Monday Poll and Alton Brown Article

First off, there's a great article in the Saturday Evening Post about Alton Brown and Good Eats.  Short but sweet, look for the links to his eggplant pasta and moo-less chocolate cake at the end of the article.  Thanks to Lisa at the All About Alton blog for the heads up.

OK, now on to the Monday Poll!  According to last week's poll it would appear that roughly half of Alton's fans live in the eastern half of the United States.  That's not to say people all over the world do not appreciate AB.  In fact, looking at my blog's statistics for the past week, there have been visitors here from every continent except Antartica!  Alton has fans from far off places like Finland, Malaysia, Argentina, and Iran!  I guess we can move his status up to International Superstar now :-)

On to this week's poll!  OK, I'm in the middle of painting my kitchen and living room right now, and trying to keep my toddler out of trouble, so y'all get a lame poll this week:

Coca-Cola or Pepsi?  Yeah, it's easy, but I've seen a few heated debates on this simple topic.  It'd be interesting to know if Alton, after being transplanted from Georgia and back again, clings to his local Coke roots.

Next Iron Chef: Don't Mess with Alton Brown

Don't mess with Alton Brown!  He looks ready to kick some butt in this Next Iron Chef promo :-)





I've recently rediscovered Iron Chef myself.  After running across the original Japanese version during late night channel surfing, I decided to give Iron Chef America another go.  When ICA first launched I wasn't all that impressed.  It seemed a little too forced and not as exciting as the original.  Of course, anything was better than the failed William Shatner attempt!  So, I watched a few more recent episodes and have to say it has come a long way.  The Kitchen Stadium action is more fluid and Alton is on top of his game now.  I guess they all jsut needed a bit of practice to meld thigns together.  The same could be said for Good Eats.  If you watch an early episode you can really see how far Alton has come as a TV host.

Wayback Wednesday: More Alton Brown Rants & Raves

This is a great post and seriously needs a good follow up now that Alton Brown has 13 seasons under his belt.  What are Alton's favorite and least favorite Good Eats episodes?  Well, he lists them for the first six seasons.  Props to Mike Menn's Good Eats Fanpage from AB himself in there too.

From the internet archive Wayback Machine:
Friday, January 31, 2003

  The Best of “Eats” The Worst of “Eats”

After asking me if W is my wife (no) and if that’s my house (no) and is that really my sister (are you kidding?), the question I’m asked most is: what’s your favorite Good Eats episode? The next question is almost always: what’s your least favorite Good Eats episode. I usually stand slack-jawed until the inquisitor gives up and walks away.

Then the other day I started wondering…what are my favorite episodes? And which ones just plain stink, stank, stunk?

To answer this I first had to find an actual list of all the Good Eats episodes. Since I don’t actually have one, I did what any sane, informed person would do and logged into Mike Menninger’s super-fine Good Eats site which not only lists all the episodes alphabetically but by season as well. I decided to choose a favorite and a least favorite from each season. It was tough because…well, they’re all my kids if you know what I mean, but here’s where I stand….

Season 1
Love: The Dough Also Rises
Not so much: Use Your Noodle

Season 2
Love: True Brew
Not so much: For Whom The Cheese Melts

Season 3
Love: Flap Jack Do It Again
Not so much: Mission Poachable

Season 4
Love: Bulb Of The Night
Not so much: Fry Hard II

Season 5
Love: Crepe Expectations
Not so much: Scrap Iron Chef

Season 6
Love: Good Milk Gone Bad
Not so much: Strawberry Sky

Specials: I love them Both but I have to say that as a film maker, Down And Out In Paradise is the most fun I’ve ever had.


posted by Alton Brown, 12:04 PM

Funny Alton Brown Clip

Ha!  Just saw this on Alton Brown clip onYoutube.  Enjoy!  I'm leaving for vacation right now!

Publish Post

Alton Brown's Very Own Musical Mastermind

Ever wonder who comes up with the endless variations of the Good Eats theme?  Well, if you're an Alton Brown nut like myself the name Patrick Belden is already a household name.  For those of you who aren't as crazy as myself, Mr. Belden, of Belden Sound & Music, not only creates and performs all of the Good Eats interludes, but is also responsible for the superb Feasting series music.  His creations for the first Feasting on Asphalt is hands down my favorite.  The cruising surf-rock guitar melds perfectly with the motorcycle theme while the reflective finale when they finally reach the Pacific almost brings tears to your eyes and makes you crave for your own road adventures.

Stop by Patrick Belden's website for a great Good Eats montage and see (and hear) some of his other work from TV series and commercials, such as Mario Eats Itlay and Mexico: One Plate at a Time.

Alton Brown Poll Monday!

