Comments on: Comments on 13774

Post number 13774

plinth — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:04:49 -0800

Although he's been discussed in the past, I'm surprised that nobody's posted Alton Brown's home page.

By: corpse

corpse — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:28:00 -0800

I like alton. He taught me about oats.

By: girlhacker

girlhacker — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:31:19 -0800

I'm surprised that nobody's posted Alton Brown's home page. That's because we were all too busy refreshing his Shop page constantly to find out when his Salt Cellar shipment was coming in. And then we were busy frantically buying the Salt Cellars, hoping and praying that we would get one personally signed by Alton himself. And then we were sitting by the front door with binoculars, trying to spot the UPS truck coming down the street with our long-awaited Sodium Chloride Containment Units. And, on January 15th, it will start all over again.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 19:46:43 -0800

Great minds think alike. I linked to him this morning.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 20:04:34 -0800

I'm with girlhacker... except on the other side of the country.

By: lisatmh

lisatmh — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 20:20:31 -0800

Actually, if you're really into AB, check out The Good Eats Fan Page where some insanely diligent fan has made transcripts (!!) of each and every show. He also has a very thorough index of the gadgets and props that appear on the show, much more thorough than AB's own. I've bought several things for my husband (including this restaurant food storage found in the "Beans" episode) via browsing there and then narrowing in for the kill with Google.
Have any of you actually tried any of the recipes? If so, which ones? I've used his chocolate chip cookie recipe (The Puffy), and it totally kicks ass.

By: gyc

gyc — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 21:18:01 -0800

Actually I found the people at Good Eat's fan page to be a bit... creepy. It just seemed wrong to hold their fan gatherings at the local BBB. And yes, the fans making transcripts of the show are indeed insane.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 21:48:37 -0800

There's a Food Network? I actually find that, well, if not creepy, at least amusing.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:08:55 -0800

Stavros, it's better than you might think. Actually, two of my favorite shows are on it. In addition to "Good Eats!" it also runs Iron Chef.

By: Fenderhead

Fenderhead — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:12:32 -0800

I'll admit it - I have no idea as to who Alton Brown is. Enlightenment, someone?

By: Fenderhead

Fenderhead — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:12:50 -0800

I'll admit it - I have no idea as to who Alton Brown is. Enlightenment, someone?

By: Fenderhead

Fenderhead — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:13:30 -0800

(Sorry about the double double post post.

By: brittney

brittney — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:21:08 -0800

If you visit his page there is a link that says "Who's Alton?"

By: Fenderhead

Fenderhead — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:34:18 -0800

Thank you, brittney - I'm on my way. . .

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:35:31 -0800

...which is where I found out about the Food Network... I have heard quite a lot about the Iron Chef thing, Steven, but have never seen it, traditional-media- (in English)-starved as I am here in Korea.

By: gyc

gyc — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:41:08 -0800

I don't really understand the appeal of Alton Brown. Yes, he's a geek, but I don't really enjoy his over-anal explanations. I'll take Bobby Flay over Alton Brown any time, especially since Flay answers questions submitted on his site.

By: revbrian

revbrian — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:03:57 -0800

Watch Alton Brown if you want to learn the physics of cooking, watch Flay if you want to learn how to sound like you can cook. Bobby Flay is evil. Don't you watch Iron Chef!?

By: dorian

dorian — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:07:26 -0800

alton is a god. I tried making his best hamburgers ever, and they were in fact, the best hamburgers ever. he's also quite fun to watch. one of these years I'll actually try making the brine turkey.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:13:52 -0800

I don't cook and I don't watch these shows to learn to cook. I like Brown because his show is really clever and very well written. How could anyone not enjoy watching an episode of "Scrap Iron Chef", where Brown cobbles together a cold smoker out of crap from a junkyard to make bacon for a cookoff in front of non-celebrity judges?

By: icathing

icathing — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:19:14 -0800

As others have said, Good Eats is one of the few shows that actually makes you want to cook, as opposed to just making you hungry. I can't wait for his book to come out.

By: PeteyStock

PeteyStock — Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:59:53 -0800

"Scrap Iron Chef" OMG, I caught the end of this and the first thing that ran through my mind was that this is the bastard child of Junkyard Wars and Iron Chef. I have the feeling if I watch the whole thing, I will die laughing.

By: diddlegnome

diddlegnome — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 01:15:53 -0800

The bad part of Alton's show is that he thinks he's way funnier than he actually is. Still, he and Bobby Flay (or as the Iron Chef guy said when Bobby won the big challenge, BOBBY FLAYYY!!!) are the two best things on the Food Network. I'm no cook (my wife is, which is why we frequently watch the network), but I find Alton's shows really interesting anyway. I always learn something.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 01:20:20 -0800

I know someone who flips between the Food Network and HGTV (house & garden) throughout the day. It's very frustrating. Sometimes I beg for access to fiction.

By: girlhacker

girlhacker — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 01:25:59 -0800

Sometimes I beg for access to fiction. Perhaps you could ask your "someone" to watch Martha Stewart instead (she's on both networks now). (ba dum BUM!)

By: diddlegnome

diddlegnome — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 02:22:34 -0800

Martha Stewart Somewhere on Indiebride.com is or was a note that the people in the "Real Weddings" section of one of Martha's magazines get an incredible amount of help from Martha and her minions. So yes, fiction.

By: mdeatherage

mdeatherage — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 08:28:18 -0800

This is the fifth season of "Good Eats," and it's the first being produced by Alton Brown's own production company instead of Means St. Productions, which did the first four seasons. That seems to be why they've changed kitchens, typographical styles, etc. Personally, though I'm a huge "Good Eats" fan, I think some of the new shows are more over the top and less useful than the older ones. "Scrap Iron Chef" isn't his first rip on "Iron Chef" that doesn't quite get the mysticism of that show. Nor is it is first show on smoking food, and yet neither show has had much practical advice -- the first one wanted you to build a smoker out of a cardboard box, and this one builds one out of a footlocker. I like seeing that but also want to see something that works in an average kitchen, and he has yet to touch that with smoked foods. I still have high hopes, though, and wouldn't miss an episode if I could help it. The crepe episode was OK and the roast episode was good, if a bit fixated on the old oven. A sad note: The "Rants and Raves" section of the site reveals that Ma Mae, Alton's grandmother (the one who was in the biscuit showdown with him and who appeared in the intro and outro of the fruitcake episode) passed on late in 2001. Alton writes that he didn't learn enough from her and now doesn't have the chance, a reminder to me to figure out exactly how my mom makes cornbread.

By: plinth

plinth — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 10:06:10 -0800

Nor is it is first show on smoking food, and yet neither show has had much practical advice -- the first one wanted you to build a smoker out of a cardboard box, and this one builds one out of a footlocker. as an FYI, you don't want a smoker in an average kitchen. You want a smoker on your back stoop or fire escape or driveway. The point of the first was that to (hot) smoke, you don't need special equipment beyond a heat source, a rack, and a thermometer. His smoker was made from pretty much junk and cost near nothing. The cold smoker for bacon was too hidden in esoterica. A cold smoker is a hot smoker with a lot of separation between the heat source and the food. You could make one with a second cardboard box, some dryer ducting and a muffin fan.

By: mdeatherage

mdeatherage — Sun, 13 Jan 2002 15:25:10 -0800

By the way, according to the show's home page at Food Network, the show with Alton's late grandmother ("The Dough Also Rises", the biscuit show) will air again about nine hours after I post this, at 3:30 AM EST on 2002.01.14. It's part of the "Cable in the Classroom" presentation and therefore will air without commercials.