Tag Archives: good eats

May 13

An open letter to Alton Brown

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Dear Alton,

“Good Eats,” which recently wrapped production after 14 seasons, was one of the most inventive things ever seen on American television – funny, informative, and accessible. It was good for food, it was good for science, and it was just plain fun to watch. The show was, as far as I can tell, your own creation.

I knew that all good things must come to an end, and even though I was sorry to see “Good Eats” go, I looked forward eagerly to whatever your next project would be. I knew that you could do other formats. Your miniseries “Feasting on Asphalt” and “Feasting on Waves” were travelogues that, while different from “Good Eats,” were just as good.

You may still be planning something great. I hope so. But it worries me that you seem to be ramping up your participation in Food Network’s competitive cooking shows.

I will admit it – I was a fan of the original, Japanese “Iron Chef,” and I loved the first few seasons of “Iron Chef America.” They were goofy fun, and you were a perfect choice for “Iron Chef America,” bringing your wit and knowledge to a play-by-play role.

But food competition shows have become redundant, repetitive, and overblown. They’re part of the reason I rarely watch Food Network anymore, having sought refuge in Cooking Channel, which is what Food Network used to be. (It even airs “Good Eats” reruns.) And in a crowded marketplace of food competition, the only way to stand out is to try to hype and overhype the soap-opera, professional-wrestling aspects of the competition. I felt like “The Next Iron Chef” was a waste of your talents, and now you’re barging headlong into the long-standing “Food Network Star” (formerly known as “The Next Food Network Star”) franchise.

Alton, I realize you have to earn a living, but this crap is beneath you. It’s so far beneath you it’s not even funny. The promos refer to you, Bobby Flay and Giada DeLaurentis as “food icons.” Well, you didn’t become a food icon by hosting crappy “reality” shows, and if crappy “reality” shows are the future of your career, you won’t be a food icon for long.

Please figure out some way to move in another direction. We’re not waiting for the next Food Network star, prancing around the kitchen spouting Guy Fieri-style catch phrases. We’re waiting for the next “Good Eats” or “Feasting on Asphalt.”

Please, I beg you, move on – even if it means switching networks.

Sep 29

Good Eats and the Good News

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I am home sick. I’m supposed to be lying down – and I will be again, in a few minutes – but I had to check my e-mail.

My e-mail contained a notice of a new Twitter follower. I’m still not exactly sure who he is, but we have some Twitter contacts in common, so I went to check out his profile page.

I’m glad I did; he had a link to this article about Alton Brown. Any regular reader of this blog knows that I’m a huge fan of Alton’s – but apparently, I wasn’t a huge enough fan to know that Alton is a Christian:

When I go to New York and I tell people I am going to church tomorrow, people take a couple of steps back from me. What I’ve learned to do is go ahead and take two steps forward. But yeah, it’s tough, and there have been times when I’ve broken out in a sweat a little. I still feel a funny little tinge in my stomach when I’m out to dinner with my wife and daughter in New York. We’ll go to dinner and we’ll be sitting around the table and we’ll say Grace. You know what? People are going to stare at you. I used to feel really self-conscious. But I’ve gotten to a point where I think, nah, I’m not going to feel bad about that. I’m not going to apologize about that.

It’s a nice article, and a pleasant surprise. One thing that struck me: So many people think – falsely – that science and religion have to be at odds. I think one of the interesting things about Alton is that “Good Eats” is, in large part, a show which popularizes science.

One of the earlier episodes of “Good Eats,” the one about casseroles, took place at a little white country church – a United Methodist church, which they took pains to identify by name through an on-screen graphic. The church reminded me of a lot of the churches my father used to pastor. Of course, all that proved was that Alton had been exposed to religion, and (given that he grew up in Georgia) that wasn’t too unexpected.

So, good for Alton. Although, I have to say, I’ve gotten a little tired of “The Next Iron Chef.” Why are they doing another one so soon? Is one of the existing Iron Chefs leaving? How many Iron Chefs does one network need? I didn’t watch the last “Next Iron Chef” except for the last couple of episodes, and I really didn’t like the arrogant Jose Garces, who ended up winning the thing.

Now I’m suddenly even sadder that “The Wittenburg Door” is in limbo. At this point, I would certainly have been calling Bob Darden to try to pitch him an interview with Alton, who would have fit the magazine to a T.

Mar 22

First time is not the charm

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Well, the caramels taste great, but they are unacceptably gooey, to the point of being shapeless, and sticky. I did something wrong.

