12 Facts About America's Test Kitchen Host Julia Collin Davison

Julia Collin Davison has been working in food TV for over 20 years on popular shows like "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country," both on PBS. Having worked on the shows for so long, fans find comfort in seeing her grace their television screen every week. People have been particularly drawn to Davison's ability to be her true, food-loving self on camera – without forcing a TV personality facade.

Her success in the food television industry continued in November of 2021 when she got her own show, "Julia At Home". The show, as the name insinuates, is filmed in her home. Viewers love the intimacy of seeing a professional chef cooking in their own home and appreciate Davison's ability to educate the audience in a confident and kind way.

If you aren't familiar with "America's Test Kitchen" (ATK) or "Cook's Country," the purpose is to help viewers at home learn recipes that are achievable to create in a standard kitchen. "ATK" has a team of cooks who test recipes and find the best way to execute them. The show shares cooking tips and detailed instructions, leaving the audience feeling empowered to make the meal themselves. "Cook's Country" is very similar, however it focuses more on home-style recipes.

Davison is a host on both shows and after decades of experience, she has endless knowledge and expertise to share with the viewers. If you're a fan of Davison, or any of her shows, you'll want to read on to find more about this cooking queen.

Julia Collin Davison was born and raised in Rochester, New York, across Lake Ontario from Toronto, Canada. Rochester has many nicknames, but one of them is the Flour City. The name comes from the fact that Rochester was one of the highest producers of flour in the world during the 19th century.

Davison's family still lives in Rochester, and although she now resides in Massachusetts, she makes time to visit her parents often. Although she loves to cook at home, and her parents probably love to get a taste of her cooking when she visits, she also loves to enjoy the local cuisine.

One of her favorites is Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, which is an upstate New York staple. It is famous for its slow-cooked meats that are deliciously seasoned. Another favorite chain the TV cook visits when she's back home is India House, — a family business hailed as the "Best Indian Cuisine" by local publications. It seems that growing up near a wide variety of delicious food influenced Davison's cooking journey.

Julia Child was a famous chef and television personality and is considered one of the first celebrity chefs. Many people remember her distinctive voice, which had a touch of a transatlantic accent — almost reminiscent of Judy Garland. Starting in the early '60s, her popular show "The French Chef" aired on PBS for over a decade. She was also the author of 12 cookbooks.

Julia Collin Davison has some similarities to Julia Child. They share a namesake, are both famous female chefs who have had their own shows on PBS, and they both have a love for testing and perfecting recipes. Child once said, "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." That is exactly what Davison set out to do.

Davison was inspired by the path that Child led before her. And, in an interview with KLCS, Davison said she used to use Child's recipe books and cook out of them when she herself was a child. Sharing a memory from when she was 6 years old and her mother was in bed sick, she said, "I was left to my own devices and my mother said I came up every half an hour with a question like, 'Do we have any corn meal?' And she said three hours later, I came up and handed her a fresh baked baguette out of her [Child's] book."

Julia Collin Davison has shared that she didn't necessarily have a career plan for college. She ended up going to the University at Albany, which is a State University of New York (SUNY) school. The school is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive from where Davison grew up and is quite close to the Massachusetts border — where she now resides.

Davison chose to major in philosophy and psychology, the latter being one of the school's top and most popular majors. Although she didn't exactly pursue a career in her major after college, some might say that her studies came in handy. Davison is not only a cook but a television personality who has to connect with an audience. Perhaps her knowledge of psychology and philosophy helped her understand what audiences are looking for and how to connect with them effectively. 

Davison shared with KLCS that she was originally terrified of public speaking and didn't take any public speaking courses at the University at Albany. Her journey from psych major (who was afraid of public speaking) to a well-loved celebrity chef is definitely an interesting one!

During her time at University at Albany, Julia Collin Davison picked up a few day jobs, like any average college student. Hers, of course, was at a small gourmet food market. In her CIA alumni biography Davison says, "During my time at school, I worked at a little gourmet food market on the weekends. I liked it a lot, and they kept promoting me." Once she graduated, however, she didn't have a specific career in mind or a direction of where she wanted to go. She decided that she should get some sort of skill and see where that led her.

Reflecting on her day job at school, she realized that cooking was a skill someone could hone through further training and schooling. Not only did Davison end up finding a skill, but she found a career that would bring her tons of joy. In the KLCS interview, she said, "This is the best job ever. I'd be dumb to complain for even a minute about it."

Once Julia Davison decided that she wanted to explore the skill of cooking, she immediately applied to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). The school offers many types of degrees: associates, bachelors, masters, and a certificate program. It also has a variety of majors, like culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, food business, and more. Davison decided to get an associates degree at the institute.

Conveniently, CIA has a campus in Hyde Park, New York, which is about four and a half hours from where she grew up. The school is known to be one of the world's best culinary schools to learn cooking secrets. It has locations not only in New York, but also in California, Texas, and even Singapore. With many successful alumni across many fields within the culinary arts, it definitely helped Davison get onto a solid career path.

While reflecting on her time at CIA, Davison shared, "I really hit my stride when I got to the Hyde Park, NY campus. I'd finally found 'my people,' I thought, 'Wow, this is not school.' It was hard but it was also fun and it felt right."

