Good Eats, Good Info, Great Show
One of my favorite TV Show hosts, for food shows or otherwise, is Alton Brown. I have seen him in three shows so far: Iron Chef America, Feasting on Asphalt, and his best-known show, Good Eats.
Iron Chef America is a current series that continues where the original Japanese series Iron Chef left off. It is a competition where a challenger pits his skills against one of the house Iron Chefs to create a 5 course tasting menu for three judges, where all the courses must highlight that show’s secret ingredient. The secret ingredient is revealed by the Chairman at the last moment, so the Iron Chef and the challenger have a lot of thinking to do as well as cooking. They each have an hour to prepare their dishes, which includes plating.
Brown’s role in this show is as a the host/commentator, along with Kevin Brauch of Thirsty Traveller fame. What I enjoy most about Alton’s commentary is that he is very informative to the audience about the secret ingredient (you are guaranteed to get a mini-history on the ingredient at the beginning of the show), other ingredients being used by the chefs, and the processes being used. Unlike the original Iron Chef series, I find this show to be a source of learning, at least to a small degree. What goes on in Kitchen Stadium is well above my skill level, so it’s not as though I will be emulating too much; but any learning is good learning.
Feasting on Asphalt was a mini-series, if it can be called that, that documented Brown’s travels with his crew across America, sampling great “Road Food” along the way. They travelled by motorcycle; or at least most of them did for most of the time. Brown’s bike went down on a gravel road, some where in Nevada if I recall, which led to a shoulder injury that prevented further riding.
This show was interesting, but not really all that informative, at least not for home cooking. There was certainly some neat history unveiled, and I feel a little more confident about being able to find good road food; or maybe just to be able to recognize it if I see it.
By far my favorite show by Alton Brown is the first one I saw him in: Good Eats. The format of this show is to highlight an ingredient, process or style of cooking, and to give very detailed information about it. And when I say information, I mean deep information. In some cases we are even talking molecular science. And while molecular science is not for everybody, I have found that for me it helps explain why certain ingredients behave in certain ways under certain conditions. This knowledge has helped me countless times in the kitchen, because I can actually predict how certain things will turn out based on this knowledge, rather than trying to remember some factoid.
True, because of the narrow focus of each episode there have been some that I simply had to skip. For instance, he did one episode strictly on bananas. Since I am deathly allergic to bananas, this show was not terribly appealing to my. By contrast, the two-part show on beef tenderloin was incredibly useful to me, as was the episode on cocktails.
Alton Brown’s style is another factor that makes his show enjoyable to watch. He reminds me of the kind of teacher whose classes students don’t want to miss. You can always expect visual demonstrations, a simple explanation of things that once seemed confusing, and a good dollop of humor to make learning seem less like work than play. Brown’s somewhat quirky demeanor plays off his obvious intelligence and vast knowledge, making him more of an informative friend that someone talking down to you. The best comparison I can make is that Alton Brown is something like the Bill Nye (the Science Guy) of food. And as with Bill Nye, when you are watching Alton Brown, you can’t help but enjoy learning.
Hopefully this show is available where you live. If it is, I highly recommend checking it out. Or, you can check out some samples of his shows from the Food TV web site.
Yours in Good Taste,
Erik Christensen