It’s back-to-school season, and not just for kids. Especially in a college city like Boston, September has a way of inspiring education. So for food nerds, cookbooks become textbooks and kitchens become classrooms.
Those same geeky gourmands will probably find “Milk Street: The New Home Cooking” to be mandatory reading. The book, which hits bookstore shelves this week, is the latest from Vermont-based home-cooking legend Christopher Kimball. Kimball built a longstanding reputation largely as the bespectacled, bow-tied co-founder of America’s Test Kitchen and former host of the same-named, top-rated public television show (plus its sibling show, “Cook’s Country,” based on the recipe-filled magazine). Last year, under subsequently litigious circumstances, Kimball left America’s Test Kitchen (which now publishes Cook’s Illustrated, another magazine Kimball launched) to start a new venture.
He opened Milk Street, a cooking school in downtown Boston, rolled out Milk Street Magazine, an accompanying radio program and a new television show that premiered on WGBH over the weekend. Longtime fans of Kimball will find his still-studious sensibility and measured on-air persona — a refreshing or dry alternative to the frenetic pace of most food TV, depending on your perspective — to feel very familiar. America’s Test Kitchen finds it familiar, too. A lawsuit filed last year asserts that Kimball’s Milk Street brand “literally and conceptually ripped off” the company.
But Kimball, a 66-year-old food industry vet, says that Milk Street is the result of new lessons he’s ingested about cooking. Though he made his mark as a bookish, technique-driven evangelist of classic American cooking — more interested in mastering meat and potatoes than getting artsy with trendy ingredients — Kimball is now embracing that the culinary world is smaller than it used to be. Cultures collide on plates. Layered spices unleash flavors just as well as slow cooking unlocks them. Recipe testing can still leave room for invention. Basically, that tight-cinched bow tie has been a bit loosened.
“It’s liberating,” said Kimball. “I spent my whole life cooking a certain way. It’s not that I was wrong, it’s just that there’s a whole other approach.”
Upcoming courses at Milk Street include master classes such as Spice Blending and Cooking, with Lior Lev Sercarz of New York’s La Boite; Somali Home Cooking, with Nimco Mahamud-Hassan, an entrepreneur who works with the Somerville food and culture organization Nibble; and Myers + Chang at Home, with “Top Chef” alum Karen Akunowicz, based on recipes from her just-released cookbook with Joanne Chang.
Culinary coursework
Looking to learn some new kitchen tricks? Here are six excellent options for creative cooking classes in the Boston area.
Saltbox Farm: This 10-acre family farm in Concord, which provides ingredients for sibling restaurant Saltbox Kitchen, provides intimate (10 people maximum) cooking classes in a quaint on-site cottage. Instructor Aaron Furmanek has a broad list of lesson plans on the horizon, including a crepe-making class, ramen tutorial and Oktoberfest-themed experience. Sign up at saltboxfarmconcord.com.
A Taste of African Heritage: This free six-class series, part of a national initiative, runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 18 at the Daily Table in Dorchester. Designed to address dietary-related health disparities among African-Americans, the classes focus on fresh plant-based foods from the African diaspora, including the Caribbean and American South. An additional demonstration will be held Oct. 3 at Boston Public Market. More at oldwayspt.org.
Boston Public Market: Though most visit the downtown market to pick up artisan foodstuffs and fresh produce from its on-site vendors and farmers, the market is also home to “The Kitchen,” a 3,200-square-foot space that offers near-daily programming for those interested in hands-on food workshops. Upcoming classes include truffle-making with the team from Somerville-based Taza Chocolate and a Sea-to-Kitchen course with Red’s Best, the local seafood wholesalers that keep Boston’s best restaurants stocked with fin fare. More at bostonpublicmarket.org.
Culinary Breakdown: Fans of the sophisticated South End trattoria Mida can get up close and personal with chef-owner Douglass Williams through his private class biz, Culinary Breakdown. Private, in-home group classes are offered in pasta making and pro instruction on a three-course tasting menu that clients and their very impressed dinner guests enjoy when the class bell (which sounds a lot like the oven timer) rings. More at culinarybreakdown.com
Taranta: For larger groups (minimum 15 people), including corporate team-building exercises, guests can book private classes at this Peruvian-Italian restaurant in the North End. The options are creative, and include a “Cooking Challenge”: a scavenger hunt-style spree through North End markets to find and collect the correct ingredients before the hands-on class can begin. More at tarantarist.com.
Boston Center for Adult Education: The Bay Village-side organization offers classes in all fields, but its cooking courses are particular standouts. Foodies will especially appreciate the Celebrity Chef Series, which taps top toques from throughout Boston. Upcoming classes include pizza-making with Jeff Pond of Area Four, a superior pie slinging restaurant, and Tokyo Street Food with Daniel Hixson of Back Bay’s acclaimed Uni.