# I hate Alton Brown more than ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412 "2012-07-16T14:35:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/81 "2012-07-17T15:02:10Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’m pretty sure he never had a heart attack. There’s an episode of Good Eats where his character has a heart attack (the oatmeal episode), but so far as I know, he’s never had one in real life, and anything I can find about it on Google indicates that there may have been a rumor of him having a heart attack, but nothing substantiated. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/82 "2012-07-17T15:24:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s an episode of Good Eats where his character has a heart attack (the oatmeal episode), but so far as I know, he’s never had one in real life, and anything I can find about it on Google indicates that there may have been a rumor of him having a heart attack, but nothing substantiated. I think that was the tuna episode. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/83 "2012-07-17T15:34:26Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’m pretty sure he never had a heart attack. Seems you’re right. Sorry. I could have sworn I heard/read it somewhere that was not Good Eats and that explained his weight loss. Seems he was just getting too big and decided to slim down. It also seems to have turned him into an asshole though. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/84 "2012-07-17T15:49:34Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Not even kind of reddish-blonde? :dubious: Don’t tell me there was more than one show like that! :eek: Take a look. I for one don’t see anything even remotely resembling [blonde](https://www.google.com/search?q=claudine+pepin&num=100&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=NEB&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnsoe&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SIkFUJ6jIKf8mAXy2uhC&ved=0CO0DELAE&biw=1280&bih=830). It all looks dark to me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/85 "2012-07-17T16:08:57Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I think that was the tuna episode. You’re right. It was the “The Other Red Meat” episode on tuna. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/86 "2012-07-17T16:12:40Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Take a look. I for one don’t see anything even remotely resembling [blonde](https://www.google.com/search?q=claudine+pepin&num=100&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=NEB&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnsoe&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SIkFUJ6jIKf8mAXy2uhC&ved=0CO0DELAE&biw=1280&bih=830). It all looks dark to me. She looks close to strawberry blonde or even dirty/dishwater blonde in some of those photos. It depends on the lighting and the picture. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/87 "2012-07-17T16:50:18Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#): > > I haven’t. > > I just really miss the cooking shows where the person cooked, and there was no fake drama or competition. > > Like woodworking with the New Yankee Workshop: just Norm in the workshop building things, and the audience along for the show. > > Nowadays, there’s always some damn gimmick or fake drama. > > Alton seemed to forgo drama with his Good Eats, but at times the lecturing was a bit much. I seriously love to just see a good cook doing their thing. It really can be an art form of skilled use of time and honed skills. > > _sigh_ This. I **HATE** cooking as competition. I did appreciate Good Eats as an education about cooking, especially about the physics of the art, but I won’t watch AB or anybody else on these stupid reality/competition shows. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/88 "2012-07-17T16:55:18Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > This. I **HATE** cooking as competition. > > I did appreciate Good Eats as an education about cooking, especially about the physics of the art, but I won’t watch AB or anybody else on these stupid reality/competition shows. The Frugal Gourmet was also really good, except for the whole molestation accusations. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/89 "2012-07-17T17:30:02Z")
Which, fortunately, was not part of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/90 "2012-07-17T17:49:45Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Uh huh, I get that. But working for/with/under a renowned expert in any other discipline is equally prestigious, isn’t it? And yet you don’t hear underlings screamin ‘Yes, Astrophysicist Who Made Several Paradigm-Shifting Observations!’ or ‘No, Highly Esteemed Virologist!’ > > To take something _directly_ from a military setting and adapt it for…cooking? Can anybody with direct experience tell me when this practice (boot-camp style cookery, I mean) started? I have no way to know, but I _suspect_ that TV had something to do with it. > > I’m a little sarcastic today. My cooks have addressed me as Chef almost every place I’ve been. The ones that werent screwups called me Dan. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/91 "2012-07-17T18:17:22Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > She looks close to strawberry blonde or even dirty/dishwater blonde in some of those photos. It depends on the lighting and the picture. Yeah, that’s her. I remember her as a golden or strawberry blonde; judging from those photos, the coloring did change (or appear to change) from time to time. Just trying to remember when I watched the show; it must have been some time in the mid-90s, when I first tried making custard according to their recipe. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/92 "2012-07-17T19:57:29Z")
(Alton B. had a blog (don’t know if he still does) which I looked at a few years ago and I couldn’t help he came across as morose, humorless, and … well, pissy. So I’m not surprised at these posts.) I don’t know that cooking shows featuring people just cooking stuff would go over any more. I don’t know why not, there is a new generation that could benefit from watching a few cooking demonstrations. But the network wants the personalities, the drama. And everything that can be cooked has been cooked on air. Rachel Ray put the nail in that coffin. I miss Unwrapped, but that’s run its course unless they start going to factories making junk food overseas. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/93 "2012-07-17T20:06:00Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > (Alton B. had a blog (don’t know if he still does) which I looked at a few years ago and I couldn’t help he came across as morose, humorless, and … well, pissy. So I’m not surprised at these posts.) Still there (haven’t read it though): > **[The Official Alton Brown Website](https://altonbrown.com/)** > > Welcome to Alton Brown's fun, exploratory website, home to recipes, favorite multitaskers, Scabigail merch, and bonus video content. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/94 "2012-07-17T20:17:38Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > I really, really like “The F Word”. I love the segments where you see him at home when he’s raising animals and stuff. He seems so real. He’s very nice to the people he’s teaching to cook and the celebs are always fun to watch. Gordon Ramsay did another show called Gordon’s Great Escape. In the first three-part series, he traveled around India, learning various local recipes. In the second series, he traveled around Southeast Asia, learning other local recipes. Basically, I wish he’d return to making shows in the UK, since the shows he made there involved less shouting and were more instructive. (But I suspect that Fox in the US pays better than the UK networks.) And I think that Food Network spun off a second channel called the Cooking Channel specifically to feature the instructional-type shows that Food Network originally ran. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/95 "2012-07-17T20:27:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I wish he’d return to making shows in the UK He has a new show made/airing in the UK now called “Gordon Behind Bars” (in which he’s trying to set up a cooking/baking business in a prison). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/96 "2012-07-17T20:29:40Z")
Well, I hope that BBC America shows it soon. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/97 "2012-07-17T20:41:43Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > This AND…there have been a few times I’ve come across a competitive cooking type show, and the contestants are always screaming ‘Yes CHEF, no CHEF’ etc., like the chef is a fucking drill instructor. > > Does this happen in an actual kitchen? I kinda hate it…seems like an affectation. I started making fun of this very thing a few months ago with friends and relatives in the kitchen. Some of them don’t get it right away, but once I explain it, we bark at each other in the same way, except we’re ALL the chef. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/98 "2012-07-17T20:53:22Z")
Remember that old Cajun guy, Justin somethingorother? “You’re gonna like it, I guarantee it!” ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/99 "2012-07-17T20:57:56Z")
[Justin Wilson](http://www.justinwilson.com/). He’s gone, but lives on through the magic of the Internet. Here he is [cooking and telling stories](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK4umRMJlrs) (YouTube). ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/100 "2012-07-17T20:58:45Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Remember that old Cajun guy, Justin somethingorother? “You’re gonna like it, I guarantee it!” What? Justin Wilson would never say that! It’s “I gar-own-tee!” 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412.md?page=6)