Last week's poll asked what type of meat you cook with the most.  While I wasn't surprised to see chicken in the top slot (44%) I was shocked to find that only 7% are big pork fans.  Hey, this is an Alton brown site after all and Alton loves pork!  To add to my surprise, pork was roughly tied for last place with the no meat option.  I was curious to see if there were any vegetarians/vegans following Alton since he does cover a good variety of foods.  Beef and fish fell into the middle slots at 28% and 14% respectively.

The results of last week's poll leads me into this week's poll topic.  As we have seen in the Feasting series, locality and culture have a great impact on the types of food people eat in America.  I think it will be interesting to get a rough idea of where Alton Brown fans reside and compare that to their favorite meat (or non-meat) choices.  Being that our country is so diverse, I'll only list general regions: pick the one you would most closely associate with.  I know I'll miss some major distinctions, but this poll could get really long.

So, Alton Brown fans: where do you live and eat and watch Good Eats?  If you live outside of the USA, please select "Other Region."

10th Anniversary Good Eats Show Info

 

There is an article by Rodney Ho in Access Atlanta with some great details about Alton Brown's upcoming Good Eats 10th Anniversary show at the Cobb Center! 

Ted Allen will be hosting the event, which will include interviews with Alton Brown (obviously) and trivia with Alton and his fans.   Lucky Yates and Bart Hansard, who play numerous Good Eats characters, will be featured as well and the musical genius Patrick Belden and his endless variations of the Good Eats theme.

The article also discusses Alton's recent diet and exercise changes which have helped him shed 45 pounds in 4 and a half months!  I really could use Alton's will to stay in such a regimen.  One quote that stands out and shows a bit of B's resolve, “Look — if you’re a heroin addict, you can’t just have a little heroin,” he said. “I haven’t had a dessert since March.”  Typical Alton, he can absorb himself in a task and takes a no nonsense approach.

There are also a few quotes from Mike Mennenger, who has run the venerable Good Eats Fan Page and forum for years, which shows the author is either a fan like us or has done his research.

Enjoy!

Alton Brown Lecture in Michigan

He's coming here!  I'm so excited!  Alton Brown will be giving a lecture at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, MI on September 30th.  I've been waiting for Alton to make an appearance in my home state, but for him to stop by my Alma mater is just awesome!  I already stopped by and picked up my tickets; only a cool $5 for alumni and free for my daughter in case I can't find a babysitter.

A great big thank you to Lisa, who runs the All About Alton blog, for alerting me to this event!

Package from Alton Brown

My new Sodium Chloride Containment Units just arrived from Alton Brown's website!  I finally justified the need for the green and blue salt cellars in my kitchen.  I'm thinking the blue one will be my trusty salt cellar now and the green one may take over sugar duty.  Not sure what I'm going to do with the old cellar; maybe something decorative for now; might even make a good dish for my shaving soap...  I also received a free mesh bag from AB's BBQ essentials set; guess those didn't go over too well.  Alton really needs to get some more items in his store for all of us raving fanatics fans.  The current store clearance hints along those lines!

p.s.  I have to admit that I'm eating a mixture of Manwich and coleslaw right now.  Surprisingly, it's pretty darn good!  You have to do what you can, and quickly, when your toddler is down for a nap!

Monday Poll

According to last week's poll, 67% voted the original Feasting on Asphalt series as your favorite.  The River Run and Feasting on Waves were a close second.  I have to agree.  The original FOA was pure adventure.  Alton and his crew really did roam out across the country without much of a plan and found a lot more than they expected; more than could fit into the series.  Too bad they hadn't made it an eight part series.  River Run, while still in the same element, seemed a little more planned and a tad less adventurous.  Though Alton did pick up a nice tattoo instead of a broken arm that time.  Feasting on Waves was disappointing to me.  It lacked the real adventure that made the first two and was more of a destination show like so many other out there.  Don't get me wrong, it was interesting, but not in the same element as the other two shows.

On to this week's poll!  Some of us are constantly trying new recipes and some of us fall into patterns with their cooking.  I've noticed lately that, while I've been trying more new recipes, my regular meals have fallen into a dull pattern.  Mostly this has been the fault of that ol' black kettle grill sitting on my deck.  My weekly grocery decisions have become 'steak or pork chops today?'  This realization got me thinking about what meat I cook the most.  It seems to vary with the weather, but right now there has been a lot of beef and pork grilling and not much in the way of fish or chicken.  Don't worry, I still eat lots of fruit and veggies; especially since they are all in season right now.  What would Alton vote?  Hmmm...pork comes to mind right away, but with his new diet and lots of talk about sustainable fishing....

So, what meat do you cook the most?  Yes, there's even an option for vegetarians on there.

