The title says it all. Good Eats is the best cooking show on the Food Network, hands down.
Now before you get all riled up, Iron Chef is not really a cooking show. Yes, I know they cook in it, but it’s a contest. They don’t give recipes and don’t explain techniques, so it’s not really a cooking show, per se.
Alton Brown, the host of Good Eats, is an extremely intelligent guy. He goes out of his way to explain why certain techniques work, and better yet, explains the science behind them.
His recipes are easy to follow, but are very tasty. They run the gamut from very complex puff pastries to simple beef broth. His turkey show was incredible. I used his recipe, and it was the best turkey I’ve ever eaten, much less prepared.
And the icing on the cake: he is hilarious. The show has a liberal amount of humor spots, and they rarely fall flat. Alton can sometimes be hokey (see the Count Dracula garlic espisode), but he has moments of pure genius (see the fried chicken episode).
I love this show. For a wannabe-chef-geek like me, having him go into all the chemical science behind emulsion when making mayoniaise just rocks (complete with styrofoam balls). I used to hate the supporting players like W and his sister, but they too have grown on me.
He tends to be a little preachy on occasion, but it’s usually for good reasons (Okay Alton, I promise, not a molecule of fat anywhere in my zip code when I make an angel food cake).
I’ll cast a vote for the Naked Chef. I like how he cooks in such a “slap dash” manner but ends up concocting the most extraordinary looking stuff in the end.
Oh, and he’s just such an adorable, squeezable, all around cutiepie too…
Seriously, though, Good Eats is by far the best cooking show on Food Network (with Iron Chef coming in a very, very close 2nd for me).
What I love about the show is that he puts some rather complex food chemistry concepts into easy terms that non-chefs can understand (I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu so I know all the stuff already :)). I also enjoy the sense of humor he injects into the show as most of the cooking shows on Food Network are just so… dry (except for the Classic Shows like Julia Child and Galloping Gourmet they run mid-day–they leave me giggling and fascinated).
I understand why he can be preachy–he’s just trying to get a very important concept by his audience. I think he’s just doing that because if someone got a molecule of fat in their batter when making angel food cake, they’ll cry out, “but why didn’t it turn out?”
Another vote for highest marks for Alton. It is rare that I actually catch his show but it’s always interesting and educational when I do.
More often then not it’s that sawed off Portugues meatball yelling “Powk Fat Rules!!!” at me with his “Bam!” and flying essence which seem to hit everything but the dish it’s intended for. Emeryl was fun at the start and certainly deserves praise for making cooking a spectator event, but his shtick is starting to become old IMHO.
Another person that I like to watch is that executive chef/editor for Gourmet magazine. Is it Sarah (something)? I like her because she makes interesting dishes and plenty of mistakes which she does not even try to cover up but still manages to salvage or sometimes even start over when possible.
Chef Ming is great to watch as well. Charismatic fellow. My only objection to his show is the amount of sea food he makes. I’d say it comprises about 75% of his shows. That’s fine if you like the stuff but my tastes into marine epicure run no deeper than cod fillets and canned tuna. The lobsters, crabs and shrimp just look like giant bugs to me.
Yeah, Good Eats is good eats. I dunno about the Naked Chef…he could be naked for all I can tell. The fricking camera never stays still long enough for me to get a look at him, or his food, either. I tried to watch the show, but the camera work gave me a headache. I mean, I have epileptic friends who are fine human beings, but I don’t know that I want them filming a food show while actively seizing.
I do like “Calling All Cooks” quite a bit. I’m a home cook, not a professional or anything, and I always need new ideas. Anything these people can make, I can sure as hell make. Also, my particular interest is not necessarily in party food (smashing hors d’ouvres or outrageous desserts) but in everyday cooking from around the world. That is, what are they eating tonight for dinner in India? Or France? Or Brazil? …Well, “Calling All Cooks” takes a family cook, often an immigrant or child of immigrants, and shows him/her making his/her best dish, the one that the family requests again and again. Now that’s something useful. I do enjoy “Iron Chef” but I don’t think I’ll be making Fish Roe Ice Cream or Seaweed Squid Steamed Buns anytime soon.
