Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen uncovers the best of American home cooking. Our recipes are developed through in-depth kitchen testing. The result: foolproof recipes you can trust to work the first time—and every time. Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen features the cast and crew of America's Test Kitchen, the top-rated cooking show on public television—now in its twelfth season. Our show, now in its fourth season, is filmed in a renovated 1806 farmhouse with a full working test kitchen. Watch us update traditional American recipes—everything from Glazed Meatloaf and Sweet Corn Spoonbread to Lemon Pudding Cake and Cider-Baked Ham. You'll learn what makes a recipe succeed (or fail) as well as which kitchen tools, cookware, and supermarket ingredients have won our independent tests.
Come Inside
Originally part of a large dairy farm, this 200-year-old farmhouse (known locally as the Carver house) was completely renovated in 2007 and functions as both a test kitchen and television studio.
The Main Set
The main set kitchen is where all indoor recipe segments are filmed. The set is outfitted with a DCS 30-inch Double Wall Oven (with True Convection in both ovens).
Watch Us Cook
The doors to the back kitchen are open during filming so viewers can get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action in the back kitchen. All the stovetop cooking happens on a DCS 36-inch Professional 6-Burner Cooktop. There are two large ranges and two double ovens in the back kitchen as well as one DCS 24-inch Conventional Microwave Oven on set and another in the back kitchen.
The Back Kitchen
A team of thirteen test cooks prepares food for the show in the back kitchen. To keep the air clean (even when a dozen people are cooking), the set kitchen is equipped with a DCS 40-inch Island Ventilation Hood and the back kitchen relies on two DCS 36-inch Professional Wall Mount Ventilation Hoods. Food is kept at the ready in three DCS regrigerators, including a Side by Side Regrigerator on set.
Keeping Clean
Four DCS Pro-Handled Double DishDrawer Dishwashers keep up with all the dirty dishes generated by our team of test cooks.
Grill Power
We film all the grilling segments on the patio behind the house. One year that meant grilling 20 tri-tips, smoking 40 double-thick chops, and barbecuing 40 pounds of chicken—in just two days of filming. We rely on three DCS 36-inch Professional Grills and one DCS 48-inch Professional Grill throughout the year.
Our Cast
Our cast relaxes in front on the extra-long Vermont Soapstone countertop on the main set. The on-set sink is made from 100 feet of natural soapstone indigenous to Vermont's Green Mountains. The set is also outfitted with three Deep Basin Double Divide Stainless Steel Kohler Sinks. All sinks are extra-deep and have Professional Line Pull Down Faucet Sprayers that accommodate even 20-quart stockpots.
About Our TV Show
About Our Theme Song
Hot Buttered Rum began with five uniquely talented musicians, writing and singing songs on the mountaintops and city streets of Northern California; five musicians who, on the night they realized they loved playing together too much to ever stop, were sipping a warm buttery drink from which the group derived its name.
Right Between Your Eyes, the theme song for Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen, was written by the banks of a California river that connects with the Pacific Ocean just north of San Francisco. It was written as a reminder that you can find peace of mind by channeling a beautiful place or person who brings you the bliss you cherish in your life.
House and Kitchen Design
Paul Worthington is our house and kitchen designer. He is a veteran old house restorer and former builder who has collaborated with Chris Kimball on eight kitchens and as many houses. He designs houses and kitchens throughout New England and occasionally beyond, from his office around the corner from the America's Test Kitchen Studios in Brookline, MA. Paul is also an avid cook but he says don’t look to his own kitchen for inspiration. “It’s definitely a case of the cobbler’s kids having no shoes, the kitchen didn’t have much in it when it was built in 1890 and I’m working hard to keep it that way!” www.designandrestoration.com
Cast Biographies
Christopher Kimball
Christopher Kimball founded Cook's Magazine, a national magazine for cooking hobbyists, in 1980 and served as publisher and editorial director through 1989. In 1984, Chris founded the Who's Who of Cooking in America, which was initiated to honor America's leading chefs, restaurateurs, vintners, food writers, and food producers. Chris relaunched Cook's Magazine as Cook's Illustrated in 1993 and founded Cook's Country. Chris serves as publisher and editor of both magazines. Chris is also the host of America's Test Kitchen, a public television cooking show now in its twelfth season. He is also the host and executive producer of the TV show Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen. Chris is a regular contributor to The Today Show and has been featured in many publications, including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. He was inducted into the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America in 1996. Chris is the author of The Cook's Bible, The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, Dear Charlie (a Christopher Award winner), The Dessert Bible, The Kitchen Detective, and Fannie's Last Supper. He lives in Boston and Vermont.
