America's Test Kitchen Radio Announces Gluten-Free Radio Special to Air February 22, 2014 (free via iTunes as of 2/24)

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Feb 24, 2014, 11:00 ET

BROOKLINE, Mass., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --America's Test Kitchen has been the number one cooking show on public television for 14 years. (The January 2014 Nielsen rating was a heavyweight 1.68 with 2.3 million viewers per week.)

But America's Test Kitchen Radio was launched just two years go. Why radio? Christopher Kimball, founder of America's Test Kitchen, wanted to find a broader cultural context for the test kitchen. "Our weekly show allows me to chat with Michael Pollan about groundbreaking research linking food allergies to the bacteria in our gut or Baron Ambrosia, a cable network host who dresses up in purple suits and drives around the Bronx looking for the best goat and pepper soup!" He went on, "Radio can bring our listeners to Copenhagen to visit with Rene Redzepi of NOMA (perhaps the best restaurant in the world), to the lake district of England to cook in an 18^th-century kitchen with culinary historian Ivan Day, or go back in time to Croatia where Lidia Bastianich spent her early childhood."

Today, America's Test Kitchen Radio has a growing public radio audience and is a very popular podcast. (You can download the iTunes podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-test-kitchen-radio/id494586581?mt=2) The first 2014 radio special investigates the mysterious, perplexing world of gluten-free baking. Gluten, the essential protein in wheat flour, creates structure and helps baked goods rise. Without it, cookies spread like hot lava, breads rise up out of their loaf pans, and pizza tastes like crackers. Over 18 months of hard test kitchen work and scientific exploration led to a whole new approach to gluten-free baking including new techniques, unusual tricks, and a different approach to ingredients. The test cooks even figured out how to make a great chocolate chip cookie -- you know, the kind that you would really want to eat! (A book about this process, with over 100 recipes, will be published March 1, 2014 -- The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook. http://howcanitbeglutenfree.com/)

America's Test Kitchen Radio also includes taste tests of supermarket foods (Udi's won our gluten-free white sandwich bread tasting), equipment ratings, an unusual wine segment (we explain the world of wine, not just suggest specific bottles), a weekly recipe challenge, interviews, and live call-ins. Adam Gopnik, the well-known New Yorker writer and author, also joins Mr. Kimball from time to time with his own views on the food world. Bridget Lancaster (call-ins), Jack Bishop (taste tests), Lisa McManus (gadgets), Stephen Meuse (wine), and Dan Souza (recipe challenge) also join Mr. Kimball on the weekly hour-long show.

The upcoming special is titled Breaking the Code of Gluten-Free Baking: The Secrets, Science, and Techniques of Great Gluten-Free Recipes. You can download the show here (www.americastestkitchen.com/radio/). The show will also be available on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-test-kitchen-radio/id494586581?mt=2) as of February 24, 2014.

SOURCE America's Test Kitchen