Todd Maul? I thought it was mostly Tenzin Samdo (RIP)
I never got to make it out there but had heard good things. With Drink also now gone our mixology scene is kinda lame unless you go to one of Ran Duan’s many establishments, which are great don’t get me wrong, but it would be nice to see another few spots crop up
This year I saw Chris Kimball of Milk Street TV on public television at Formaggio. He was buying broccoli!!! I cozied up to him and asked what was for dinner. He looked rather affronted that I’d deigned to approach him. I don’t even remember what he said. THAT’S who’s shoping regularly at Formaggio. However, I agree, the cheese is wonderful and you can find things you cannot elsewhere. The old Formaggio used to carry a good selection of flowers, which I miss.
Huh. Very interesting. I’ve never been impressed with Chris Kimball’s TV or radio or print magazine personality. Or his reputation with the divorce from his wife and his previous business enterprise and the trademark fight with Milk Street, the kosher cafe… Or with his business policies/billing, etc. So I guess I’m not surprised! Thanks for posting!
Sounds like that’s his real personality as well. 
That is absolutely his real personality. When I interned at Cook’s Illustrated he wouldn’t even say hello.
I figured as much. This sanctimonious persona and his “better and smarter than thou” attitude is what has made me dislike him from the first time I saw him on TV.
He was almost as bad on radio as on TV. And his faux folksy act was also irritating to me. And the stupid bow tie, combined with his personality.
Although I don’t care for the Milk Street show on TV, I’ve always thought that his podcast, whether the ATK one when he was the host or now the one on Milk Street, is quite good. I found the ATK podcast (after he left) to be very mediocre and not worth my time.
And this is exactly why when we saw him with family eating at whatever was in the Moeca spot a few years back, we all agreed to give him plenty of space. Still, some of the recipes from Cooks and now Milk street are really excellent and I have to think he had some hand in them, or at the very least in hiring the excellent cooks who developed them.
I’m friendly with someone who used to work for ATK for a few years. I’m told he had no role at all in day-to-day anything. Too busy doing interviews/being an a**hole. A couple of the stories this person has told me make me wonder why there’s been no lawsuit. (I’ll leave it at that lest I err a bit too far into libel territory!)
And agreed regarding the quality of the publications. I subscribed to both Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country for years and still regularly use a few of the recipes. Cook’s Illustrated in particular was, in my opinion, exceptional and revolutionary for the period, thanks to its focus on testing and scientific method. Old hat these days, but mindblowing (for me at least!) in a world before media such as Good Eats and later Serious Eats. (Alton Brown to me being a great example of what I perceive to be the anti-kimball.)
The Milk Street recipes I see in the Boston Globe Magazine are quite good, and have more spices and seasonings and “exotic” ingredients than Cooks Illustrated recipes in the past. I’ve printed a few. I don’t want to pay for Milk Street web access. I know I can get it free for a while through the Globe but I hate the auto pay renewal. And I have so many international and regional cookbooks in my home collection that I’d rather use than his.
Years ago, I did see Ana Sortun in Harvard Square coming out of H Rise when it was still there, with her toddler daughter Siena in a stroller munching on a cookie. Siena was adorable of course, and I was tempted to say hi as I passed by. I didn’t!
There haven’t been any Milk Street recipes in the Sunday Globe magazine for over a month. I’m wondering if they dropped them to cut costs.
That’s an interesting point. The Globe didn’t publish a magazine (and hence no recipe) last weekend, as is usual for labor day, and I think the skipped the magazine on memorial day in May as well.
I just did a Boston Globe search (not the greatest search engine there) and the last one I came up with was June 24, 2025. I wonder what happened.
So I guess they skipped July 4 weekend, too, and then never resumed.
Funny that’s how Alton Browns comes off to me
Alton has a wry personality to me, whereas Christopher Kimball seems to have no personality at all.
None in today’s Sunday Globe, again.
I think we can stick a HO fork in any recipes in the Globe Magazine, they appear to be dead.
This is such a huge change. I still have some favored recipes I clipped out of the Boston Globe from the late 1980s going forward, before it went online. I wonder why?
Cost cutting would be my guess
Christopher Kimball reminds me of my 7th grade English teacher at Boston Latin. You could just tell he hated his job - not being a teacher, but he hated being around teens (even ones that were on the more studious side, like at BLS). He was extremely grumpy, would roll his eyes in front of everyone, and generally be mean to the students for minor hiccups. I overheard him talking to a colleague one day asking for a recommendation because he was going to apply for medical school. While I thought it was great he was getting away from teaching young adults, I shudder at the thought of how he would treat a patient.
CK seems like that exact type that has little to no patience with anyone who doesn’t know as much as him, or didn’t appreciate things the way he does.
