America's Best, Not so Great

Wow, caught up with America's Best last night and was really disappointed.  Over the years I've seen countless 'best of' food shows and they are typically mildly interesting or at least somewhat amusing for half an hour.  America's Best, despite having Alton Brown as the host, really fell short of the mark.  The series is obviously created by the hipster foodiefans at Food Network Magazine who believe charging an arm and a leg for average food at some swank joint qualifies as the pinnacle of cuisine.  After watching the American Classics episode I didn't have the heart to watch Sweets and just deleted it from the DVR.  I'm sure Alton gets paid plenty by FN for these hosting gigs and I can't blame him.  As we've seen on Feasting on Asphalt and GE, AB does actually care about food.

America's Best Poll

I haven't put up a poll in a long while, so here's your chance to have some fun.  The first episode of America's Best is still waiting for me on the DVR, so let me know what you all think of the series.  Does Alton bring along his quirky personality to spice up the tired genre of 'best of' food shows or does it drop flat?  I'm a fan of Good Eats Alton and live show Alton, but find Iron Chest Alton to be kind of bland.  Curious to see how viewers think he handles America's Best.

VOTE---------------------->>>>>

Alton Brown has a New Series: America's Best

Alton Brown will be hosting America's Best on the Food Network coming up in mid-September (20-23). The episodes will be divided into the Top Destinations, Regional Classics, Sweets, and Comfort foods. Not sure how many episodes will be airing, but from the listings there are a lot of places to cover.  From the get go this is looking more like a popular spots rehash than anything like Feasting on Asphalt.  Hopefully Alton lends some charm and/or interesting insight to the series to keep viewers from boredom.  Quickly glancing over the lists I see the ol' standard Hominy Grill yet again listed under regional cuisine for Charleston, SC.  Shrimp and grits?  No surprise there, it's on the menu of practically every eatery in the area.  Hominy Grill, of course, has been on just about every FN show to visit Charleston.  Is it a great place to eat?  Yes.  Is it that much better than the myriad of other restaurants in the area?  No.  Is it too much to expect a little more variety when FN produces these shows over and over?  Guy Fieri may not be everybody's favorite character, but at least his Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives finds new locales for us to see.  And one only needs to look to Feasting on Asphalt to see what is truly possible in the search for good food.

With that said; I do hope America's Best turns out to be and interesting, or at least entertaining, series.  I hate to see Alton become just another talking head for Food Network and lose touch with his creativity in film.