After Julia Davison's time at the Culinary Institute of America, she was inspired and ready to work in the industry in one way or another. She started small, working for a catering company called Graystone. There, she likely assisted with food preparation for big events like weddings. After that, she began working at wineries. She seemed to explore any path that was open to her at the time, not afraid to try new things.

Most people working towards becoming chefs work their way up slowly, and that's what Davison did. She traveled to different areas for opportunities, like the Berkshires, San Francisco, and the Napa Valley. She added more and more experience to her belt working in different mediums, which eventually led her to her next and final job, where she's been working since 1999.

Before "America's Test Kitchen" was a TV show — it was part of a magazine called "Cook's Illustrated." Julia Collin Davison got a job there in 1999 as the " lowest person on the totem pole," she told Democratic and Chronicle. Her close friend from the CIA was a test cook there — part of a team of cooks that tests recipes — and Davison told her friend that she would love to have that job if her friend ever left. That day came, and her friend called. Davison stepped right into the role of a test cook for the publication.

When Davison first started in her new position as a test cook, she was, again, at the very bottom. She would assist in washing the dishes, shopping for ingredients, and would help prepare ingredients for other cooks doing the actual recipe testing.

Now Davison is part of a team that creates and tests recipes for "Cook's Illustrated" and "America's Test Kitchen" so that viewers at home can add them to their library of recipes. The test cooks must have culinary degrees and have expertise in creating recipes.

After a little over a year working for the company, the publication also became a TV show. So, Davison was part of "America's Test Kitchen" from the beginning — not as a host, but as a test cook!

Julia Collin Davison reached the goal that most television personalities wish to achieve — a show with their own name in the title. The show began airing in 2021 straight from her home, turning her family's kitchen into a film set. 

Davison says it takes one day to film an episode from beginning to end. She has three main helpers who make the show happen: her husband, Ian, who is also a chef, her young daughter, and her best friend. Two helpers have the most important job—her dogs Ziggy and Hazel, who wait to clean up scraps from the floor.

Beyond her family, a small film crew is also crammed into Davison's kitchen. When discussing her show with America's Test Kitchen, she shared, "I do miss the camaraderie of having other cooks on camera with me, but luckily, the Julia at Home film crew is a fun bunch. They keep the atmosphere light and humorous."

Julia Collin Davison loves to travel, and luckily her career has brought her to many new places. When traveling, she particularly loves to scope out new U.S. restaurants and to taste different varieties of food. When finding things on her travels that impress her, she loves to post them on her Instagram.

Davison doesn't post the usual touristy pictures, however. She is all about the experience and shares less aesthetically curated travel photos and more documentary-type posts. If you scroll along her feed, you'll see many pictures of meals she's eaten at new restaurants, interesting sights like a champagne vending machine she came across in Fort Myers, or fun culinary experiences like the one she had in San Antonio, Texas.

With Davison's culinary expertise, she can experience food while traveling in a way that many people don't. From knowing what actually goes into making certain meals, therefore having a higher appreciation for them, to learning new recipes and getting inspired by different areas of the world, we're so glad that she's been able to travel and enjoy the U.S. and the world's culinary offerings.

Julia Collin Davison knows that people probably expect her to cook fancy, very involved meals at home for her family. However, Davison keeps things fairly simple. One of her favorite meals is roast chicken, which she cooks once weekly. Of course, the test cook lives strong within her, so she is always tweaking the recipe to make it better each time.

In an interview for the America's Test Kitchen website, she shared, "The older I get, the simpler I like the food. I like to taste the actual ingredients. I love anything roasted. And I'm even liking steamed vegetables — you get to taste the essence of the vegetable." We're sure Davison is being modest here, as her version of a simple meal probably tastes better than most.

She loves to make a breakfast hash with leftovers in the refrigerator. She chops up the leftovers and throws an egg on top, smothering it in hot sauce. She even said that breakfast was her favorite meal of the day and that quickly thrown together hash is her go-to.

One of the main purposes of "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country" is to inspire and empower people to cook at home. Julia Collin Davison has taken that to heart and shares that ideal even more in her own show.

In teaching her viewers how to cook at home, Davison focuses on all aspects. She shares tips and tricks for grocery shopping, making meal preparation easier, recommends kitchen equipment and accessories, and advises people on planning their weekly meals. She even encourages people to use leftovers for a follow-up meal the next day instead of ordering out.

Davison is also passionate about including children in cooking — and empowering them to learn how. She believes that teaching kids how to cook improves their lives, and she has seen it firsthand in her daughter. America's Test Kitchen has its own content to teach children how to cook. 

"America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country" both have many cookbooks published. They are filled with recipes from many of the cooks who work on both shows, and almost all of them feature Julia Collin Davison's recipes. You can see her face gracing the cover of many of them, particularly "America's Test Kitchen's" season cookbooks—which are a series of books for every season that the show has aired.

Davison also came out with a cookbook she collaborated on with her "America's Test Kitchen" co-star, Bridget Lancaster, called "Cooking at Home with Bridget and Julia." The book contains recipes geared towards feeding family and friends, which are reportedly very easy to follow. The book has 150 recipes that were curated by both Bridget and Julia.

Out of the 23+ books in which her recipes have appeared, three of them were on the New York Times Best Seller list. Not only is Davison a success in the culinary and television worlds, but she has also made her mark on the literary world