captwhiffle
Well-Known Member
I have a legal question. I post it here because it has to do with food.
For a few years now I have been watching the cooking show "America's Test Kitchen", where the staff tinker with recipes until they get the "perfect" version of it. Until recently, the host of the show was Chris Kimball. He left about a year ago to start a quite similar show called Milk Street Kitchen. I signed up on their email list for weekly missives.
The latest one came this morning with a piece on how to make the perfect grilled hamburger. The interesting thing is, it is EXACTLY the recipe he and the staff of ATK developed/presented a few years ago. Same recommendations for meat to use, shaping, seasoning, grilling, etc. Now, since he was the host of the old show, he might think that he "owns" the recipe (although I doubt he helped develop it- that is left to the test cooks), but that seems very much like taking corporate information from a previous employer and giving it to your new one. Highly unethical, in my opinion.
It seems to me that ATK would have good legal standing to sue Milk Street Kitchen for using their recipes and presenting them as their own. What do you think?
Christ Kimball drives me bananas. He's smug, dogmatic, and dripping with entitlement. I couldn't bear his folksy (fauxsy?) I-just-helped-my-neighbors-slaughter-their-grass-fed-steer-'cause-that's-how-we-kith-and-kin-Vermonters-do-it columns in Cook's Illustrated. Each one was simply a tired variation of the same tedious regionalism. Now that he's gone, the ATK folks seem much more adventuresome with their recipes, and there are many more vegetarian options in their publications, as well. The hosts of ATK seem to be having a lot more fun now that they're out from under his dour rule.
Have you seen this announcement from last fall?
https://whywearesuingchristopherkim...407655731|pkw|chris kimball|pmt|e|&productid=