BTS at ATK

The Side Dish from America’s Test Kitchen

Julia and Bridget take listeners on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the America's Test Kitchen studios in Boston. They reveal the tec

Key takeaways

• The ATK production uses a system of 'food swaps' where pre-cooked items are brought in to simulate long cooking processes on camera.
• Julia recalls a particularly difficult tasting involving fish sauce that left her visibly green during an early episode.

Main topics

• Television production logistics
• Culinary testing methodology

Notable quotes

The recipes are scripted out... so that the camera people... knows exactly where to point those lenses.

Conclusion

A fascinating look at the intersection of culinary science and televis

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) I learned early in my career that great baking starts with quality ingredients. So let's talk about butter, which is absolutely key. Great butter will infuse pastries with a rich, creamy flavor, so it's smart to start your baking with a butter that's exceptional in quality and taste. And that's one reason that chefs, bakers, and serious home cooks love Plu Gras. It's a premium European-style butter that's slow-churned, and with 82 % butterfat, it has a rich flavor and silky texture. It's an ingredient that professional chefs have trusted for years, and it's just as rewarding to use at home. Whether you're baking for a holiday or just because it's a Tuesday, PluGraw adds that extra touch that makes homemade food memorable. Look for PluGraw in the dairy aisle and discover why professional chefs and serious home bakers trust PluGraw. Crafted to the European standard. Speaker 1 (0:52) Remember how we used to start almost every recipe with bad food? Yes. Yes, the bad food. And there would be a person in charge of making all the bad food for television. That was my husband, Ian. Yes. That was his job on season two, to make the bad food. Yeah. There Speaker 2 (1:05) are long islands with cooktops embedded on each side of the island. So every island essentially has... four cooking stations. And then on the other side, more ovens, and that's another tasting table. Looks like they're having a tasting. This is Willy Speaker 1 (1:19) Wonka's factory Speaker 2 (1:20) if Willy Wonka Speaker 1 (1:21) made Speaker 2 (1:22) Dutch Speaker 1 (1:22) ovens and kitchen equipment. Hey, Speaker 2 (1:24) I'm Speaker 1 (1:24) Bridget. And I'm Julia. We've been working together at America's Test Kitchen for over 25 years. Has it really been Speaker 2 (1:31) that long? That sounds so Speaker 1 (1:32) sad. And believe it or not, we're still great friends. And we still love talking to each other. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now we get to talk about all the things we can't talk about on our TV shows. Fun! Speaker 2 (1:44) On this episode, we're taking you behind the scenes at America's Test Kitchen. So we meet a lot of people on the road wanting to know what it's like behind the scenes of the television show. Yes. Because what you see on the show is the edited down version of hours and hours of our time of filming food everywhere. There's so much on the cutting room floor that today we're going to peel back the curtain. We're going to show what really happens when we film. All right. What do you think the most common question we get asked about filming? Speaker 1 (2:14) Well, I think people want to know how many recipes do we do in a day. That's one of the big ones, which is usually five. We average five recipes a day. Two recipes make a show. So do the math there. And how long do we film? Yeah, exactly. I don't think people know that the Cook's Country set Speaker 2 (2:32) is across the hall from the America's. test kitchen set. And in the middle is the control room. So we film America's Test Kitchen for a couple weeks, and then we shut down. They move the cameras across the hall. We put our denim on, and we're up and running on the country. And we're filming Cook's Country. And then we come back and we do it again for the second half of each season. So it can be a little more seasonal that we can really lay out what's being filmed when and when that'll hit Speaker 1 (2:59) the airwave so it's fresh and timely. And the anomaly in that schedule has always historically been grilling. Yes. Yeah, so we will shoot all the indoor segments for any grilling recipe, and then we will shoot all of the grilling recipes, usually on one day, maybe two days, and any other outdoor scenes that we need to have on a completely different