While most of these make for good reading, the column's reactionary posture seems divorced from the rest of the magazine - and from the kind of food-related issues that Cook's readers think about. Kimball's editorial columns in Cook's generally espouse the joys of rural life. Yet, in the May/June 2003 issue of Cook’s, he wrote, 'It's a shame that at the beginning of this new century, the world is watching America, and America is watching television.' Kimball's show has aired Saturday afternoons on PBS since 2000. Kimball is a wealthy publisher whose family maintains a farm in Vermont and a townhouse in Boston. The contradictions he presents make me wonder: Which version is the real Christopher Kimball? Modernist and traditionalist, he's a microwave and slow cooker rolled into one. If I hewed to the wisdom of his page-one editorial column in Cook's Illustrated, I'd move to the country, cook on a wood-burning stove, kill my television, and eschew Southeast Asian fish sauce. He shows you how, and he shows you why.īut I don't accept all his advice as gospel. He breaks the process down into digestible pieces. His hash browns, pancakes, enchiladas, chicken marsala, salmon cakes, chili, and even pad Thai are mainstays of my table.Īs much as anyone, Kimball taught me how to cook.

I've learned a lot from Christopher Kimball, the bow-tied impresario behind the magazine Cook's Illustrated and the PBS show “ America's Test Kitchen.” Not a week goes by that I don't make at least one of his recipes.

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