I hate Alton Brown more than ever.

Are you sure it wasn’t the terra cotta smoker (which definitely would not melt in the rain and could be used many times), and not the cardboard smoker, that was around $40? I thought they were both pretty ingenious and it was entertaining to watch him make and use them. Good ole Yankee know-how, I say. :slight_smile:

Gotta defend my man Alton here. Other than a few years there in the middle, when the bad character acting and silly plot lines got way out of hand, his show was the most consistently informative and interesting on the network, bar none. I’ve made many of his recipes, and while they weren’t all winners, he had a good success rate with me.

As for criticisms from others that he is a sociopath, or an asshole, or got progressively meaner with each pound he shed – hey, I’m not going to say it’s wrong, but it really seems like a bunch of unsubtantiated nonsense to me. Plus, he’s an entertainer. You think Captain Kangaroo didn’t call out the crew on occasion when the cameras weren’t rolling? :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, of course it did. It was sauerkraut! :slight_smile:

I don’t think anyone here is arguing that Good Eats wasn’t an excellent show. At least, that isn’t the point of this thread.

QFT

One problem I’ve had with Good Eats is just how complicated AB seems to make things, and usually unnecessarily, IMO.

For example, his method for cooking lobster. I’ve never heard anyone complain about eating a boiled lobster. But AB had to instead steam it, then cut it all up and finish portions in the oven. The end result was a massacred lobster. I thought part of the fun of lobster was getting to massacre it yourself?

I just looked up the onion soup recipe. Apple cider?? I spend an HOUR or more carmelizing onions and using all those good ingredients, and he puts apple cider into onion soup?? Sounds like some kind of prank - the man is obviously evil, too!

I have to agree. He always seemed to insist on being a little too clever, especially with his hardware store rigs, like the tikki oven made with a terra cotta pot and a masonry saw. He’s like a balding Martha Stewart.

Mr. Lizard calls him “The Anal Retentive Chef.” (R.I.P. Phil Hartman)

Food Nework is more about shallow personalities and lame competitions than it is about food.

I want Alton to do a corrections show in which he correctly pronounces oligosaccharide, astaxanthin, arthropod, and plantain. Oh, and turbot.

You are correct, Sir!