time schedule, completely different location from shooting the rest of the TV show. Speaker 2 (3:24) Yeah, we'll film, for example, the indoor segments for a grilling segment. In March or April. And so in those segments are scene one, that we intro the food, we prep the food. Scene two and three are often outside. Speaker 1 (3:38) And Speaker 2 (3:38) then scene four is, oh, look, this is done resting and we eat. We filmed scene one and four. And say March. And then later in usually August, September, we'll be in a completely different location on the outside and we'll film scenes two and three. And hopefully things look somewhat the same that we haven't changed too dramatically. Speaker 1 (3:56) Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. No. How did she get younger? I don't know. Speaker 2 (4:01) But Speaker 1 (4:01) I always love the last scene on our scripts, which, by the way, that's another question that people ask us is what you say on TV scripted out. Yes. The recipes are scripted out. Absolutely. Bullet pointed so that the camera people. the camera operators, the director, everybody in the control room knows exactly where to point those lenses. Yeah, there's five cameras. Speaker 2 (4:20) Yes. One, there's four, there's one on a boom, there's three on stands, and there's one up in the hood above where we're cooking that can look down into the pot. Yes. And so the script is for the director to really understand where the food is going, what's happening, and what camera has the main shot. Because he's kind of editing as we're filming, as he's directing. And Speaker 1 (4:40) beyond that, it might just have some talking. points that we know that we want to make so that if we forget to say it, somebody from the control room will say, hey, you might want to mention brining. Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:49) Or the science of brining. The science. Speaker 1 (4:52) Yeah, exactly. But my favorite scene is sometimes the last scene. You mentioned scene five. It'll just say taste. And taste. That's it. Best scene. Speaker 2 (5:00) And the other thing I don't think people realize is we don't cook anything on TV for longer than five minutes. It's true. That's what everyone in the background is doing. You see that kitchen behind us? It's actually soundproof. And you'll have half a dozen people back there. It looks like they're cooking. They are. They're cooking for our show. So, for example. Want Speaker 1 (5:20) to rehearse? Sure. Like, I'm cooking onions. Speaker 2 (5:22) I'm Speaker 1 (5:22) cooking. All right, I'm hosting. Hey, Speaker 2 (5:24) Julia, what are you doing there? Well, I'm sauteing some onions. These have to cook medium-high heat for about five to seven minutes until they're softened and lightly browned. Speaker 1 (5:32) That's interesting. Cut. Speaker 2 (5:35) Director comes over the loudspeaker, yells, cut. We take a step back and a whole bunch of... Really organized people in white chef coats come in. They take that pot of raw onions out of the way. They clean up my mess, and I'm a notorious mess on camera. And they drop an identical-looking pot with the onions cooked to the next step on the stove. We step in and Speaker 1 (5:58) action. Oh, Speaker 2 (5:59) Julia, those look great. Aren't they amazing? They're soft and lightly brown. Now it's time to add these spices Speaker 1 (6:04) in the garlic. Mmm. Emmy. Speaker 2 (6:07) And that's how we do all the cooking for every recipe because recipes take hours to cook. We don't have hours. How we can save time is by having food swaps come in and out because the Speaker 1 (6:19) food's the least expensive part of Speaker 2 (6:21) filming Speaker 1 (6:22) television. My hair and makeup is the most expensive part. Yes, Speaker 2 (6:25) and takes the longest. Speaker 1 (6:27) Another question that we get. So often. Just about every time we go out in public, somebody's going to ask, how do you keep all your pots and pans so clean? Yes. Yes. There is a very good methodology for how we clean. We buy new equipment. That's it. Every year. Well, Speaker 2 (6:43) and because you want, you don't want it to be distracting, right? Correct. You don't want a banged up pot with dents and everything sitting on the stove because that's what you're Speaker 1 (6:49) going Speaker 2 (6:49) to see. Yes. And if you have, say, a Dutch oven with a white ceramic interior, if it's stained, you're not going to be able to note the browning as things cook. So it has to be clean. It has to be pristine. Right. And then all the twins have to match. I was going