Cook's Illustrated vs. Food52

by Jan Ellen Spiegel, Posted Apr 28th 2010 @ 5:00PM

In the age of culinary smackdowns, this one might not be quite up there with the drama of a Batali-Flay Iron Chef food fight, but in terms of Web chatter, it takes the cake. Or should we say the pork shoulder and sugar cookies.

Those are the two dishes on the hotplate as the venerable Cook's Illustrated magazine (a.k.a. America's Test Kitchen), the geeky arbiter of perfect kitchen technique, and the upstart Food52.com, the people-powered website started about a year ago by N.Y. Times food columnist Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.

Last October, Cook's founder Christopher Kimball on his blog challenged Hesser (though the direct reference to her was later removed) to see which would produce the best recipes: Cook's with its strictly controlled testing and development procedures, or Food52's egalitarian method in which the public submits recipes to a weekly contest, Hesser and Stubbs cull the entries and the public determines the winner.

"We think ours produces a kind of richer recipe and it's more directly connected to people and our culture," Hesser said. "Ours is equal quality, just a different style."

Then there's that notion that it takes a pro to push the culinary envelope and help even accomplished home cooks get beyond what they already know. Hesser said the reason Food52 took up the Cook's challenge was -- yes, to have some fun and maybe a chunk of publicity -- but also to have a serious conversation about exactly this topic. She said she and Stubbs had always expected to get good recipes from readers, but have been stunned at the high quality they've turned out to be.

"The food revolution, which has been going for some years, has gone to a place where regular people now know a lot about food. They are highly skilled and want to express their voice," Hesser said. "Regular home cooks really know their stuff and pay attention to all sorts of different influences."

As for Cook's part -- they ain't talkin' -- right now, anyway. "It's not on top of our list of what's important," said a spokeswoman who did admit they were having fun with the contest but offered that they were surprised at the large public interest.

"Seriously?" Hesser said. "All they need to do is go online and see all the thousands of food blogs as evidence of interest the last few years."

(Entries in the Cook's vs. Food52 challenge will be posted May 5 on Slate and the winners determined by public vote.)

Filed Under: Magazines, On the Blogs
Tags: cooks illustrated, CooksIllustrated, featured, food52

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-28-2010 @5:33PM LinC said... I don't see the comparison. Sure, there are recipes on Food52, but no explanations about why the results turn out the way they do. I buy Cook's Illustrated (and its sister Cook's Country) because they explain the science behind the results.

I looked at a sample recipe on Food52 for Maple Yogurt Pound Cake. It calls for "1.5 cups flour." Are they talking all-purpose flour? Southern soft wheat flour? Are they measuring by the the scoop-and-sweep method? By the spoon-into-cup method? Many cooks like to bake by weighing the flour. No weights here.

I find that many recipes from "real people" on the web are similarly imprecise. Or accidentally leave out ingredients. Or make assumptions about flour being the same across all brands and parts of the country. You see the multiple comments onsites like Recipezaar or Epicurious as people complain about recipes and try to work out what went wrong. That recipe on Food52 don't even have ratings, just a few happy comments like on any food blog.

I don't think Cook's Illustrated has anything to worry about. I like to read food blogs, but Food52 isn't going to replace CI any time soon.
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4-28-2010 @7:33PM Lisa said... beg to differ. i worked at sur la table for years, bought the CI cookbook, The Best Recipe, and returned it because I was unhappy with every recipe I tried (probably 4 before I gave up). I also subscribed to CI for a year and felt similarly. I'm sure some of their recipes are good, but many are not to my liking. Watching their tv show is fun, but, having worked at a high-end culinary store and being an avid cook, i'm very often in serious disagreement with their product recommendations. all this is subjective, of course. i've also tried recipes that have "won" the food52 weekly contest and been unhappy with the results. once again, subjective. i will agree, though, that i find frequent errors in food52 recipe instructions. and that drives me crazy, too.

