Christopher Kimball

I've been a fan of Christopher Kimball for many years. I used to subscribe to "Cooks Magazine" way back when, became a charter subscriber to "Cook's Illustrated" (and I think I still have every copy of every issue in storage not to mention the ones piling up in my living room), I own many of the American Test Kitchen cookbooks and I watch all the America's Test Kitchen cooking shows on PBS. Mr. Kimball has been described as a "sexy food nerd"...not so sure about that, but he does have a great personality.

My friend Barbie2be kept going to all these chef autograph signings which quite frankly made me very jealous, so when I heard that Christopher was going to be signing books in Mt. View I dragged Mr. L down to Books Inc. tonight to check things out.

Christopher Kimball is a funny guy. He brought his wife along (very pretty), talked for a bit and then took some questions from the audience before he did some signing. His favorite letter from a reader? "Do you have to cook the potatoes before you mash them?". A few questions from the audience revolved around brining turkeys. Some of the frozen ones already have water added...they do not need to be brined, kosher turkeys don't need to be brined either but definitely brine fresh turkeys. And no, a turkey will not fit into a slow cooker :). While Mr. Kimball signed books and such, his wife stamped next to each autograph with a bow tie stamp...in red.

The newest book out from America's Test Kitchen is "America's Best Lost Recipes"...121 Kitchen-Tested Heirloom Recipes Too Good To Forget. I bought a copy and there looks to be a lot of tasty recipes to try.  I took my Charter Issue of Cook's Illustrated from 1992 to be signed. There were a TON of people there. Mr. L stood on the steps and tried to take photos of me getting my autograph. Not sure if they turned out as they were taken from a ways off.

I understand Rachael Ray will be at Books Inc. in Palo Alto in December. No, not gonna go to that one (even if I do own several of her cookbooks!).

Comments

[barbie2be]

RR will also be at sur la table in santana row on december 15th.

[Mrs. L]

Barbie - I'm just not a fan of RR. And I figure that signing will be an absolute zoo since she is so popular. Had to laugh, Christopher asked who watched his show and most of the audience raised their hands. He asked who watched RR and maybe five hands went up. He laughed and made a joke that we were all just to embarrased to raise our hands and then went to ask about her "low cut tops". Seems when he met her years ago the cut of the tops were much higher than now. He wanted to know if he had to show more cleavage to get better ratings (I'm surprised he didn't bring up Giada or Sandra Lee!!)

[NotSoccer Mom]

yeah, i think any RR signing would be a zoo. i don't like zoos.

but i think giada's tops are cut lower than RR's!