to say that. Yeah. On the outside and inside, Speaker 1 (7:05) sometimes we fight over a matching lid. Yes. Yes. We'll have a Dutch oven with one lid. It goes away. Another Dutch oven comes in, but the lid looks completely different. The lid stays on set. Yes, Speaker 2 (7:15) the lid Speaker 1 (7:15) has to stay on set. And then Speaker 2 (7:17) the other thing is, what do you do with all that food? What do you do with all the food? Well, Speaker 1 (7:22) you know, we eat a lot of food during TV, for sure. Nobody goes hungry during TV. But we have something called the take-home fridge, which is fantastic. And that's all year round. So any testing that goes on in the test kitchen. Test cook gets to a certain point. They get their recipe to a certain point. They'll start packaging up the food. And we can't donate it. No, that's the problem. Yeah, it's too many hands on the food. It's experimental. It's not necessarily food safe for the public. And we've picked over it. You know, if you're analyzing a cake, you're not just making clean slices. You're pulling the cake apart to dissect the different aspects of Speaker 2 (7:57) it. So Speaker 1 (7:57) it's kind of pawed through. Still would eat it. Yep. But a cake, any cake. But we mark it, we date it, we label it, we put it in the take-home fridge. And it's really interesting, Joy, you have a very good joke about this. Who, the hierarchy of the take-home fridge. Yeah, there is a hierarchy. Speaker 2 (8:16) There's a packing order. So if the food's really good, right? And there's anywhere from 10 to 30 cooks working in the test kitchen at any time. If the food's really good, it does not leave the test kitchen. No, the test cooks eat really well. I mean, think about it. You're cooking away in the test kitchen and your neighbor is making something. extraordinary looking. Right. And you've been cooking all day. What are you having for dinner? What your neighbor cooked in the test kitchen. You're packaging that up. You're taking it home. So the really good food goes to the test cooks. So yeah, the next rung down on this packing order is the art department. Yes. Because the photo studio is right next door to the kitchen and they cook a lot of food. They take the finished dishes. So they're getting the pristine food. Hasn't been messed with. Hasn't been picked apart. Very often it's still edible. They eat really well and they're in the kitchen a lot. So they kind of have their finger on the pulse of what's going on. Everyone else in the company eats really well. Yes. You know, the take-home fridge is usually pretty full at various parts throughout the day. And then at the end of the day, right, when there's dregs in there, first go. round of something. And it's not that great, but it's still edible. We call the IT department. Every time? Because those guys eat anything. Yes. And they're grateful. Speaker 1 (9:26) Yes, they're grateful. Absolutely grateful to be thought of. And also they're fantastic people. And we are very appreciative of our IT department. Very appreciative. My favorite Speaker 2 (9:35) was Speaker 1 (9:35) there was like Speaker 2 (9:37) a buttercream month. Speaker 1 (9:38) But we didn't have anything with buttercream, but there was always gallons of buttercream in the fridge. Yeah. Just Speaker 2 (9:44) quarts and quarts of buttercream, all flavors. And the IT department was like, where's the crackers? They were so Speaker 1 (9:48) happy to Speaker 2 (9:49) chip in and eat some buttercream. It's Speaker 1 (9:50) true. Speaker 2 (9:51) The Speaker 1 (9:51) other question Speaker 2 (9:52) we get a lot is how can we keep coming up with new ideas? As though there's a limited amount of food, there's a limited amount of flavors and ways to put them together. How do you keep it fresh? And it's not that hard. No. Well, Speaker 1 (10:04) it's multi-fronts, right? Speaker 2 (10:06) I mean, the many Speaker 1 (10:07) fronts that help us come up with new ideas. One is just... new staff. There's always some great new people coming on board. We're all really curious folks. We're always looking for other resources. We have a great library here. But the other part is, you know, Food tastes are changing. Food tastes change. Culture's changing. That's it. Exposure to different areas and different ways and different means of cooking food, that's always changing. It's always new and exciting. It's great to learn a new way to make mac and cheese. And hey, guess what? There are no limits to roast chicken. There Speaker 2 (10:38) are Speaker 1 (10:38) no limits to roast chicken. Good