I take it all back, Alton Brown

Well had some extensive exposure to this guy over the past couple of days, and the one thing that sold me on him and made me eat my derogatory words I have spoken in the past.

He Bakes Bacon. The guy is obviously a top chef. Anyone with true cooking sense knows this is how it is and was meant to be done. of course more than this, but I never gave him a chance before. Also I read his ideas on water, noodles and oil rather then feedback and I will eat those words of my past big mouth too.

Alton I take it all back, you are a great chef and keep it up.
Sean

This is soo funny! I was just reading an article the other day that said The Food Network has replaced MTV for Generation Xers... Sean's post confirms that for me... I never expected to see Alton Brown pop up in a thread... And no, he's not a top chef... he's a clown. Even I put bacon in the stove... and believe you me, the only thing I want to make in the kitchen is reservations because that's where the phone is located...

Kwanford Wife said:

And no, he's not a top chef... he's a clown. Even I put bacon in the stove... and believe you me, the only thing I want to make in the kitchen is reservations because that's where the phone is located...

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So what do you know, how to dial a phone? The fact he does act like a "clown" is a compensation for the fact he is looking at cooking analytically (that is what I didn't like at first - taking the fun out of cooking) and it is compensation. What I really like is he will use just about anything to cook in.

You would be surprised how many people do not put bacon in the oven. And that is not the only reason I take back my first narrow minded and judgmental conclusion of an otherwise promoted by a majority of populous because he is good regardless of what all of us know-it-alls think we know.

Hope this is taken as just and not

SeaniBu said:

So what do you know, how to dial a phone? The fact he does act like a "clown" is a compensation for the fact he is looking at cooking analytically (that is what I didn't like at first - taking the fun out of cooking) and it is compensation. What I really like is he will use just about anything to cook in.

You would be surprised how many people do not put bacon in the oven. And that is not the only reason I take back my first narrow minded and judgmental conclusion of an otherwise promoted by a majority of populous because he is good regardless of what all of us know-it-alls think we know.

Hope this is taken as just and not

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No... I'm just being a brat... my husband watches Alton everyday & everyday I rant & rave about Alton being a clown & he's not really cooking... Food Network is really big at my house - I like to watch Paula, my son has a thing for Rachel Ray (as does my husband...) but he can't stand that semi-home made cooking lady because she's always talking about the "tasty treat" and my son is convinced she's an alcholic...

And its a stove because that's what my mom calls it... so there!

Kwanford Wife said:

And its a stove because that's what my mom calls it... so there!

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:agree:

Kwanford Wife said:

he's not really cooking...

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That I do agree with, he is scientifically re-evaluating the cooking procedure. And it is not as though he is coming up with some great new recipe! So I never thought him a "chef" and thought he was a wet rag on a damp ice cube of cooking. Then I started thinking, he understands the processes and intricacies of the cooking procedure likely greater then most people in a Kitchen environment. Besides, to me the difference between a cook and a chef is one can teach, the other just does. So I decided I was previously wrong. His "clownish" behavior is a good catalyst for that MTV generation (you unintentionally grouped me into , I was past MTV at 13 and saw the very first video as it came on - I think I was 8 or 9 ) and it is good they might get interested in cooking rather then this canned crap, just keeping PMA for the new year.

Kwanford Wife said:

I like to watch Paula, my son has a thing for Rachel Ray (as does my husband...)

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:agree: the Kwanford Hubby and son have nice taste Now I have a picture in my head of what Kwanford Wife looks like. - I think roll eye should be renamed, look how good it fits for "visions in the mind"

Glad this stayed "sweet.":yes:

BTW, IMO The "Blam man E" is the biggest joke that hit cooking shows, but a good things came from his ..... "dorkedness."

At last someone who thinks the same thing about Sandra Lee as I do.
Even when she does a show about kids parties she has to make that special drink the kids can't have.

