MINNEAPOLIS -- The guy with the bow tie has returned to TV and is stopping in the Twin Cities.

Chef Christopher Kimball, former host of America's Test Kitchen, will be hosting a live show in Minneapolis, Wednesday. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Cowles Center for Dance and Performing Arts.

Kimball says the show is designed to be very interactive with the audience.

"We try to get the audience involved as much as possible. Everybody in the audience does a taste test, which is really interesting, we bring people up on the stage to do that. We bring people up to do a cooking competition, we have a culinary quiz."

 

If you can't make it to the live show, you can catch Kimball's new show Milk Street Television on PBS. Kimball says for his new show, he's changed his cooking style from a northern European style to a more broad everyday style.

"My style was always based on northern Europe, French cooking. Which is great but then I realized most people in the world don't cook that way at all."

 

Kimball says the major differences between his old style and new style start with the types of ingredients.

"Just to put it very simply they [much of the world] start with big flavors, spices, herbs, chilies, fermented sauces like soy sauce - strong ingredients like ginger lemongrass, etc. They start with big flavors so getting to a dish with big flavors is easier to do."

 

In northern Europe, French dishes are usually made with fewer spices and herbs. Kimball says when you're using mild ingredients, you have to rely on cooking techniques, such as using high heat to get the flavor you want, which isn't practical for everyday cooks.

"[This is why] I started to cook the way other people in the world cook. It just changed my cooking. I cook twice as much as I did a few years ago. I'm getting much better results and that's the essence of Milk Street."

 

Milk Street is not only a TV show, Kimball also has radio show, cooking books and magazines.

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