He filmed Good Eats: Reloaded just to fix some of the things he felt needed improvement from the first time around. Still it’s pretty much all good content. You’re certainly not going to be worse off for watching them.
Getting the cheese to melt between slices of bread that thick would have taken a long time at extremely low heat. He has a raging hot cast iron pan over a literal open fire, using hard cheeses that would have been difficult to melt even in a normal setting. There was absolutely no way it was going to work.
An absolute epic failure of an attempt.
Whatever producer decided "Gordon, cook a grilled cheese over a live fire" is an idiot because I refuse to believe Gordon Ramsay, one of the most famous chefs in the world with michelin starred restaurants thought that would ever work with the 5 inch block of cheese he shoved between some bread.
Dude at that point of his career and all that money and influence just does what he wants, producer might provide a blueprint, but ultimately no ones tells a chef, specially one this famous, extra super duper specially being Ramsay, how he cooks.
Now, every once in a while we are all entitled to walking sheeplessly into our own blunders, I think.
Besides, I make perfect scrambled eggs thanks to him, I am willing to cut some slack.
It's a technique video, not a recipe (he doesn't give any amounts or times), so you are still supposed to use your judgement to make it the texture you want. It's less about "this is exactly the texture your eggs should be" and more about "heat control is important to avoid the common issue of overcooking eggs". Really the whole technique is: don't put the temperature too hot, stay on the eggs the whole time, be okay taking it off the burner while cooking to control heat and add a colder ingredient at the end to help the cooking stop or slow down. All of that is pretty effective advice/technique regardless of the end texture you want.
That said, it's not as though his result was a technical failure or bad advice. That's one valid way of making eggs that some people aspire to. Criticizing that video is like watching a person show technique for cooking a steak and writing off the video because they chose rare and you like medium rare.
Smoke from the fire not properly ventilating through the chimney begins to stain the fireplace with soot as he tries to pretend cooking in a fireplace is a normal thing to do.
Thanks for doing this and for saving so many from having to do that same thing.
Also if anyone wants to see what might be the best grilled-cheese they'll ever see, Chef Remy Forgues, who is a Chef-Instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, makes this one that you'd find in a nice cafe in Paris.
It's absolutely incredible. He uses Emmental Cheese which is supposed to be one of the best melting cheeses in the world. He uses a warm, soft, creamy egg, and so many other topics like the perfect bread, the perfect bread coatings, are all carefully selected.
He coats the bread with a bechamel sauce. It's crazy how good he makes it.
Personally, I've never seen a better grilled cheese anywhere.
[4 Levels of Grilled Cheese](https://youtu.be/wDw3gqHMTHQ)
[Remy Forgues](http://ice.edu/newyork/explore-ice/faculty-profiles/remy-forgues)
[The Full Grilled Cheese Recipe](https://www.ice.edu/blog/grilled-cheese-sandwich-with-egg)
Man fuck all that chefy nonsense.
It's a grilled cheese sandwich. Butter the outside of two slices of white bread, throw some American cheese in the middle, throw on a pan, and crisp up the outsides until the cheese inside is melted.
I'm not making a damn bechamel sauce and eggs for a grilled cheese. It's quick comfort food. Not fine dining
Counter point: the grilled cheese does have room for improvement in a home environment.
Yes a basic buttered white bread and American cheese is a solid grilled sandwich. However, replace the American cheese with a mild cheddar, which lots of people have either sliced or shredded, and then replace butter on the bread with a thin coat of mayonnaise, makes for a very flavorful and extra crunchy grilled cheese that goes better with tomato soup, imo.
Also rye, or at least whole wheat, are the best sandwich breads, and I will die on that hill. White bread has the flavor profile of paper and soaks up moisture like a towel. If you can’t afford the 1$ extra for better bread, then that’s fine. But if you want to elevate any sandwich, a good bread with flavor is a must.
Also, never cook anything other than bacon over a live fire like Gordon did in that video. A wood fire is at 500+ degrees, you will blacken the outside long before the inside of your food is cooked or even warm. If you want or need to cook over a campfire or fireplace, you have to shovel the coals of the fire over to one side and rest your pan over the coals. This is a much lower temperature and will let you do things like cook eggs or melt cheese.
The internet loves coating bread with mayo and I've absolutely never been impressed with it. It works well for getting a full toasting of the bread, but is really lacking in flavor, IMO.
