Boston-based America’s Test Kitchen celebrates 25 years of TV with new cookbook and season

Boston-based America’s Test Kitchen has a huge milestone year in its show’s 25th anniversary, and with that a rollout of their new season, an epic cookbook, and projects to come. 

ATK, a culinary media brand known for its public television programming around educating home cooks, kicked off its anniversary of the namesake show with a one-hour special on PBS that showed how the brand has changed over the decades, and how it’s been a staple in food media — much before the growth of the medium by way of social media.

“Twenty-five years in TV is a pretty big deal,” said Dan Souza, ATK chief content officer, a cast member of the ATK show, and the host of the What’s Eating Dan? web series. 

For fans of the show, that one-hour special included familiar faces, like hosts Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster.

They cooked up some celebratory dishes, too, such as fresh pasta, crème brûlée and a couple of cocktails. These recipes are online now for subscribers.

It already aired, Souza said, but it will re-air on PBS again later in the fall, and it will be made available on the PBS app at the end of the month.

Also this week, the team put out a cookbook, and even though ATK has put out many cookbooks over the years — America’s Test Kitchen controls 5% of the cookbook market, according to Souza — this one is different in that it encapsulates the last 25 years with a whopping 500 recipes. 

Souza said the book contains all kinds of different cuisines, as well as game-changing techniques, like their cold-seared steak recipe, which cooks a steak faster and more evenly than if the pan started out hot. 

Some of their most popular recipes, like the Indian butter chicken, also made it into the publication.

“It’s the kind of book you’ll put on your shelf and go back to it over and over again,” Souza said. “If it was the only cookbook you had, which I don’t know anyone who does that, you’d be in really good shape.”

The newest season of America’s Test Kitchen airs Sept. 21, featuring “cozy fall recipes” like a spice-rubbed pork roast en cocotte with caramelized onions and a double-apple bread pudding. Viewers can catch the new season on PBS, or rewatch past seasons on several streaming services.

But home cooks can expect a few more projects in the works separate from the 25th anniversary rollout. 

One project that Souza is most excited about is how ATK will display future recipes digitally.

ATK has made available their written recipes for online for years and years, as well as video recipes, but now they want to bring video to each step in the process of a recipe, which Souza hopes will make their recipes much more interactive. 

“We really see ourselves as an incredible resource for that cook who says, ‘OK, I really want to learn how to do this,’” Souza said. “It’s not just recipes that sort of add up to a food education. It’s the why, and the texture, and the context to it.”

And home cook fans can expect even more shows to come, in addition to ATK, Cook’s Country, and their Amazon Freevee show America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation. Souza couldn’t provide more details on the concept of these new programs, but said there would be plenty of science and great recipes. 

The brand behind ATK started out as one print magazine, Cook’s Illustrated, in 1992. But it was in 2001 that the brand kicked off its first television show with America’s Test Kitchen. The food media company has since expanded with another magazine, additional TV shows, multiple cookbooks published, a YouTube channel with web series, and a podcast.

The company’s office and 15,000-square-foot test kitchen is located in the Seaport, which the team relocated to in 2017 after outgrowing ATK’s longtime Brookline home.

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