America's Test Kitchen

Chris Kimball and the cast of America's Test Kitchen.

It is the most watched food show on Public Television in America. It's been going strong for ten years now. It's part science, heavy research and ultimately results in absolutely delicious food. I have always found it to be the most informative food show in a vapid sea of useless reality TV and chef food competition shows. It is America's Test Kitchen.

To promote their new book featuring every, single recipe from the past ten years, the cast gave a brief talk and took questions from the audience last night at The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, sponsored by Harvard Book Store. It was a really fun event, full of laughter and insight.

The audience questions resulted in some pearls of wisdom that we all can learn from.

On favorite gadgets: a good food thermometer, the microplaner, an egg slicer (great for cutting cheeses and tomatoes).

On advice for beginner cooks: have sharp knives, master five dishes first then branch out, don't be afraid to use salt, make a clean, organized work space to cook.

On testing recipes: it can take anywhere from five to hundreds of tests before a recipe is perfected. Then the recipe is sent to home testers and must achieve an 80% positive rating before being featured on the show. The longest tested recipe of all time was fudge. The most requested recipe is green bean casserole!

On gossip: Yes the ATK iphone app is due in February 2010.

Congratulations ATK. We wish you many more years of success.