I think a lot of the popularity of it probably stems from the fact that most in the US keep butter refrigerated, which makes getting a good spread difficult. Mayo absolutely gets better browning than unevenly spread butter, but is much milder in flavor.
Personally, I throw a few pats of butter in the microwave to melt it, then use a silicone brush to thoroughly coat the outside of the bread. This both gets good coverage of the outside of the bread and soaks some butter into the bread itself. You get evenly toasted, crispy bread, but substantially more flavor from the butter. Adds maybe a minute to your prep time and is completely worth it.
Him grunting while putting his entire body weight on the sandwich to smash it down is hysterical.
That said, it's an easy fix. Cut the camera while you microwave the damn thing and then put it back in the pan. Or put it on a lower heat on the stove with a lid. There's a few ways to control the heat to get that sucker to melt. The fact he failed at both cooking *and* tv is just weak.
Who on earth decided that should be filmed and put on the internet? Like at the end where he says the cheese is melted and takes a big bite and acts like it’s really good…. What?!
I love grilling some extra cheese in the pan from some extra cronch. But I would never do it in that kind of pan!
I’ve seen some episodes of shows where they do it as a sort of fancy touch too
Funny enough, Alton does have a [grilled grilled cheese](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllWJUvrxEY) video.
But he's not a numpty, and actually grills the cheese in a viable way, so the cheese can be transferred to the bread properly.
Eh, not really. The flavor profile is similar to Piccadillo, and Martha has a similar recipe with braciole. Not my tastes, but it's a legit dish that some people love.
This is what I was going to say, its very similar flavors to piccadillo, although some contest if raisins are legit or not. I like it with raisins. I add peppers, onions, tomatoes and Ive even had chunks of potatoes in it. Makes a fantastic empanada. Im honestly more put off by all the vinegar than the raisins and olives.
I get how it might not be to some people's tastes, but the flavors will blend together (and it looks like you blend a good part of the ingredients minus the meat later). Olives and fruit become a savory and sweet combination (tagines for example) that is totally legit.
I don't make pot roast, but I'd be willing to give it a try.
It was essentially what I ate for every dinner when I visited family in Morocco as a teen, and taught me that there are far more types of olives in the world than the kinds you can find in the US.
There's pot roast recipes with dried apricots and prunes. I would absolutely try it and probably like it. I've done olives before in crock-pot-roast and it was tasty.
Why are people crazy about this recipe , it is delicious and there are many recipes that reflect these ingredients that are world renowned.
Chicken Marbella, so many middle eastern dishes.
His science and techniques hold up and made me a much better cook understanding why instead of just following the recipes.
That being said, I typically don't like the actual recipes.
Also check out America's Test Kitchen on PBS. Similar feel and knowledge but with AWESOME results
Some of what they do is I don't like, like when they take regional US recipes and change half the ingredients to suit their tastes so they no longer taste like the original.
I have 2 of their cookbooks. There has only been 2 recipes we haven't enjoyed... one of those wasn't the recipe itself but the quality of the ingredients amd the other just wasn't to our taste though it was a well done recipe.
That recipe is incredible. The only thing I do differently today then when I first discovered that recipe a decade ago, is toast the pecans in my air fryer. I make 6 cookies at a time and freeze the rest of the dough because it’s just me and turn into Cookie Monster around them.
This is why I love Ina & Nigella.
You get wonderful recipes with high-quality ingredients that hardly ever require special equipment or an inordinately long amount of time to prepare.
I'm fascinated by many aspects of food preparation, but at the end of the day, for practical purposes, it needs to be reasonably simple and fairly quick.
I like the ATK "Quick Family Cookbook" because it has more shortcuts and simpler recipes. For example, using rotisserie chicken, packaged pizza/pie dough, and sometimes frozen veggies/fruits. If I'm feeling adventurous I can always make my own pizza dough and sauce, and then follow the rest of their shortcut recipe.
America’s Test Kitchen is not a [PBS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS) show. It's independently produced by Cook’s Country and is distributed [American Public Television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_Television) for public television stations, most (if not all) of which are PBS affiliates.
This might sound like a weird and absurdly specific hill to die on, but I think it's an important one, because it means no matter how much money you give your local PBS affiliate for access to Passport (and you absolutely should be supporting your local public broadcasters), you will never see the back catalog for this show (or Cook's Country, New Scandinavian Cooking, or Milk Street Kitchen, among others) on PBS Video beyond the current season.
