The relationship between Christopher Kimball and the food-media empire he helped to create went sour seemingly overnight, as things often do when they're left out too long.

Their relationship was out very long indeed -- Kimball hosted PBS's "America's Test Kitchen" (and later its spinoff, "Cook's Country") since its debut in 2000. He also helped create the company behind it, Boston Common Press, in the early 1990s. Kimball and Boston Common created a food-media empire together, until 2015 when Kimball was ousted from the company under contentious circumstances.

He hosted one more season of both shows in 2016 and maintained a minority stake in the company, but they were no longer on good terms.

This was proven late in 2016, when the company sued Kimball for trying to "literally and conceptually rip off" the "America's Test Kitchen" format for his new project, "Milk Street."

"Milk Street" has at least followed the same approach to multi-platform publishing: Kimball quickly launched a magazine, TV show, podcast, cooking school and even a set of cookware, all under the "Milk Street" brand (named after the company's address in Boston).

Fittingly, the nasty breakup played out in multimedia as well, with each side publishing articles explaining their positions. The highlight was probably the website launched by Boston Common Press, WhyWeAreSuingChristopherKimball.com, which is pretty well exactly what it says on the package.

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