What is happening to all the great cooking shows?
I watch very little food-based television anymore. Recently, I had the occasion to see the Food Network's "Chopped!" for the first time in years, and it only reminded me why I haven't been watching it (also, I try to avoid anything that has an exclamation point in the title).
It also reminded me why I haven't watched the Food Network for a long time. All that false drama. All that hyperkinetic camera work. All that percussive music.
All that lipstick on a whole-roasted suckling pig.
But there are a couple of shows that are still worth watching. Or were. Because both are now in turmoil.
Until recently, Christopher Kimball was the host of "America's Test Kitchen," both on television and on the radio. He also was the publisher of Cook's Illustrated magazine, and wrote a well-regarded, folksy column for it.
Then he left "America's Test Kitchen" _ which he co-founded _ and started a new venture called Milk Street Kitchen, named for the location of its headquarters in Boston. But then a nearby restaurant called Milk Street Cafe sued, claiming that his company's name was too similar to theirs, and might cause confusion.
So now his company is called Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, which does not have the same panache. But if the story stopped there, we would not be talking about it.
In October, America's Test Kitchen sued Kimball and Milk Street, claiming that Kimball copied the entire America's Test Kitchen concept and format, that he stole proprietary information (and some actual property) from America's Test Kitchen, that he poached a large number of staff from America's Test Kitchen and that he created Milk Street when he was on the clock for America's Test Kitchen _ which at the time was paying him more than $1 million a year.
It is an ugly story and may only get uglier if the case makes it to trial. Meanwhile, I have seen the new magazine and the America's Test Kitchen people have a point: It sure seems to follow the look and content of Cook's Illustrated magazine.
Scott Lashway, the attorney for Milk Street, Kimball and the other defendants, had no comment about the suit.
The "America's Test Kitchen" television show will soldier on without Kimball, with co-hosts Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster now front and center. The show will go on, but it won't be the same.
And that is true also of my favorite cooking show, "The Great British Baking Show," known in England as "The Great British Bake-Off."
As has widely and thoroughly been reported, the producers of the show decided to leave the BBC, which had presented the show for seven years, for the far greener pastures of Channel 4.
Channel 4 offered to pay more than $31 million per year for three years, which is more than four times what the commercial-free BBC could pay.
The show left, but three of the four hosts did not. The delightful Mary Berry announced that she was going to stay with the BBC, which has been so good to her for seven years. In short order, presenters Mel Geidroyc and Sue Perkins (who were actually friends in college) announced that they, too, were staying with the BBC.
Only co-host Paul Hollywood _ who sort of looks and acts like his name _ will be accompanying the show to Channel 4. It was recently announced that the 81-year-old Berry encouraged Hollywood to follow the show, saying that she would have done the same if she were his age, which is 50.
The production company is looking for people to replace Berry, Geidroyc and Perkins. They haven't found anyone suitable yet, but no doubt they will. The money is certainly there.
But the show won't be the same without them. And once it has commercials? It's just one more show I won't be watching.
