Interview! Alton Brown: Keeping Our Stomachs and Minds Full

Originally Published November 9 2006Culinary wizard Alton Brown humorously discusses Good Eats Iron Chef America and Feasting on Asphalt Alton Brown is a genius If you have ever seen Brown on Good Eats or Iron Chef America you know he is a walking food encyclopedia quotIn college I knew how to cram for exams I can turbo load my brain with facts and hold them for an hourquot Brown said While Good Eats is impressive in its own right with its tremendous creativity more on that later think of how hard Brown39s job is on Iron Chef America The battles truly are 60 minutes long If Kevin Brauch floor reporter throws a question at Brown or if there39s a fun factoid he should know he can39t sit around and think about the answer for hours He has to know it right then right there And Brown always doesImagine studying everything there is to know about one ingredient the history trivia uses etc But wait Brown doesn39t only need to know that about the secret ingredient He needs to be informed about every ingredient that the chefs use when preparing their meals in battleFor instance what if Brown sees a chef pull out ebi to use in one of their dishes First he has to know how to pronounce it ehbee Second he has to know what it is According to wwwsushifaqcom it39s quotShrimp Not the same as Sweet Shrimp as Ebi is cooked while Ami Ebi is served in raw formquot Did you know that Third if this ebi were a prominent ingredient in the dish or perhaps a secret ingredient Brown might want to throw in some fun trivia about it For example wwwfoodreferencecom says quotSalmon and shrimp are the most popular seafoods in American restaurants In 2001 shrimp replaced canned tuna as America39s favorite seafood overallquot Remember Brown doesn39t only need to know this abundance of information for one ingredient each show but for every ingredient imaginableOkay so Brown does get some help Prior to each battle the chefs are given a list of possible secret ingredients Then the chefs each create a shopping list with every ingredient they would want to use for any of those possibilities So Brown39s ingredient information cramming is narrowed down to each competitor39s shopping list But when extraordinary chefs are preparing for a competition in which they aren39t even sure of the secret ingredient those shopping lists can be very very long On top of that Iron Chef America tapes two shows each day with little time in between for Brown to prepare While no one could do Brown39s job as well as he what would happen if it were possible for him to take a quick break and compete on Iron Chef America himself Would he quotYes and noquot he said You wonder quotAs a cook could you make itquot Brown said he could definitely make five dishes in an hour quotBut would anyone want to eat themquot he joked Brown continued quotI would get my butt kicked Any Iron Chef would eat me for dinnerquotBrown said there are quotno invalid ingredientsquot but if he had to choose one secret ingredient he39d never want to see in kitchen stadium quotSmall children perhapsquot Brown joked He added quotNothing is too obscure or too ordinaryquot Brown said he would like to see a broccoli battle with a required dessert courseBrown39s wit doesn39t end there When discussing Alton Brown his show Good Eats cannot be ignored Good Eats is different than any other cooking show on TV as it uses humor creativity skits and science in order to teach viewers To Brown it is extremely important that he use such creativity in his show He said that Good Eats has more in common with Saturday Night Live than with other cooking shows and that those other cooking shows are quotboring Who the hell wants to watch thatquotBrown said the idea of incorporating science into his cooking came out of the fact that he didn39t think he could cook very well He watched the typical cooking shows but thought they were dull and only left him with just one more recipe Learning the science behind cooking increased his knowledge When describing Good Eats Brown said quotI make a science show with silly skits in itquotThese silly skits which are filled with quotpop culture shortcutsquot are imperative for Brown include as he said that effective communication is made up of three fibers quotselling entertainment and educationquot and they have quotthe best impact when they are wound tightly togetherquot He added quotLaughing brains are more absorbentquot Brown said he can39t compare his roles in Good Eats and Iron Chef America because quotthey are completely different gigsquot While Iron Chef America is spontaneous and filled with adlibbing Brown said Good Eats is a quothand crafted little machinequotAnd if there39s anyone who knows about putting together such a seamless show it39s Brown He39s not just the guy cooking in front of the camera He also writes and directs the episodes Brown began by directing TV commercials in the early 90s for eight years He spent much of his free time watching cooking shows but disliked that even after learning tons of recipes he still didn39t know why water boils Brown decided he wanted to make a quotfood show for the MTV generationquot His wife DeAnna said if he applied to the top five culinary schools and was accepted into one they would move together and she would support him Brown was accepted and trained at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier VT After some time Brown said DeAnna told him she didn39t mind them living on 20000 a year but he should really get to writing that cooking show One and half years later Brown was on the Food NetworkWhen Brown pitched Good Eats to investors he wanted to write and direct it He had no plans to be on the show The investors said they wanted Brown to host and he declined quotI made it halfway down the hall and I thought 39What the hell did I do39quot Brown said Fortunately for viewers Brown changed his mind and decided to host Good Eats which is one of the longest running shows on Food Network quotSo much of who I am is wrapped in this showquot Brown said Yet another part of who Brown is helped him to create Feasting on Asphalt a fourpart miniseries about the history of road food which ran on the Food Network this past summer Brown was born in California but moved to Georgia in 1969 when he was seven years old His family drove on the nation39s back roads for the move which had a huge effect on Brown as he learned how quotfood changed with the landscapequot Now he said with all of the highways and freeways people are isolated from the changing landscape Combine Brown39s interest in road food and his love of filmmaking and you get Feasting on Asphalt Brown said quotAs a filmmaker I wanted to make a show that was completely unpremeditatedquot He also wanted to celebrate food and the joys of sharing a meal and communicating with strangers quotFood loses all its importance when it39s separated from peoplequot Brown said Brown who seems to stick to all things unusual embarked on this journey cross country via motorcycle quotThere39s no better way to be in the landscape Being in a car is like watching a movie Riding a motorcycle is like being in the moviequot Brown said Unfortunately toward the end of the trip a motorcycle accident landed Brown in the hospital with a broken clavicle Perhaps worse for Brown was that it meant him finishing up Feasting on Asphalt in a car Living in Georgia he said he rides every day and as for the bike in the accident quotI traded it for something biggerquot Brown laughedBrown fans don39t only have Good Eats and Iron Chef America to look forward to because Brown is currently discussing a Feasting on Asphalt book and a second season The show39s first season did well in its August timeslot so a second season would likely air during that same time That means shooting in April which limits the available locations He would love to be able to take the show to the east coast but it would be too crowded in April So Brown hopes to start in Baja Mexico and work his way up to Seattle or Canada This time the show might also be extended from four episodes to six And if August is too far away the season one Feasting on Asphalt DVDs should be available just in time for the December holidaysIs Brown living out his dream Brown answered quotMy dream39s always been to work on my own terms On any given day the thing that decides if my work is good or bad is mequot Brown said he39ll quotpull the plug on Good Eats before it jumps the shark I39ll stop while I don39t have to apologizequot Brown added that he has a healthy family and his motorcycles so yes he39s living his dream Then he remembered that he wouldn39t mind being able to get a private jet Additional Reporting by Andrew Sousa

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Interview! Alton Brown: Keeping Our Stomachs and Minds Full

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Interview! Alton Brown: Keeping Our Stomachs and Minds Full

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