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4-28-2010 @9:01PM Amanda Hesser said... LinC -- we do write up notes for every finalist recipe. They appear at the top of the recipe pages. We also do photo slideshows of every finalist recipe with notes in the captions, so you can see how the dish comes together and any tricky parts to the recipe. It's true that not all the recipes on our site have been vetted -- our whole goal is to welcome recipes from everyone, then for us and our community to test the most promising ones and to elevate those that turn out great. So in our recipe search, we give you the option to filter by winning recipes and "editors' picks" so you can select from the recipes that have been vetted by both us and our community. We don't have any plans to replace CI -- what they do is also valuable. We simply have different philosophies. They care about great recipes and consistency, and we care about great recipes and personal voice.

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4-28-2010 @9:04PM ajmac said... Though I've never used food5 recipes, I will say, that recipes I've tried through CI have been hit or miss. Some are great, and others, REALLY not.

I also have to state that I've been continually turned off by CI simply because of the smarmy attitude of Kimball, and their constant advertising,etc. I already pay quite a bit for the magazine, but they want me to pay to an additional fee for the website...really?

Finally, Kimball and CI's general attitude of "perfecting" the recipe seems to suck the joy and love out of cooking. I've got recipes from my old Polish grandma that top anything they've put out. It's not only the ingredients and the technique that make an amazing meal, but it's also the love and pure pleasure of cooking that create something really worthy of eating and calling fantastic.
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4-30-2010 @9:55AM Patty said... I could not agree more with this comment. I applaud CI's pursuit of the perfect recipe for each dish, however, they also come across as preachy, schmarmy know-it-alls when all is said and done. Nobody cooks like that at home. I'd rather be in ajmac's Polish grandma's kitchen rather than at CI's!

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4-30-2010 @9:48AM doodoolemonque said... I enjoy CI and am considering whether or not to continue my subscription. I get a lot of information regarding equipment, and I take my equipment seriously. I agree with the poster above, that CI tends to suck the life out the joy of working and experimenting in the kitchen. I enjoy the science of cooking, but their plodding description of the trial and error process, in ever y single recipe, which led to the best tasting schnitzel or whatever, is far too anal retentive for me. I decline to pay extra for the website for the same reason. And, I gave up reading the editor's opening piece several years ago. He lives and writes in a fantasy world of happy Christmas's from years gone past and you can only pretend for just so long that everyone grew up with a White, Christian, snow filled, happy holiday past where neighbors would suddenly appear with smoked hams and put up fruits from last season. At some point, the magazine is just going to have to get past this or it will become increasingly quaint and irrelevant as it has to me and many others, including the family member who first excitedly showed me the magazine, 5 or 6 years ago. When CI starts bringing in an outside editor and starts to move away from the North Eastern elitist, white bread tone, they they may start finding a way to put value back into the product. I wonder if they have ever market tested the magazine, outside the editors own demographic comfort zone? I really doesn't look or sound like it. They can do what they want, but it sure gets old hanging around with your grandparents after a while.
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5-01-2010 @6:07PM myrna gottlieb said... I just heard about Food52 and am happy there is another place for me to read about food and find new recipes to try. Best of luck to Amanda; I very much enjoyed your book "Cooking for Mr Latte.Your Mom's Chocolate Dump Cake has become the go-to birthday cake at my house. I haven't yet tried any of the recipes on Food52, but there's already an asparagus recipe and a scallop recipe that are on my "to do" list.

I subscribed to Cooks for a number of years., but now I just look at individual issues from time to time. I agree some of the explanations are tedious unless it is a dish where you encountered a problem and they have the solution; then it's great. Chris Kimball's folksy column I call "Mom's Page." It never bothered me because it's his magazine, and anyway nobody is forced to read it. I do feel that subscribers to the magazine should be offered discounted access to the website. Two magazines Cooks and Cooks Country plus two websites for which subscribers must pay full price is a turn off.
As for Cooks recipes- I have made several very good dishes; but Cooks is not the be-all and end-; all as far as I'm concerned, though I wish it long life. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned. Too bad Gourmet was folded by the publisher. .
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