America’s Test Kitchen Sues Christopher Kimball

Last year when America’s Test Kitchen’s superstar Christopher Kimball decided to step away due to a contract dispute, fans were upset. With his bow tie in hand, Kimball moved on to start his own venture, Milk Street, which is a website, print magazine, TV and radio show, and cooking school (to name just a few things). This didn’t go over too well with America’s Test Kitchen.

The Boston Globe reports that America’s Test Kitchen is now suing Kimball, saying that Kimball “literally and conceptually ripped off America’s Test Kitchen.”

In this lawsuit, America’s Test Kitchen will argue that Kimball was planning this new project while still on their payroll. They say that Kimball was able to directly position Milk Street as a competitor to America’s Test Kitchen because Kimball was able to access their resources, databases, and recipes. The Milk Street magazine, for example, is the exact same length (32 pages) as Cooks Illustrated’s print magazine (a sister company to America’s Test Kitchen).

As the Globe notes, this isn’t he first lawsuit against Kimball and his new venture. Milk Street Café, based in Boston, filed a trademark lawsuit against Kimball in July. Kimball’s Milk Street use to be called “Milk Street Kitchen” but has since dropped the word “kitchen” from its title, probably due to this lawsuit.

Christopher Kimball and his lawyers have not yet responded to this new lawsuit.