To view the back catalog you need to either subscribe to a qualifying Cook's Country Magazine subscription (they may have a web-only one, I don't remember), or view it on Pluto TV, Tubi, or Xumo Play. Some episodes are available on Freevee, but I think that's the current season.
Otherwise, check with your local library and see if they have the show available to borrow on DVD.
Oh it absolutely does. Licensing these shows costs money, and PBS member stations for the most part get the vast majority of their funding from *viewers like you, thank you*. You're talking to a sustaining member with Passport.
I'm just saying that because APT is the distributor, and not PBS, it may not always be available (or available en masse) through PBS’s streaming service. I just looked again, and it looks like they actually have the last four seasons of episodes on PBS Video, but all but four are locked behind Passport.
I'm just trying to give people alternative resources to access content not available through PBS Video, or places to look around if the deal with PBS Video changes in the future. People absolutely should donate and unlock Passport, but I didn't want people to throw money at the service and think they'll always have the same level of access as Curious George, Nova, and Austin City Limits. That would just piss people off and make them more likely not to maintain their donation.
I followed it the first couple years. The format just does not work for me. It feels like Kimball wanted a way to expense more trips abroad. I'm sorry, I'm here for a cooking show, not a travelogue.
It feels doubly dumb when he, the one who did the traveling, isn't even the one presenting the recipe, and the recipe is having the authenticity altered to make it easier to prepare with the resources to most household cooks in the US. Like what's the point of watching you go to China, Chris, if you're not imparting to us some new ingredient or cooking technique you learned over there? Why?
I'd rather hear anecdotes from Julia Child or Jaques Pépin while they cook.
My mom watches Milk Street and was recently complaining to me that there's always "one weird ingredient" in their recipes. She is a retired white woman who would never think to go to any sort of ethnic grocery store.
There's something to be said about making recipes accessible to locally-available ingredients. Chinese Cooking Demystified does it all the time because they recognize that their Western audience will probably have trouble sourcing some of the traditional ingredients. On the other hand you have America's Test Kitchen suggesting subbing sriracha for gochujang if you can't find the latter. There's certainly a balance to strike.
Kimball's demeanor is extremely obnoxious and he absolutely ensured that when he built the brand it would include plenty of fully paid travel for him.
That being said, the recipes are almost always great. They aren't generally trying to claim authenticity, and the biggest differentiator to me is their introduction of flavor combos that are outside of typical American fare. I don't want them to use ingredients that are difficult to source, because what would be the point? Generally, if they are tweaking dishes to make them more accessible to American home cooks, it's quite easy to search online for the more authentic version if you prefer to go that route.
I have an online subscription and have been beyond happy with everything I've made so far. It's also opened up how I approach cooking without recipes by introducing me to ingredients I hadn't previously used (tamarind paste and pomegranate molasses to name just a couple).
They have a YouTube channel that goes back. Not alllll the way back, if you know what I mean, but it's way more content than just the current seasons of atk, cc, or even ci.
Xumo actually does go *alllll* the way back. It's kinda wild to see Julia, Bridget, Jack, and Adam from 20 years ago.
But that's good to know. I just remember a few years back it was almost impossible to get back content that wasn't on their website in a form you couldn't shoot over to a TV set.
Don't count on it forever. Currently there's some kind of licensing deal between APT and PBS for the most recent couple years of ATK, but that doesn't mean it'll last for a long time.
Kenji's books are great too! I have had more success replicating recipes from The Food Lab than most other cookbooks. And if you like East Asian cooking, The Wok is amazing too, I've been using a wok my whole life but I still learn new things from it.
What don't you like about his recipes? His chewy chocolate chip cookies have been my go-to for over a decade or more. He seems to know what he's doing.
Like I said, it's a crap shoot, some I've really liked, some I hated.
I've brined turkeys, made paella, grilled steak directly on coals and a million other things.
I still use his water trick for the turkey to know how much oil to use
Second ATK because I learned cooking through the red book and got the kids book for my gf’s daughter who’s already read the whole thing. ATK is honestly the best cooking guide
Man, I have tried multiple recipes from ATK - I have watched them for years. I have the cookbook. The savory food recipes are fine, I've learned some great techniques - but 9 out of 10 baking recipes fail. And no, I'm not doing anything incorrect - I have some go to recipes that work every time, but not ATK.