I love Good Eats as well. Although I’ve been cooking for years, I always learn something useful on each of his shows.
I also love Jamie Oliver. I like the fact that some grunt has not chopped up all the ingredients for him before the show. The guy is as fast as a greyhound and we see the entire dish prepared from scratch, chopping and all. And yeah, what’s Pukka Tukka??
And, greenlady, I’ve started a thread about how cute he is in the past, and the thread sank like a stone. I thought I was the only one with a crush on him!
Oooooh, I have a HUGE crush on Alton Brown. He’s soooo cute.
Watch out, pugluvr, I’m gonna throw him on that counter and have my way with him!
And his show is great. I make the Broiled, Butterflied Chicken all the time.
I do steaks his way, too. I want to do the brine turkey this year for Thanksgiving. I even have all the same gadgets!
My favorites show is The Art of Darkness. Mmm, Chocolate Lava Muffins!
Check it out: Alton Brown Fan Page.
I also like the show called “Unwrapped.” It’s the one where they go behind the scenes of how some food product is made. Just fascinating.
Mmmmmmmmm. The turkey brine from the Thanksgiving episode was a best single piece of advice I’ve ever gotten on a cooking show.
I love Alton Brown, and he is far and away better than the pompous BAM! guy (who actually signed a cookbook for my S.O., but I still hate him). His shows are informative, funny, and damn if the stuff isn’t Good Eats. Kudos to Alton Brown I say. Kudos.
I missed your thread, or else I would have responded, fer sure. I’m not here as often I’d like to be. I’m always missing something, it seems…
I wanted to add that as far as recipe/cooking techniques, advice, preparation, etc. – the practical stuff you can actually use, I’ve found Martha Stewart to be the very best. I know she’s not on Food Network though, so maybe she doesn’t qualify here? Even though she scares the heck outta me, and I wouldn’t dare step into her kitchen myself, I can’t help but admire the woman.
Oops…and I’m starting to enjoy Sarah Moulton now that the show’s slowed down somewhat. When she was trying to do 4 or 5 recipes a show, she was like a hyperactive chipmunk on speed…she made me nervous just watching her. She’s cut back to 3 recipes and is much more enjoyable to watch.
I suspect I don’t need to repeat what I think of Emril again.
And I miss David Rosengarten’s show “Taste” which had a recipe for the best blueberry pie I’ve ever had.
This show used to irritate me to no end, but it’s grown on me. I never cook anything more complicated than a frozen pizza, so I haven’t tried the recipes, but it’s still a darned good show.
Probably 90-95% of what we watch on tv is either FoodTV or HGTV (though Discovery/TLC are up there too). Alton is great and LOVE Good Eats (GE). I’m also a huge fan of the others mentioned with admiration here…Cooking Live (CL), Naked Chef, Calling All Cooks (CAC) and Food 911 (F911 – is Tyler the next Bobby Flay or what? Too adorable.) I used to like Bobby’s older program (the one in the studio, not outside), not as fond of his traveling bit. I also used to like to watch Ready, Set, Cook. While it’s a contest (like Iron Chef) it taught you how to cook a lot out of your panty and use food in interesting and fast-prep ways.
GE is good for its indepth concentration on one thing per show, but that makes for fewer things covered (the only drawback–though I think I watched the coffee and chocolate shows 4 or 5 times each). Food 911 is great because he usually takes an ingredient item and shows its versatility, or teaches a technique and several ways he can be applied. CAC and CL are great because they concentrate on foods anyone can make – you needn’t be a master chef to master the dishes. NC, well, that’s just entertaining to watch–he goes much to fast to learn much from…
I have to admit I like a lot of what Martha Stewart does and enjoy watching both her programs, it’s just that nails-on-a-chalkboard voice that gets to me now and then.
We love Alton. We learn a lot about tofu. We love the polysaturated fat choo-choo train with the goblin finger puppets. We love lots of vegetarian recipes although we are not vegetarian. We learn lots about making cookies. It is all good. It’s like chemistry class, with grub. The “but I want to know why!” part of me loves it, while Jaime just tosses brilliant things together with instinctive understanding that I will never be able to follow.