Good Eats The Early Years: Production Photos

Thanks to Kerry and Claire from Abrams Books, I have some pre-production and manufacturing photos of Alton's new book to share with you!  The publisher has posted some great sketches by Alton himself that were used as concepts for the final illustrations as well as some pictures of the pages rolling down the factory line.  The factory is only an hour or so drive from my house; closer to me than Alton is likely to be for any book signings.  *sigh*  I'm really looking forward to AB's new book; especially since this one focuses on Good Eats and not just cooking.

Follow this link to the pictures!

Enjoy!

More Alton Memories

Another moment in the former life of the Alton Brown website.  I really, really miss AB's Rants & Raves section.  Looks like this train of thought led him to invent the Turkey Derrick!

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

  At Long Last…Vindication

Thanksgiving is just weeks away and the appetites of many American cooks are turning turkeyward. Despite the fact that the average American household generates exactly 1.32 turkeys a year* it seems that more and more of you just can’t settle for a good ole roast turkey. You want variety. You want…deep fried turkey. And I don’t want you to have it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as fond of fried food as the next guy, but besides yielding mostly mediocre results, I believe the practice to be downright dangerous. I’ve tried explaining my point of view in various forums, but I’m always waved off as an overwrought ninny.

Well, it turns out that Underwriters Laboratories (UL) the nations leading safety certification organization’s a little overwrought too. An article in the November 2002 issue of Consumer Reports states that after testing 6 turkey frying kits, the folks at UL decided not to give certify any of the devices as safe. They certified parts of the systems, the valves and hoses for instance, as safe but not the cookers themselves. The CR report goes on to state that the UL found that many of the units tipped over and that if accidentally overfilled, “flames…engulfed the unit”. After doing a little testing of their own, CR also found the devices to be iffy at best. Of course since there are no standards for the gizmos I guess nothing will be done until some little kid gets turned into a crouton and the lawsuits begin.

So, if you don’t want to listen to me…fine. But before you pour 3-5 gallons of perfectly flammable hydrocarbons into that big, wobbly, top heavy pot on Thanksgiving morn, you might want to think about what other products around your home can be connected with the words “engulfed” and “flames”.

Of course I do own a turkey fryer and I love it…for stir-frying with a wok. The pot resides next to my grill. It makes a swell garbage can.

Oh, yeah…and don’t run with knives. You’ll put an eye out.

AB

Alton Brown Memories

With the 10th anniversary of Good Eats coming up I thought we'd take a look back at some Alton Brown memories.  Alton has gone through a lot of minor changes from geeky Food Network upstart to one of their premiere hosts and chefs.  During this transformation we have lost touch with the personal side of Alton as his celebrity increases, but from what I see and hear from people lucky enough to meet him in person he is still the same down to Earth guy.

On that note, I'll start with one something that I sorely miss: the original Alton Brown website.  It was kitschy, updated regularly, and had some life to it.  My personal favorite part was the Rants & Raves section.  It was off the cuff and thoughtful; it was truly Alton.  One of AB's first posts was in remembrance of his grandmother, Ma Mae.  It shows the humble side of Alton, but still he leaves us with a lesson.  Thanks AB!

Tuesday, December 04, 2001

 

Last week "the big one" finally caught up with my grandmother. Good Eats fans may remember Ma Mae from a show called "And the Dough Also Rises" wherein she and I staged a biscuit bakeoff which she won.

Ma Mae wasn’t a great cook. Her batterie de cuisine was humble. The highlight of her culinary library was a paperback published by the electric company in 1947. Her oven cooked a hundred degrees hot. She didn’t even own a decent knife. And yet, her food was the epitome of good eats. Her chicken and dumplings, greens and cornbread were without equals. Her cobblers were definitive. Her biscuits…the stuff of legend. She learned to make these from her mother and grandmother. She didn’t tinker with the dishes nor did she dissect them or ponder their inner workings. She just cooked. She thought my own Frankensteinian desire to understand food was a little on the silly side.

The first thing I did when I got to her house was greedily seize the small wooden recipe box that had sat on the counter my entire life. Upon inspection, this ancient codex proved disappointing. There were gobs of recipes written in her smooth hand, but they were all the stuff of gossip…Mary Sues Marshmallow Salad…Gertrude's Oatmeal divinity, etc. The real treasures were nowhere to be found and that made sense. She knew those recipes and had no reason to write them down. It had been my duty to learn them from her and I hadn’t taken the time. In her last years I’d been too busy to visit much, too preoccupied with peeling away the mysteries of egg proteins and figuring out why toast burns. In short, I’d missed the whole stinkin’ point. When I left her house after the funeral I took Ma Mae’s favorite cooking tool, her grandmother’s cast iron skillet. I understand this vessel, the particulars of its metallurgy, how heat moves through its crystalline matrix. But I’ll never be able to coax the old magic from it and for that I am very sorry.

