Christopher Kimball
| Christopher Kimball | |
|---|---|
 Christopher Kimball in 2016 | |
| Born |
June 5, 1951 Rye, New York [1] |
| Education | Columbia University (B.A., 1973) [1][2] |
| Spouse(s) | Melissa Lee Baldino (m. 2013) |
|
Culinary career | |
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Television show(s)
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Christopher Kimball (born June 5, 1951) is an American chef, editor, publisher, and radio/TV personality.
Early life and education
Kimball was born and raised in Westchester County, New York, the son of Mary Alice White and Edward Norris Kimball.[3] He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then Columbia University (1973) with a degree in Primitive Art.[1][2]
Career
After graduating from Columbia, he went to work with his stepbrother in a publishing company. Soon after, he worked for The Center for Direct Marketing in Westport, Connecticut and also started taking cooking courses.[1] After securing $100,000 in angel investments from friends and family, he started Cook’s Magazine from a tiny office in Weston, Connecticut in 1980 when he was 29 years old.[1] He sold the magazine to the Bonnier Group in 1989 and moved on to other publishing ventures. In 1993, he founded and launched Cook's Illustrated magazine.[1]
Kimball is the founder, editor, and publisher of America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and former publisher of the now-defunct Cook's Magazine. He is the author of The Cook's Bible, The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, Dear Charlie, The Dessert Bible and Fannie's Last Supper, and is a columnist for the New York Daily News and the Boston-based Tab Communications.
Kimball also hosts the syndicated Public Television cooking shows America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen. Other television appearances include This Old House and the morning shows Weekend Today and The Early Show.
He is a regular contributor on National Public Radio.
On January 8, 2011, Kimball began hosting WGBH-FM's America's Test Kitchen Radio distributed by PRX.
On November 16, 2015, a news release from Boston Commons Press, parent company of Cooks Country/Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen, announced the departure of Christopher Kimball. The 2016 TV programs had already been filmed and Kimball will appear as host, but his direct participation in the company was ending immediately.[4] He remains a minority stockholder in the closely held company.
In 2016, he embarked on a new venture, Milk Street Kitchen, located on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts.[5][6]
Controversy
On October 31, 2016, the company behind America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated Magazine filed a lawsuit against Kimball in Suffolk Superior Court, claiming that Kimball "literally and conceptually ripped off" his former employer.[7] In the lawsuit, America's Test Kitchen claims that Kimball built his new venture (Milk Street Kitchen) while still on their payroll, using company resources in the form of recipes and databases to help mold Milk Street Kitchen into a direct competitor.
Personal life
In June 2013, Kimball married Melissa Lee Baldino, a producer of the America's Test Kitchen television show.[3] They live in Cambridge, Vermont.
References
- Metcalf, Stephen (October 13, 2003). "Sexy Food Nerds: Cooking geeks get hot on America's Test Kitchen". Slate. (Article about Kimball.)
- "In the Test Kitchen With Christopher Kimball". Powell's Books. (Online interview with Kimball.)
- "Tour the Test Kitchen: Cast Biographies". America's Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Frieswick, Kris, "Perfection, Inc.", The Boston Globe, August 2, 2009. (PDF version)
- 1 2 Lui, Claire, "Cooking 101: Chris Kimball ’73 brings recipes that work from America’s Test Kitchen to your kitchen", Columbia College Today, July/August 2010
- 1 2 Laskey, Margaux, "Melissa Baldino, Christopher Kimball: All the Ingredients Were There", The New York Times, June 30, 2013
- ↑ "Christopher Kimball to Leave America's Test Kitchen". Cook's Illustrated. November 16, 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ↑ Healy, Beth; Nanos, Janelle, "Chris Kimball to launch Milk Street Kitchen cooking venture", The Boston Globe, May 31, 2016
- ↑ 'Milk Street Kitchen' website
- ↑ "America's Test Kitchen sues Christopher Kimball over celebrity chef's new venture - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
Further reading
- Toasting Fannie Farmer With An Epic Victorian Feast, NPR, October 14, 2010
- Halberstadt, Alex, "The secret to Christopher Kimball's success", The New York Times Magazine, October 14, 2012.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christopher Kimball. |