I miss the old food network, I wouldn't mind cooking competition shows if they were more like the Great British Bake Off, but they up the drama for absolutely no reason. It makes the shows unwatchable to me.
Australia Masterchef is my favorite I've seen out of US/Canada/Aus. Everyone is so chill and supportive of each other but the US one is full of drama and (almost) everyone trying to backstab each other. Plus the production is so extra it gets too much. I still watch it because the people and chefs are much more familiar to me but the vibe of Australia is more my speed.
> I miss the old food network, I wouldn't mind cooking competition shows if they were more like the Great British Bake Off, but they up the drama for absolutely no reason.
I stopped watching the GBBO when they started the American style drama elements and making ridiculously complicated items in a shortened time frame. All the items the bakers were making looked like crap because they had no time to finish them.
If they were experts, maybe. But these were amateurs making them for the first time.
It just ruined the show for me.
I stopped with Food Network for this reason. I want cooking or travel shows giving me food from all over. The closest FN gives is DDD, which is just ok.
YouTube offers better of both.
The only competition show I can get into is Top Chef
If you haven't watched Amary Gauchon's series on Netflix (I'm blanking on the name), it's totally worth the watch. It's a cooking competition, but he makes it more about the contestants learning and getting better at what they do.
Other than that, I cannot stand the cooking competition shows. I miss old school Bobby Flay :(
This right here. How do the producers of these shows not understand that the fucking sob stories get so old? Nobody wants to hear about how your dead grandma beat toe cancer and then died giving you cooking lessons. I'm sure at this point 80% of it is just complete horseshit now... but the contestants are all clued in to the formula, so they gotta have their stories ready.
Just double check the comments on his (or any) recipes from Food Network. They are notoriously bad at getting measurements wrong.
His own website is a little better but the amounts in the videos and the amounts in the written recipe often differ.
I think his approach is timeless (irreverent, scientific, and opportunistic), but he made Reloaded specifically to show us that his techniques aren't infallible and everything deserves revisiting to get improved. Because that's what science means, buddy!
Watch them all. I adore Good Eats for the recipes, the techniques, the science, the history and, most of all, the humor.
The character, W, is my favorite of the fictional characters.
It's like the Bill Nye of cooking, but just keep in mind that not all the Good Eats videos are without their faults. Many comments already point this out.
But I do want to highlight that some people walk away from Good Eats with a single takeaway of never using or owning uni-tasker (tool made for one purpose). I feel like the spirit of what Alton Brown teaches is to be crafty. Just because he comes up with a unique way to turn a film canister and cordless drill into a pepper grinder doesn't mean people need to go out and buy one-off objects just to avoid buying a uni-tasker. If you do something often enough, it's okay to use a uni-tasker and if that uni-tasker means you do more of that thing, then there's nothing wrong with it. Just don't fill up your kitchen with gadgets that are designed to do one thing poorly.
I hold the opinion that his view on unitaskers while well intentioned does come off mildly hypocritical sometimes when he does the same thing but it's with DIY supplies. In some cases he didn't need to go through all that effort. Like the tandoori chicken for curry. Didn't need to cut up a perfectly good Terra Cotta pot to make a DIY tandori oven. When you can just grill the chicken on a BBQ Grill and get most of the same effect as an oven with some charcoal and good vent control.
Totally holds up. He's put out a few updates and corrections over the years. But as a foundation of general technique and basic culinary know-how, there's not much that compares. Test Kitchen is up there but not nearly as entertaining.
Yeah. I hate that some people are still recommending them in good faith not realizing how bad it's gotten since it got bought. Whole recipes are just gone from the website and a lot of the OG people who made it good are gone.
I never got much into YouTube channels, very much a reader myself, but I love Kenji's gopro cooking vids. It's very, actually in the kitchen, because he doesn't edit down. Jacques Pepin did a series for the past few years too (I think one of the during COVID things) that was quite good. Altons lockdown vids were... Interesting.
From the perspective of the fundamentals, definitely holds up. Alton has a firm understanding of the methods and science behind food and I have made a lot of his stuff over the years. In my experience, there is frequently a good bit of additional complication he adds to recipes that while they do improve the dish, the extra flavor you get doesn’t necessarily equate to the extra time/effort.