This is a cautionary tale kids, and I hope you’ll take heed. In the end, cooking isn’t about understanding it’s about connecting. Food is the best way to keep those we must lose. So put down that glossy cookbook, put down that fancy gadget and get thee to grandmother’s house. Or go cook with your dad, your aunt, your sister, your mom. Cook and learn and share while you can.

End of lecture.

 

Monday Poll: Favorite Feasting Series

Alton Brown fans know what they want, and looking at last week's poll and the comments from readers it is another decade of Good Eats!  Food Network would be wise to listen to its long time viewers when it comes time to decide on their lineup.  Of course, it shouldn't take a genius to realize that people started watching Food Network because the shows were about cooking and not reality gameshows.

Due to the popularity of last week's poll, Monday is now Alton Brown Poll Day!  Every Monday I'll come up with something new for you, my wonderful readers, to vote on.

It's the height of summer.  People are packing up their cars, trucks, RVs, boats, and motorcycles and hitting the road.  What better time to pul out the Feasting on Asphalt DVDs, grab a cool drink, and plot my next vacation?  So, this week's poll is: What is your favorite Feasting series?  As for myself, I'd rank them in the same order they appeared.  The first FOA is definitely my favorite.  The amount of ground they covered, the seamless soundtrack, and the fun they had along the way really made the show.  My favorite part was Alton's narration on the bonus feature with the DVD set.  It really opened up a window into not only what he was thinking in terms of producing the show, but also how he actually felt during the trip; his hopes, fears, doubt and relief.

I'm going to dig out my DVDs now, so hop on over to the lft there and vote on your favorite FOA series.  And, as always, feel free to post a comment or two.

Alton Brown's New Good Eats Cookbook

OK, so many of you already now Alton Brown has a new cookbook in the works.  But for those of you who didn't here's the scoop.  Good Eats: The Early Years is the first of two books covering the first ten years of everybody's favorite cooking show.  It's a combination of behind the scenes info on the show as well as tweaked versions of the recipes.  According to the publisher's website, there are more than 140 recipes and over 1000 photos and illustrations to to make your eyes pop out of your head!  As with Alton's previous books, these will be published by Stewart, Tabori, and Chang.  A nice preview of the book layout, along with a video is posted on their website.  This must-have hardcover is now available for pre-order and will be shipping at the beginning of October!  The second book is to be published Fall 2010.  The pre-order price from Amazon (link below) is about $12 cheaper than the publisher's website!  I can't wait!

Good Eats Poll: How Much Longer Will it Last?

With the 10th anniversary of Good Eats coming up I've been wondering how much longer will it last.  Alton Brown is obviously a creative genius, but Food Network has been moving more towards the reality show theme for nighttime entertainment.  Luckily, Alton has been doing other projects, such as Iron Chef America, along with his own specials.  Personally, I give the show somewhere in the 2-4 year range with the way current FN lineups are going; maybe even a shift to weekends.  I'm really eager for AB to crank out some more Feasting shows though!

So, what do you think?  How much longer can Alton keep Good Eats going strong?  I have a poll set up at the left; vote away!

Busy, Busy Alton Brown

Alton's always on the go nowadays.  This past weekend he was in Nashville for the Food Network Food and Wine Festival; then at the end of August is the 10th anniversary Good Eats show in Atlanta, and he also has yet another cookbook coming soon.  But first, a new Alton Brown video!

I ran across this video interview of AB from Zap2It regarding AB's five most important multitaskers in the kitchen:


Onto the next segment: Alton Brown at the Food and Wine Festival.
I'd love to see AB in person, and I'd love to visit Nashville, but toddlers don't travel all too well!  Anyhoo, one thing I caught mention of by a few people who were able to attend is that Alton has lost a good deal of weight.  I know he's been going on about it for the past couple of years and it looks like he has finally hunkered down and shed the pounds.  (maybe he'll inspire me :-))  For more details I'll forward ya'll to to the All About Alton blog, run by Lisa aka 'Mise en place', who was lucky enough to attend this weekend event!

And to wrap things up, I had my own AB inspired event this weekend.  We took our daughter blueberry picking Friday and I made AB's blueberry buckle from the Kinda Blue Good Eats episode.  It turned out really well, despite using AP flour instead of cake flour; crunchy on top and moist inside.  I also added a few drops of vanilla extract for an extra kick.  Sadly, no pictures and it's long gone now.  Food Network does have the whole buckle GE clip available though.

Coming soon: I'll get some info posted on AB's upcoming cookbook.