't freaking stand that dude.

 

Still, I loved Cook's Illustrated and ATK, and Milk Street seems fine and all. But the one thing that I most hate about CK (and, again, there are many) is the amount of ads on his podcast. The most recent Milk Street doesn't start until 6 minutes into the podcast. it doesn't help that most of that 6 minutes is filled with Kimball's disaffected, impersonal, contractional, transactional verbiages about the latest frozen box meal or nutritional slurm that he's become desperate to hawk. He is the most charmless pitchman for a product I've ever imagined, and that includes his own brands. But I get extra vomit-y when I hear how much he loves the latest powdered superfood nutritional powerhouse powder "and, oh by the way, my favorite flavor is vanilla". No shit, you spineless, characterless, milquetoast, ex-hippie-with-no-courage-to-actually-be-a-hippie (which isn't much), Vermonter (no offense) who just can't wait to talk about himself and would be an insufferable host *OR* guest at any dinner party.

 

"Why do I listen," I hear you asking? Good freaking question. It seems as though he just follows the standard podcast rule of being popular and then just scheduling whatever publicist thought it was convenient to have on that week. And a lot of the guests are quality. But it all feels rote. CK is a terrible interviewer, so self-assured, dogmatic, and unresponsive. He sounds like a person just waiting his turn to ask the next question (which he is). Sara Moulon, his interlocutor for call in questions, is a much better personality (and that's saying something, even though I love Sara [bless her heart]).

 

All that's to say, I really loathe Chris Kimball. That's all I ever really wanted to say here.

 

 

[ElsieD]

@btbyrd. Feel better now?

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, btbyrd said:

All that's to say, I really loathe Chris Kimball. That's all I ever really wanted to say here.

 

who?

[weinoo]

As a search on "Kimball" will reveal, @btbyrd, you're far from the only one!

 

https://forums.egullet.org/search/?q=Kimball&quick=1

[btbyrd]

11 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@btbyrd. Feel better now?

 

I was feeling pretty good while typing, actually. I'd had four-ish strong craft gin and tonics of my own creation, and it was probably the ethanol doing the talking. What can I say? The spirits moved me.

 

The thing was that I was doing the evening's dishes after a wonderful night and threw on a random podcast to help pass the time. And the intro was 6 irritating minutes of Chris Kimball. All I'm saying is, don't start an episode of Milk Street Radio and then immediately cover your hands with water and dish soap so you can't easily control a capacitive touch screen. 

[Katie Meadow]

28 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

 

I was feeling pretty good while typing, actually. I'd had four-ish strong craft gin and tonics of my own creation, and it was probably the ethanol doing the talking. What can I say? The spirits moved me.

 

The thing was that I was doing the evening's dishes after a wonderful night and threw on a random podcast to help pass the time. And the intro was 6 irritating minutes of Chris Kimball. All I'm saying is, don't start an episode of Milk Street Radio and then immediately cover your hands with water and dish soap so you can't easily control a capacitive touch screen. 

Take heart. You are SOO not alone. He's nothing if not smarmy. I would never tune into anything he's on.