I typically watch food network on Saturday and Sunday late mornings. Usually Everyday Italian and Barefoot Contessa. The others I watch irregularly, but I think it's great that people have become more interested in cooking because the shows are so readily available.

I bowed down to Alton for his lobster rolling pin tip. To get the meat out of the lobster's legs, just use a rolling pin from the 'toes' to the top and the meat just comes right out. He's a blend of food science and cooking.

I find Sandra Lee somewhat annoying 'Easy, easy'. Also, the motifs go overboard at times.

Rachael Ray has said that she's a cook, not a chef.

Not warming up to Ellie Krieger and Nigella Feasts, yet.

I love teh Food Network. Bobby Flay is my favorite Iron Chef... and I can't get enough of the different challenges. Ace of Cakes is tops!

Kwanford Wife said:

.....Food Network is really big at my house - I like to watch Paula, my son has a thing for Rachel Ray (as does my husband...) but he can't stand that semi-home made cooking lady because she's always talking about the "tasty treat" and my son is convinced she's an alcholic...

.....

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I'm watching Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels right now as I'm typing. She's showcasing the best barbeque restaurants across the country. Mmmmm ribs and brisket...

Both me and my mom would agree with your husbands observation of Sandra Lee. She can't finish a show without creating at least one of her cocktails; once she put no less than five different types of hard liquor into one glass.

I've always gotten the impression that she must be the wife of one of the bigwigs as the Food Network and he arranged for her to have her own show.

I also watch Everyday Italian, Barefoot Contessa, Boy Meets Grill and anything with Paula Deen and Rachael Ray in it.

Nice to see other foodtv enjoying folks.

Alton Brown

Alton Brown is one of the few cooks (I don't think he is an actual chef) who actually understand the chemistry/physics of food. Most of the others just go with the flow. Watching his show made me think more about the food itself when I cook.

I have met Giada DeLaurentiis twice now. She is extremely friendly in person, and also gorgeous! She is in real life what she is on the show.

One of my goals is to go to Paula Deen's restaurant eventually in the future. I have a little biscuit packet thing that someone sent to me from Paula Deen's shop. Finally, yes, I am also a Food Network addict.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef
"Chef" is a term commonly used to refer to an individual who cooks professionally. Within a restaurant however, chef (French for chief or head) is often only used to refer to one person: the one in charge of everyone else in the kitchen. This is usually the executive chef.
In larger kitchens, each station chef would have cooks and assistants (commis) that help with the particular duties that are assigned to that area. With experience, assistants may be promoted to station cooks and then to station chefs."

I have been told that Chef is not in regard to how well one cooks, but the resoponcablities there in. So I say He might not be a fantastic cook, but most Chefs don't even cook, they're supervisors - studding "chefs" underneath them do the cooking and prep, etc... and they have specific titles. So that is why I say chef. It is not a term of "high regard" for cooking abilities.

LCB-North America grad here (Alton went to NECI, but we forgive him for that). The Chef in a restaurant generally refers to the executive chel, followed by the brigade chefs who run the stations. Nowdays, there is almost never a full, Escofier-style brigade, because it's wicked expensive to run. Nowdays, you usually have an executive chef and then people on the line plus a dessert person if you're in a fine-dining place. As said, the Executive Chef is the manager. Depending on the size of the kitchen, he may or may not do a lot of cooking, but generally he does have a lot of line experience. In a largish operation the person who does most of the direct running of the kitchen is the sous chef, who is head of the brigade. If there is a full pastry kitchen, the Chef de Patisserie is roughly equal in rank to the sous chef. Celeb examples: Mario Batali and Bobby "There's Not Enough Room in Here For Me and My Ego Both" Flay are executive chefs.

In any case, Alton Brown is, like all of us who went to culinary schools, a cook, who has the educational background to be a chef if he wanted to go there. Frankly his talents would be wasted as anything but a food educator. I adore "Good Eats". His cookbooks are just as fun.