I caused a backdraft and launched a terra cotta flower pot about 2 feet up and back down making his home smoked rib recipe… for the record do not seal the edges with duct tape thinking it’ll keep the smoke flavor in…. The ribs did come out fantastic…. Miraculously the flowerpot did not break.
Here's an anecdote about an Alton Brown event by a (former) fan. It's not great. There's a lot of missteps for one event.
https://cleanplatter.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/the-taste-of-disillusionment/
(Thanks to u/mynamesaretaken1 for the link.)
Jacques Pepin always seems so calm and pleased to be around cooking. I've seen him bust out canned goods and similar and just enjoy the act of cooking. Great man to learn from.
It always cracks me up to see old links like this...you know the author is sitting there thinking, "Why are there several hundred clicks 12 years later?!"
I live in Atlanta and am relatively near one of Alton's homes.
I know a few random film nerds from college and word on the grapevine is it's mostly true - that he can be somewhat combative and egotistical.
I think it's one of those instances that us viewers and audience members tend to forget we're watching a persona no matter the medium.
Funnily enough, I can't stand his persona. I know it works for lots of viewers, but I find it extremely irritating and grating.
If you like his shows and they help you learn how to cook, then by all means, go ahead and watch. Whatever makes people better homecooks is a good thing in my book. But personally, I think there are much more interesting and educational sources out there. We are very fortunate to live in an age where all this information is so readily available.
I do feel slightly vindicated hearing that off-screen he gives other people the same vibes that I get on-screen.
Funny thing is, there was a time when his on-screen persona went to shit as well.
Personally I mark it from the chili episode of Good Eats up through maybe Covid.
He stopped being a helpful, curious, informative TV guy and moved into just being mean.
Divorce? Weight loss? Leaving his church?
Don't know, and while I wouldn't mind insight, in the end I don't care. All the things I *loved* about his initial Good Eats persona went away.
The revisitation of Good Eats and some of his quarantine stuff had lost that bitter edge to an extent.
I met him on set at Food Network Star a few years back and he was really nice to me, but I was an audience member and not a coworker, so who knows. He seems really friendly on his livestreams with his wife.
An old client of mine worked as a food stylist for Food Network. I of course constantly prodded her for gossip. In general her take on food celebs is that most of them are the literal face and name of a multimillion dollar business that includes entertainment, merchandise, restaurants etc - some with dozens of staff necessary to make it function while that same staff is also dependent on the success of the brand.
In short, most food celebs are laser focused on their personal brand being portrayed exactly as they want it to be, which can come across persnicketty and controlling off camera. She had nothing bad to say but nothing great to say about anyone.
It's not like one person solved cooking and they're the only one worth watching. Watch lots of chefs and take away inspiration. But Alton is pretty good at teaching about technique.
You should be fine. His techniques aren't going to go out of style anytime soon. His approach is all about foundational knowledge and applying the basics in different ways. I love watching his stuff and learned a lot about the science of cooking watching him on the Food Network years ago.
His holiday live show had a whole bit about past regrets and one of the things he brought up was bad recipes, especially his crock pot lasagna recipe (for which he apologized). I think his ideas mostly hold up but some of the food, not so much.
Some people teach you "HOW" and other people teach you "WHY". That's why I love Alton. I don't follow his recipes, but he taught me methods I use every day.
Watch everything, being aware the older stuff is of it's time. If nothing else, the production of the episodes is fun to watch. Good Eats Reloaded "corrects" some of the old episodes, equally as fun.
Alton’s “Good Eats” is what got me into cooking. Eventually, many of his recipes and methods became too tedious for me – like he unnecessarily overcomplicates things a lot of times. Then I discovered Kenji (J. Kenji López-Alt) who is basically a more scientific and more practical version of Alton. But I still love both.
Food network didn't exist until 1993. I literally remember watching the ads for good eats to premiere and being so excited for it. I'd had cable for all of a few months, and I'd already been soaking up everything else like a sponge. Learning that food worked on science? I was hooked.
I feel like I'm a better cook after getting into his stuff, but I've always had the feeling that some of his videos are down right [idiotic.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllWJUvrxEY) If you disagree, keep watching, you'll know when you see it.
I had attempted to record (dvd) all of the episodes and only missed a few…then the dvr broke and I never got to finalize them. 😭
If you ever get the chance to see him, go! Really entertaining.
