# 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:** 7
**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 18, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/121 "2012-07-18T01:41:35Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Not to defend Brown or anything, but I think I remember that episode. Did you allow the pie to cool and set up for at least, oh, I believe he said 5 hours or so? It wasn’t the kind of pie you should eat warm out of the oven. I refrigerated the pie overnight. Didn’t do any good. ☹ ---
**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 18, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/122 "2012-07-18T01:49:52Z")
> [@tellthetruth](#): > > Giada who won popularity by letting her titties hang down to the cutting board. Why don’t they just let her do her show topless with a couple tea cups hanging from her nipples? What?!? You would cover up her nipples?!? Is nothing sacred to you?!? :eek: I, for one, am willing to bet her nipples are absolutely delightful! 🆒 ---
**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 18, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/123 "2012-07-18T01:50:19Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > I hope I’m getting across how truly annoying this was. He and the producers trying to “bad ass” up the show. You’re making a quiche, numbnuts! It ain’t gonna get too exciting. that was my point at the beginning of all this! They cook food. Woo hoo? ---
**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 18, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/124 "2012-07-18T01:51:15Z")
> [@tellthetruth](#): > > Before his show went national on PBS he would always pronounce “vinegar” in his phony cajun accent as “vi-nigger.” And…? How do you pronounce it? :rolleyes: ---
**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 18, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/125 "2012-07-18T01:58:40Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > [One stop shopping](http://www.pbs.org/food/julia-child-100-birthday/) for all your Julia Child-related PBS needs. Classic episodes are available for streaming, it seems, for a limited time. So get your bon appetit in gear! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ---
**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 18, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/126 "2012-07-18T02:38:49Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > And…? How do you pronounce it? :rolleyes: You can’t imagine any way in which the word “vinegar” might be pronounced in order to emphasize the “nigger” part more than is usual? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/127 "2012-07-18T02:43:41Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > And…? How do you pronounce it? :rolleyes: Vi-negro. ---
**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 18, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/128 "2012-07-18T02:52:12Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > You can’t imagine any way in which the word “vinegar” might be pronounced in order to emphasize the “nigger” part more than is usual? Apparently my imagination isn’t as active as yours. ---
**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 18, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/129 "2012-07-18T02:53:17Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Vi-negro. Hmmmmm … is that PC nowadays? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/130 "2012-07-18T03:15:35Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Julia was awesome. > > Have you tried Ramsay’s show “The F Word”? It’s much more… subdued. (On BBC America in the US, dunno how/if it’s carried elsewhere.) It’s a bit of celeb food chat, a small cooking competition with a 4-person team that he teaches, some “this is where your food comes from” demonstration, and teaching a couple recipes to a few regular people and the home audience. He’s very rarely shouty. Julia truly was awesome. I disliked Ramsay from the ads, but then I watched part of a “Hell’s Kitchen” and realized he was a saint with the patience of Job because he did not brutally dismember those idiots. “The F Word” is good. I do not know why I opened this thread because I don’t know who Alton Brown is, but it was apparently fated so I could find out about this Giada woman people speak of. Oh. Oh, dear. :eek: I wonder if she’d believe that the Fates brought us together on an internet message board. ---
**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 18, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/131 "2012-07-18T03:24:03Z")
Nigella is just as good. Giada doesn’t have that way of killing me when she slips on those glasses. Woof! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/132 "2012-07-18T06:20:45Z")
Brown made no bones about the fact that his purpose for making Good Eats was to make better TV. That’s what’s so weird about his stint on other shows–he acts like he thinks he’s a chef. On Good Eats, he made fun of people who acted like that. But, really, none of this matters to me because Good Eats still is the only cooking show I’ve seen that I like. Iron chef is sorta fun in the competition aspect, but since I can’t try the food, it doesn’t matter. Good Eats may have some bum recipes, but at least I can try them. Good Eats made cooking into science, something I can relate to. It’s like how making Harry Potter a scientist in The Methods of Rationality has made it where I can finally relate to that universe. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/133 "2012-07-18T11:13:03Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Vi-negro. I say it “vin-African American” just to be safe. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/134 "2012-07-18T13:27:05Z")
> [@tellthetruth](#): > > Great rant and true Alton Brown is an asshole but what gags a maggot is that bitch Giada who won popularity by letting her titties hang down to the cutting board. You say that like it’s a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/135 "2012-07-18T14:02:49Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That’s the way it was always said in Lenny Henry’s _[Chef!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef!)_ (1993-1996) and I don’t recall thinking that it was new at the time. Chefs have often traditionally been portrayed as Sergeant Carter-style, screaming martinets who demand exacting obedience from the staff. It’s not new. In his first book, Anthony Bourdain mentioned that some great chefs are able to run their kitchens as calm, pleasant places (Eric Ripert was one whom he cited), which Bourdain found admirable but incomprehensible. ---
**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 18, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/136 "2012-07-18T14:21:11Z")
My personal crackpot theory is that because cooking is “woman’s work,” chefs have to act like alpha-dog males, dumping testosterone\* all over everything, so that nobody thinks they’re big girls for cooking. - ba-dump-bump ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/137 "2012-07-18T14:23:33Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Apparently my imagination isn’t as active as yours. Nor is mine. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/138 "2012-07-18T14:31:35Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > My personal crackpot theory is that because cooking is “woman’s work,” chefs have to act like alpha-dog males, dumping testosterone\* all over everything, so that nobody thinks they’re big girls for cooking. > > - ba-dump-bump I think it’s because [great food is cooked by psychos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoFXhB5THFk). ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/139 "2012-07-18T14:35:48Z")
A few thoughts from a Good Eats fan. Alton Brown does not have to be a warm, cuddly fellow for me to like his TV show (See also: Simon, Paul). In fact I think it’s directly due to his cold, engineer-like brain that his show’s format works; the food of the day is usually introduced with its own history, not some fuzzy story of his love for it. When he does do shows on foods he has a personal connection to, it isn’t as good. I couldn’t ask for a better combination than Julia Child, Monty Python, and Mr. Wizard. I thought his tears on Food Network Star were genuine and, honestly, unwanted. I think he avoids emotional outbursts by being aloof. It snuck up on him. > [@BigT](#): > > Brown made no bones about the fact that his purpose for making Good Eats was to make better TV. That’s what’s so weird about his stint on other shows–he acts like he thinks he’s a chef. On Good Eats, he made fun of people who acted like that. > … I’ve never seen him cook anything outside of Good Eats. I’ve seen him be a condescending know-it-all, but never a dictatorial chef of a kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412/140 "2012-07-18T15:00:44Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > My personal crackpot theory is that because cooking is “woman’s work,” chefs have to act like alpha-dog males, dumping testosterone\* all over everything… > > - ba-dump-bump Now there’s an interesting visual. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-alton-brown-more-than-ever/628412.md?page=8)