Very little drama, skip to the bottom two links for the actual drama But this subreddit's janny is pretty hands off and the last slap fight got a reply 15 minutes ago so it might pick up.

Cook's Illustrated is a magazine featuring extremely well tested but labor intensive recipes for upper middle class while America's Tesk Kitchen is the PBS show featuring their recipes. Cook's Country is a spin off that features regional American recipes that are slightly simpler in both a magazine and PBS TV show. The entire company was started by an extremely WASPy nerd, Chris Kimball, who got pushed out in favor of more diverse individuals after selling to a private equity firm (mid 2010s).

He then recreated the whole enterprise as a new competing company called Milk Street (which is another drama).

After the induced moral panic of 2020, the company replaced the editor of Cooks' Country with a for both the magazine and TV show (the previous editor never appeared on the TV show as far as I can recall).

In the newer seasons, Toni Tipton-Martin opens the show with a monologue about the featured recipes' hisotry and explains how these recipes (as well as ALL other recipes) were created by Black women. She then awkwardly supervises while the actual cooks make the recipes.

Unfortunately some uppity dared to notice this

Is this a safe space to talk about Toni's on screen presence?? She is SO stiff and it seems like everyone else is on edge or less comfortable when they're cooking with her. I didn't mind her reading her piece about different dishes but this new season is way too much Toni and the vibes are off. Am I way off base?

The uppity mayos are a little too comfortable and start agreeing:

I dont like her. At all. She's fake af.

She's ruining cooks country. I miss Bridget and Julia spearheading that show. Toni is boring, monotone, and seems atrocious to be around let alone work under. They need to get her off screen fast. We fast forward through any segment with her. She really doesn't add anything to the show.

Where did she come from anyway? She just appeared one season like some sort of expert.

Luckily a ally lets the mayos know "this is ain't it, chief" :

I just want to say maybe take a sec.and think about these comments. A little bit of self reflection. I enjoy the show, she is an academic and is likely evolving her camera presence.

Finally fully puts the and in their place:

Wow, some of these comments are….not it.

I've always assumed she leaned more towards the academia side of things. Being a bit stiff until one can relax in a hosting- type role is not unexpected. Not everyone is going give the same vibe on camera. Perhaps she's getting her sea legs when it comes to the cooking segments v the history bits she does.

But yeah, calling her fake, scary (?), etc. Harsh af.

She's not white. Hence the criticism.

exactly

I'm sure she's a nice person but she doesn't fit in with the show. I always fast forward her reading segments and now I don't even want to watch the cooking segments she's on.

She doesn't fit in because she's not white.

That's not it. Lan isn't white. She's enjoyable to watch. Elle isn't white and she's charismatic. It's not her race. It's her demeanor.

Agree - non white woman here and I'm not a fan of Toni. Way too little energy and sometimes she comes across like she's new to a kitchen

non white woman here

So you're not black. POC solidarity doesn't exist.

Um okay - that is an interesting take on my comment

You're not a fan of the only black person on the show along with Elle. Tap dancer.