As you may have guessed, I despise Bobby Flay. And oddly enough, I've never met another culinary professional who thinks he comes off as anything but an asshole. Rachel Ray--I admit, she's grown on me. But she is still far too perky most of the time. I would love to see her (or any food travel person) bite into something they hated. It's hysterical how you can see them already starting to smile and go "Yum" before the food hits their mouths. Giada: Love your cooking, LOATHE your excruciating over-ennunciation of Italian words. Paula Deen is just like the exact sort of person I'd like to visit for dinner. Funniest Food TV moment ever: at a Thanksgiving All-Stars, watching Paula put about half a turkey on Giada's plate, because she needs to eat!

Off the Food network and on the travel channel: Anthony Bourdain. Love him.

Forgive any spelling errors, I just got home from doing a dinner for 100-odd people. Thank God tomorrow is Saturday and I can sleep in.

I smiled when I saw your name on this thread JVC

Alton teaches "wantabes," organizes education to some degree and can back it up by being able to do what he is teaching. So am I wrong to call him a chef? By my understanding that sounds like a chef to me.???

Have a good Saturday :agree:

Oh that would make great out take at the end of the show. Biting into something that is the nastyest thing they ever ate just to see the look on thier face.
Once Rachel did say if she talks more about the places she eating then tasting the food it's because it doesn't taste good. She says she like everything but there has to be something out ther she doesn't like.

tony bourdain is a major character. have you ever read his mysteries? not big sellers, or he might have given up his chef job. but hysterical and imaginative. well, he certainly reaches more people on the travel show.

In the culinary-school-food-snob use of the term, Alton isn't a chef. However, one could certainly call him a TV chef.

I did see one little filler thing with some travel/foodie nonentity tasting a hundred-year-old egg. For those who have not encountered these--they're not actually a hundred years old, obviously. What they are is hard-boiled eggs that have been buried in an ash mixture until the inside becomes sulphurous and gelatinous. I have eaten one, it won't kill you, but it's the textbook definition of acquired taste. This woman was in China, and as she bit into it and obviously couldn't take it, you could see these Chinese guys at tables in the background snickering at the stupid foriegner who should have known better. She actually went off-camera to spit it out.

(This time, please blame spelling mistakes on my listening to cuts of the Hickory Hoedown as I write this, and becoming increasingly psychotic...whose brilliant idea was this compulsory again?)

There are a lot of cultural delicacies that I can only shudder to think about. Blood pudding, fetal eggs (Filippino), blood sausage, etc. It would make an interesting Food Network show.

BTW, I haven't seen any Food TV shows featuring Liver! (ugh!)

I have tried blood pudding. It's just as gross as you think it is.

I also like Guy's Big Bites, now he makes some things I'd really like to try.

rare food

julietvalcouer said:

In the culinary-school-food-snob use of the term, Alton isn't a chef. However, one could certainly call him a TV chef.

I did see one little filler thing with some travel/foodie nonentity tasting a hundred-year-old egg. For those who have not encountered these--they're not actually a hundred years old, obviously. What they are is hard-boiled eggs that have been buried in an ash mixture until the inside becomes sulphurous and gelatinous. I have eaten one, it won't kill you, but it's the textbook definition of acquired taste. This woman was in China, and as she bit into it and obviously couldn't take it, you could see these Chinese guys at tables in the background snickering at the stupid foriegner who should have known better. She actually went off-camera to spit it out.

(This time, please blame spelling mistakes on my listening to cuts of the Hickory Hoedown as I write this, and becoming increasingly psychotic...whose brilliant idea was this compulsory again?)

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there was a show like that, I believe, on the Travel Channel. And yes, it was as nasty as you can imagine it to be. Pretty much any culture's not normal foods were shown. But again, a lot of foods that the locals to be normals aren't normal to the rest of us. I can never get used to eating french fries with mayo, but a lot of people do and think of it as normal everyday foods.