To try to salvage the situation, I’ve wrapped them individually in wax paper (and was that a chore) and I’ve put them in the freezer overnight. I’ll keep them in the fridge tomorrow at work and serve them cold.

Mar 22

The candy man can

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Well, I’m here … at home. We will have a pickup rehearsal on Thursday; I have a county meeting to cover tomorrow night, and dinner at church on Wednesday, but tonight … I’m home. Feels strange, after the intense schedule of the past two weeks, and the three-or-four-nights-a-week schedule before that.

I decided to try something fun tonight. I love to cook, as regular readers know, but one thing I’ve never tried is candy. But Alton Brown had a recipe for dark salty caramels that sounded so good I just had to try it. I broke my last deep fry/candy thermometer, so I had to buy one at the grocery store; I forgot about the cream of tartar in the recipe, but fortunately I found some way, way back in my cupboard. (I hope cream of tartar doesn’t go bad, because it’s past the date on the bottom of the tin.)

From Drop Box

The recipe seems to have gone well. It’s cooling now; I’ll cut it into pieces just before going to bed tonight. The little taste I scraped from the sides of the saucepan is delicious. It has just a tiny hint of bitterness, but Alton said on “Good Eats” that it was supposed to be there — the soy sauce in the recipe, and the kosher salt which I will sprinkle on top of the candies in about a half an hour, is supposed to overcome the bitterness. (Alton actually called for sea salt, but I don’t have any.)

Feb 06

Something fishy going on here

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All right, Alton Brown, this is the craziest thing you’ve ever inspired me to do. By far.

I just had a late lunch involving sardines.

It was not exactly according to Alton’s recipe for sherried sardine toast. I didn’t have sherry vinegar, so I just used the juice from the lemon I was zesting anyway. I also added some onion and diced jalapeno to the avocado, and I used fresh hot bread out of my bread machine rather than toasting it.

But I ate … sardines. And enjoyed it, sort of.

On the episode of “Good Eats” on which Alton presented this recipe, he got around most of our reactions to sardines by referring to them as “brisling,” the actual name of the fish in question. The gag was that at one point, the paper label fell off his can of brisling to reveal the real “sardines” label underneath. Then, the POV camera bolted for the door and Alton had to try to talk the viewer down.

The recipe called for brisling sardines packed in olive oil, more expensive than some types of sardines. You drain off some of the oil and mix it with lemon zest, parsley and sherry vinegar (or in my case, lemon juice) to make a dressing, which the sardines marinate in for a little while. In Alton’s original recipe, a little more of the sardine oil is brushed on slices of bread before toasting them.

The toast is slathered with mashed avocado, then a few of the sardines are placed on top, topped with a little bit of the marinade and a sprinkle of salt. (I didn’t have sea salt either, another part of the original recipe.)

It frankly wasn’t that bad. I love avocado, and it actually offset some of the fishy taste of the sardines.

Alton is the only TV chef I trust enough to get me to eat sardines.

Aug 25

Golden brown and delicious

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I made Alton Brown’s macaroni and cheese over the weekend — and I’d done that before. It’s delicious.

What I hadn’t done before, and what I did this evening, was to make the next-day fried mac and cheese, which turned out terrific as well. You cut the refrigerated leftovers into inch-thick slices, dust them in flour, coat them in beaten egg and then roll them in panko bread crumbs (which weren’t available here the first time I made Alton’s mac-and-cheese recipe). Then you deep fry them until done (or until “GBD,” as Alton says: golden brown and delicious). They turned out great.

Dec 30

Oats, overnight

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When Alton Brown first did an episode of “Good Eats” about oatmeal, I couldn’t find the kind that he recommends — steel-cut or “pinhead” oats — in our local stores. But I saw them here a week or two ago and tried them. They’re good; they do have a meatier, chewier texture than regular rolled oats. But they take a while to cook, and I don’t have time to cook on weekday mornings, especially since the acting editor’s job requires me to be at the office by 6 a.m. The two times I’ve made them before now were on weekends.

So tonight I’m trying one of Alton’s recipes from that episode: overnight oatmeal, which cooks in the Crock Pot overnight. Instead of the dried cranberries and figs Alton calls for, I’m trying dried blueberries. (I love blueberries.)

Tomorrow morning, I can scoop out one serving of the stuff and take it to work with me. The recipe makes more than I need for one breakfast, but if it turns out well I may be able to refrigerate the excess. We’ll try it and see.