Amazon Freevee Set To Air America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation
There are a few jobs out there that likely sound better than they actually are. Food taster is one of them. Imagine the hardship of being Putin's food taster, never knowing if you'll survive a poisoning attempt. Another job that falls right into this category is working in a test kitchen. True, you're cooking and eating all day long, but you're not always eating things you like, and a Zestful Kitchen writer explains that you're often battling stomach aches from the wide variety of bizarre foods you're trying.
Test kitchens are unusual places that many people forget exist. That seems to be part of the theory that went into the PBS reality program "America's Test Kitchen." The show focuses on an actual test kitchen and displays to the public how recipes are constructed. The answer is that they're made with loads of experimentation, failure, and having to swallow a lot of mistakes. According to IMDb, since the show's premiere in 2000, it has offered informational tips, tricks, and guides to anyone seeking to improve their cooking game. Now, it's gearing up for a new generation.
The Next Generation looks promising, but it also raises concerns
The original "America's Test Kitchen," which gave the world the secret to better french fries, began on PBS, which is a free public broadcasting channel that just about anyone with a television can see. In contrast, "The Next Generation" will only appear on an Amazon service called Freevee. It's like PBS, if PBS required you to have a PBS account and wanted to monitor everything you did on its website.
Amazon provides some great things. It gave the world a quality, cheap air fryer. More recently, it's begun offering Freevee, which provides free television, with an Amazon sign-in. This means "America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation" won't cost anything, which is good. It also means that, in order to watch it, viewers will need an Amazon account. This is somewhat controversial since even tech-friendly publications like Wired have come down hard on Amazon for privacy violations and user tracking. Looking at Amazon's massive privacy policy and terms of use, it's easy to see why.
The show itself will feature 11 competitors vying for a position working in the actual "America's Test Kitchen," reports Foodsided, so this will be a spin-off that has a natural crossover angle into the original show. Fans of cooks in "America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation" can watch them win that show, and then follow their career right into the Test Kitchen itself.
Amazon Studios says the new series, which will be hosted by Jeannie Mai Jenkins, will debut on December 9.