Fans of CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL’S MILK STREET TELEVISION won’t be surprised to hear that the show’s creator and host is a busy man. The show is a mix of cooking instruction and travelogue.
The most recent season saw Kimball uncovering recipes in the hills of Transylvania, the Indian restaurants of London, the ancient city of Antakya, Turkey and the streets of Paris. This peripatetic schedule makes it all the more remarkable that the chef is pausing long enough to share a dinner with his fans here in New Hampshire.
“I rarely do station events, given my schedule,” said Kimball, “but I love meeting with fans and answering questions. It helps me to keep up to date with what folks want and need.”
An Evening with Christopher Kimball at LaBelle Winery will take place April 16th in Derry, New Hampshire. It’s the latest in a series of annual dinners from New Hampshire PBS featuring beloved PBS personalities. Kimball has been collaborating with restaurateur and winemaker Amy LaBelle to craft the menu of wine and food pairings for the event.
For LaBelle, as for many guests, these dinners are special because they provide the chance to talk with some of the nation’s most respected culinary educators. “My favorite part of working with PBS chefs is their generosity,” said LaBelle. “PBS Chefs are teachers at heart. Even at the highest level, they are focused on sharing knowledge and encouraging curiosity in the kitchen.”
Kimball’s facility for clear instruction and his no-nonsense style have made him a favorite with cooks of all skill levels. However, what makes MILK STREET stand out is the lively curiosity of Kimball and his team, which can yield unexpected results. The recent MILK STREET episode in Paris was spent focused not on the classics of French cuisine but the city’s lively southeast Asian street food scene, while the trip to London examined how British and Indian food culture have melded over decades to create exciting new recipes.
“If you want to change the way you cook, the best way to do this is to hop on a plane and start cooking with folks halfway around the world,” said Kimball. “The rest of the world thinks about cooking very differently than we do.”
Kimball takes his appreciation for varied viewpoints into the studio as well. Multiple cooks are featured in each episode, and Kimball is the student as often as he is the teacher. “I’m too lazy to do all the cooking myself,” he joked. The format also allows the viewer to follow different chefs as they visit cooks all over the world to get their questions answered or follow a specific passion.
The fact that that sort of access isn’t readily available to all aspiring cooks may account for the remarkable success the Milk Street brand has seen since launching in 2016. With a subscription-based recipe website, over a dozen cookbooks and classes both in-person and online, it’s no surprise that NPR recently dubbed Milk Street a media empire.
Despite that scale of production, Kimball thinks making the flavors of the world attainable for every kitchen means that PBS is the perfect home for Milk Street.
“I’m a huge fan of PBS,” he noted. “Our content is ideal for public television because we are all about helping people become better cooks.”
In his own kitchen, both the global outlook and no-nonsense style for which Kimball has become known are on display. When asked his favorite go-to meal for busy nights, he answered, “I make Japanese medium-grain rice in a Donabe—a Japanese earthenware pot—and then just put whatever I have on top.”
If you’d like to meet Christopher Kimball and try his globally-inspired recipes firsthand, tickets are on sale now!
Presented in partnership with LaBelle Winery and proudly sponsored by Hitchiner Manufacturing Co., Inc. and CDP .
