Milk Street

August 21, 2017
Kimball, the former Cook’s Illustrated editor, launched Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street in 2016, a cooking venture that includes a school, magazine, and public TV and radio shows. This cookbook is the first from Milk Street, and its 125 recipes are an eclectic mix of dishes. All the recipes offer the reliability that Kimball is famous for, and there are lists of pantry staples and cooking tips included with some recipes to help readers get dinner on the table with ease. Flavors are gathered from around the world, with “supper” recipes that include Spanish spice-crusted pork tenderloin bites; soba noodles with asparagus, miso butter, and egg; and Peruvian pesto, made with spinach instead of basil. Egg dishes go from a simple scramble cooked in olive oil to curry braised eggs that promise to reinvent breakfast, and possibly dinner. Vegetable recipes are particularly interesting, and include cracked potatoes with vermouth, coriander, and fennel; sweet-and-spicy ginger green beans; and a sweet potato gratin with vanilla bean and bay leaves that shakes up the Thanksgiving staple. Dessert combinations are unexpected, such as rosemary–pine nut cornmeal cookies and date-stuffed semolina cookies. There are also nontraditional takes on standards, such as tahini-swirl brownies and rye chocolate chip cookies. Kimball’s fans will be pleased with his latest cookbook. Agent: David Black, David Black Agency.

September 15, 2017

Following a controversial departure from America's Test Kitchen with pending litigation, cooking instructor Kimball (Fannie's Last Supper) launched Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, a food multimedia company and cooking school based in Boston, offering a website (177milkstreet.com), bimonthly magazine, and TV and radio shows. This first cookbook promises reliable, boldly flavored dishes "that will change how you cook forever." Its 125 recipes, however, often fall short. A chocolate cake steamed inside of a Dutch oven introduces an intriguing method but cooks up surprisingly bland. An avocado salad asks for spending upwards of 20 minutes pickling mustard seeds, only two tablespoons of which are needed for the dressing. Many other recipes feel more overly simplified than memorable, and they'll underwhelm cooks expecting revelatory tastes and techniques. VERDICT Milk Street's debut shows promise but ultimately disappoints. Buy for demand. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/17, p. 33.--Ed.].

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 21, 2022
In this latest from the team at Kimball’s Milk Street (Milk Street Vegetables), a single pan takes on global cuisines to offer a delicious range of accessible dishes. With a home cook’s efficiency in mind, recipes are grouped by the time it takes to prepare them (an hour, 45 minutes, under 30 minutes); the method (stir-fried, roasted, baked); and dish type (pasta, sandwiches, grains). Influences and techniques reach far beyond simple geography, evident in the way ketchup lends a sweet counterpoint to the spice in Trinidad pepper shrimp, and in the elements that ensure success when dry-frying Sichuan beef with celery (salt being a main one). Quinoa goes from understated to elevated—cooked in the style of risotto in a quick poblano-corn side dish—and a Georgian stew serves as the inspiration for braised bone-in chicken with herbs. Descriptions and origins for regional dishes—such as Syria’s harak osbao (lentils and caramelized onions) and Sweden’s pyttipanna (meat and potato hash with celery root)—are provided in the headnotes, offering a tasty opportunity to brush up on one’s culinary knowledge, while “don’t” tips designed to avoid missteps (“Don’t brown the meatballs aggressively”) lend solid guidance along the way. Kitchen adventures beckon in this expansive and appetizing collection. Agent: David Black, David Black Agency.