Obsessed with the Best: Extended Cut
2/25/202636 min
In this special episode, we’re sharing an extended cut of our interview with Ella Quittner, author of Obsessed With the Best. We cover everything: her tests for the best chocolate chip cookies, what food science gets right (and wrong), the trendiest food of 2026, and the problem with meat that’s more like “baby food." Plus, Ella shares her tests for the flakiest biscuits, crispiest bacon, most tender yellow cake, and more.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Christopher Kimball· Host0:29
[upbeat music] I'm Christopher Kimball, and this is a special episode of Milk Street Radio. Today, it's an extended cut of my latest interview with Ella Quittner. For years, she's run dozens of head-to-head tests for the best chocolate chip cookies, yellow cake, and much more. Her book is one of my favorite new cookbooks this year. It's called Obsessed with the Best. [upbeat music] Ella, welcome back to Milk Street.
Ella Quittner· Guest0:56
Hi, Chris. I'm so excited to be back.
Christopher Kimball· Host0:59
Uh, talking to you is like talking to myself 30 years ago. [laughing] I mean, it really is- Is that a compliment? ... I was, I was g- well, it's, it's good news, bad news. I was going through Obsessed with the Best, your hundred methodically perfected recipes- [laughing] ... and it sounds, the insanity of it, and I say that in the nicest possible way, just reminds me of myself. I remember I used to stop by Julia's in Cambridge when she was alive here, and I'd, I'd go up and say, "You know, I, I tried zesting lemons this way, and I tried-" Mm-hmm. "... zesting lemons