Bridget Lancaster
Bridget Lancaster, executive food editor for TV and radio of Cook’s Country magazine, joined the Cook’s team in 1998, and is currently responsible for all recipe testing and development in Cook’s Country. She has worked on many of the company’s cookbook projects and is an on-screen test cook for America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen. Her career led her to work in various kitchens in the south and northeast, concentrating on pastry, and she has also taught culinary classes and given cooking demonstrations. Bridget’s husband is a professional chef, and along with their two sons, they enjoy working on their favorite hobby—barbecue.
Julia Collin Davison
Julia Collin Davison is the executive food editor for the cookbook division of America’s Test Kitchen and is an on-screen test cook for America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen. She also does cooking demonstrations, sells ATK Cookbooks live on QVC, and occasionally appears as a guest on the Today Show. She began working as a test cook for Cook’s Illustrated magazine in 1999, but is now responsible for the food and recipe development for all of the company's cookbooks. Before coming to America’s Test Kitchen, she worked in Albany, the Berkshires, San Francisco, and the Napa Valley at several restaurants, catering companies, schools, and wineries. Julia has A.O.S. degree from the Culinary Institute of America. Her husband, Ian Davison, is a fishmonger in downtown Boston, and they have one young daughter.
Erin McMurrer
Erin McMurrer is the test kitchen director of America’s Test Kitchen and is responsible for recipe testing and development for Cook’s Illustrated magazine. For the last eleven seasons of America’s Test Kitchen and the first two seasons of Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen, she co-ran the “back kitchen” where all of the food that appears on camera originates. She is an on-screen test cook for Cooks Country from America's Test Kitchen. She was responsible for recipe testing and development for Chris Kimball's recent cookbook Fannie's Last Supper. She holds an A.O.S. degree from the Culinary Institute of America. Before coming to America’s Test Kitchen in 2001, she worked her way through different restaurants—most noteworthy was her time at Hamersley's Bistro, in Boston, where she spent eight years working under Gordon Hamersley.
Jack Bishop
Jack Bishop is the editorial director of America’s Test Kitchen. He joined the staff of Cook’s Magazine in 1988 and helped with the launch of Cook’s Illustrated in 1993. He established the tasting protocols used in America’s Test Kitchen and has authored dozens of articles for the magazine. Jack directed the launch of Cook’s Country magazine and oversees editorial operations at both magazines. He is the tasting lab expert on America’s Test Kitchen, the top-rated public television cooking show, now in its twelfth season and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen, which debuted in September 2008. Jack edited The Best Recipe (1999) and established the book division at America’s Test Kitchen. He is the author of several cookbooks, including A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, Vegetables Every Day, The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook, Pasta e Verdura, and Lasagna. Jack’s wife, Lauren Chattman, is a cookbook author and former pastry chef. They have two daughters.
Adam Ried
Adam Ried is the keeper of the Equipment Corner on America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen. During his 10-year tenure as an editor for Cook’s Illustrated, Adam developed and edited recipes, wrote feature stories, and contributed to many other sections of the magazine, including the popular Quick Tips. Moreover, Adam bore primary responsibility for Cook’s Illustrated’s highly respected kitchen equipment testing and ingredient tasting features. Now a contributor to Cook’s Country magazine and the cooking columnist for the Sunday Boston Globe Magazine, Adam has taught cooking and food writing, written for local, national, and international publications, and consulted for restaurants, kitchen equipment manufacturers, and other food-related businesses. He is a graduate of Macalester College and the culinary certificate program at Boston University.
