He’s nerdy, geeky, has awful schtick and to me brined turkey sounded ogawful. In other words, I think his show is the best on the Food Network. He can get on my nerves, but in a good way. I always enjoy watching his show even when his recipes wanna make me hurl.
He also reminds me of a friend of mine who is nerdy, geeky and has an appalling sense of humor. I really like this guy though. He makes a helluva bloody mary mix.
I have never watched his show. Before this thread I could not have told you who the man is. Food Network is not one of my viewing selections. Cooking is not something I enjoy, in fact I avoid it whenever possible. Purely in the interest of balancing the world’s supply of karma, I will volunteer to be Mr. Brown’s main detractor. Simply attribute to me any insults that may seem appropriate or, in this case, inappropriate.
I do what I can…
Mother Theresa deserves criticism. Alton Brown does not.
You are dead to me.
Similar to what DoctorJ said, I’m kind of suspicious of the fact that he has no chef credentials other than attending culinary school. As much as we all hate the personalities of the other FoodTV people, you almost invariably here raves from people who go to their restaurants and have a meal. They were chefs first and they know what tastes good.
Alton is really more about technique. But I like technique, so that’s only a mild critiscism.
Alton is a kitchen geek, and therefore My Hero!
Speak for yourself. I find them refreshing, compared to most of the programming available (with the exception of Bobby Flay)
Alton Brown kicks ass.
He cooks good too.
I think he’s great. It doesn’t hurt that he gives Shirley Corriher a good deal of ar time. She’s an absolute genius with the science of food, explaining the inner details of how proteins in flour uncoil and re-assemble themselves to form a cake or whatever other magic is happening when something is cooked.
However, my partner can’t stand Alton due to one episode where he shoved an old mixer off the counter. “Old Blue just isn’t strong enough” He collects antique mixers like Old Blue, so the needless destruction of it really upset him. An email to Alton was replied to with a canned “Thanks for your interest in the show” which did nothing to soothe him. Before the mixer massacre, he just thought Alton was strange - now he firmly dislikes him.
He’s one of the only people I can watch on Food Network. I really can’t stand the little tiny girl with the HUGE head (italian cooking, don’t know her show). She’s freakish and scary.
Alton is one of the few people that should be made an honourary Doper.
I don’t personally dislike Alton Brown, but I don’t really like his show. I think he does a good job at what he does and I don’t really find him annoying other than the highly polished and overly anal production value and style of the show and what I assume is a reflection of him. It just conflicts with my philosophy of cooking and really isn’t my preference, I like the “live” style cooking shows (Can’t stand Emeril though, and would rather watch Alton.). Gimme Julia, Jacques, Tyler, and Jamie…
FilmGeek, That girl that you think has a big head is Giada DeLaurentis, and in my opinion is quite beatiful. She reminds me of a model in some 16th. century venetian painting, she has a look of Italian aristocracy…quite the little Juliette.
I love Alton Brown and want to have his babies.
Well, not exactly, but I do really enjoy his show and his website. I enjoy learning about cooking and I find that he is very accessible. I find that the other shows on Food Network with people who have been in the restaurant industry are mildly irritating. Alton tends to use ingredients that might, you know, be available here in the heart of the Midwest. He talks about what tools in the kitchen are actually good and worth the money. I got one of his books for Christmas and my mom practically wrenched it from my hands (and she’s a great cook). He’s interesting and fun to listen to, and yes, he’s a geek, which I love, too.
I’ll be a sort of detractor here. I love the science portion of his shows, particularly ones like the chocolate chip cookie show. Sometimes, though, he seems a bit inflexible. His way of doing things is always the best. He doesn’t allow for much variation or experimentation in recipes. I’m not sure I always like his choices.
However, I do think that his commentary is perfect for Iron Chef. His strength is in technique, rather than art.
Me thinks he is a hack. My husband adores him. Everything I’ve seen I pretty much know for myself or have seen published in books.
I imagine his crack creative team with a items trying to figure out how to put them into a recipe pilfered from a book. Like, hey take this frisbee from the dog and cut a slit in it so you can use it as a lid. OK, now what? rinse it off and stow it away for the next time while the dog pines away at the his old and now assaulted friend. Let’s smoke something in a locker! A+ for you, Alton.
Hmm, lets turn that cast iron skillet over and cook on the bottom. Genius? No. and PS, your cornbread sucks.
Watch some Malto or something or visit epicurious.com…or if you really need some info:
But that’s the whole point of the show. He leaves much of the actual cooking to the chefs on the other shows. Alton is all about giving us the hows and whys of it. Any of them can tell you to mix flour, butter, and eggs then bake - tada - cake. Alton is the only one telling us whyit becomes cake. I guess he just caters to the geek in me.
Last night the two shows that were on were the coffee show and the tea show. Could you imagine any other of the hosts spending one full hour and having the total production be one pot of tea, one pitcher of iced tea, and one thermos of coffee?
Maybe it’s a small thing, but my pancakes improved dramatically after seeing his pancake show.
If you couldn’t tell, I LOVE Alton. (How could you not love a guy who says in his book “never buy spices in bulk unless you own a restaurant or are doing a remake of Dune”). Registered member or not, the guy is one of us.
(Aside - I, too, think that Giada is beautiful. I can’t wait for her book to come out , I really want to try some of her dishes. My Dad thinks her head is too big for her body - LOL.)
All that said, my Mother can’t stand Alton. She refuses to watch him and any shows that I think she would be interested in (like the compound butter) she makes me take notes rather than watch him. 
I like Alton a lot, and I try to catch his show whenever I can. But, like other TV chefs, he does have a few little quirks that annoy me. Like the dumbass “characters” he drags out every now and then.
Sometimes he really cracks me up, though, like on the Thanksgiving special, when he glued the turkey to the platter with mashed potatoes piped out of a plastic bag; he did such an awful job that I had to wonder if he’d been sampling Wild Turkey along with the cooked turkey.
Eat me!
[sub]Get it? It’s a cooking joke! Maybe this kitchen stuff ain’t so bad…[/sub]
I like Alton Brown, but I have to thank Aes for starting this thread because while Googling some Food Network folks I stumbled on the pics of Rachel Ray from FHM. Holy shit.
–Cliffy
I love his show, but he did prove how inadequate my straight man gaydar is. I would have bet $ 20.00 and a doughnut he was gay until he started talking about hs wife and kids on one show.