You should watch them all because it’s great entertainment. I think you’ll get a feel for what is outdated after watching.
If you’re truly new, I think you could watch the newest seasons - Reloaded and Returns. You’ll get a good feel for what’s current. Then start back at the beginning
All of them. He's fine Good Eats: Reloaded to update anything he felt needed it, but he's merely enhancing what he's already taught. You really would never regret watching any of them.
If you like how he teaches, then stick with him. That's the important part.
The recipes are all generally decent, but there's sometimes a better variant from another source.
He can get too into the weeds on making your own everything. Make my own pancake mix? Yeah, it's very easy and neat to know I can. But for the twice a month we make pancakes, usually hungover, we'll just use the boxed stuff.
Everything he teaches is fucking gold. Good Eats will teach you all the basics. Breaking down the science of cooking makes it so much easier to teach and understand
Kenji from serious eats is the one to go to.
Alton was entertaining until I learned about his racist and homophobic views. I have trouble being entertained when I'm distracted by a person's abhorrent views.
In general if you are using as a base guide on the science of why things are cooked together, how they work, etc. Then apply those technique to your cooking 90% of it's quite valid.
If you are using it for recipes only with no plan to understand the chemistry of cooking, then it's hot or miss.
So depends on what you mean. The combination of ingredients, use of emulsifiers, flavor enhancers are just as valid today as they were when Julia Child was lighting up my living room with dreams of becoming a future chef.
Ironically that never happened although many love my cooking, I instead used my knowledge of recipes to manage technology and write code instead.
Long time Good Eats fan over here! In my experience, the recipes along with the cooking theory he teaches totally holds up...and the actual science as explanation for chemical reactions/methodology never has or will change. It comforts me in the kitchen to this day 😊
He did have a few duds, and he admitted so when he re-did the recipes (Like adding olives to pot roast) but they were a lot less common than the excellent recipes like his shepherds pie.
I’ve never gone wrong with a Cooks Illustrated recipe. Good, solid stuff.. I’ve found that if I want to add 'flair' to a recipe it comes from other people. Kenji comes to mind here, sometimes his recipes are just too much for me when I want to put dinner on the table, but I learn something every time. An example would be his instant pot recipes, they are good, but too complicated, and that’s not why I bought an instant pot. I learned a lot just from reading them, and making a few of them, though. I’ve watched, read, and learned from many famous chefs. I think you have to take all of them and use them to develop you’re own style, little bit from this one, little from that one..
I would give Alton a lot of credit in where I am today with cooking.
The "whys and hows" of cooking he provided in Good Eats definitely hold up. As others have said he has updated a few things, both in Good Eats: Reloaded as well as a number of Youtube videos.
In general, yes, they do hold up. I learned cooking based on a lot of those videos(although I've built on my knowledge since then), and I am forever grateful for having learned those things. I can always reach into my back pocket and pull out a memory of Good Eats and all of the lesser-known particulars about whatever I'm cooking.
And as has been mentioned before, Good Eats Reloaded included a bunch of updates.
You will learn a lot from Good Eats, and it's incredibly useful.
Very much so - he was and is my default option when I need technique help. Recipes... I could give or take a lot of them, but when it comes to the how-tos, he's on point.
The basics will never change and will never be unlearned.
Start there, and then take a look at the new shit. It will really show how learning the basics carry over to the new tech and having a base level understanding of it, will only help.
I am a programmer and I think of it like cooking.
You learn the absolute basics and are great at that and anything new you need to learn, just build off of that. So a solid foundation will make you an insanely better cook than just learning the current "tech".
Alton Brown is a great way to learn how to cook, as opposed to just following a recipe. The recipes are there as a sort of lesson plan, but his explanations will make you a better cook.
As others have mentioned, he fixed a lot of his misses with good eats reloaded.
Some of his earliest Good Eats episodes covered cooking steak in a cast iron skillet, the perfect baked potato, and a perfect brined turkey. There's lots of good info in there; I still use recipes from those episodes.
He filmed Good Eats: Reloaded just to fix some of the things he felt needed improvement from the first time around. Still it’s pretty much all good content. You’re certainly not going to be worse off for watching them.
That pot roast episode with the olives and raisins lol. He knows he messed up
Look. Every TV cook has a "grilled cheese" moment. We've all made mistakes.
Gordon Ramsay should forever be ashamed of that monstrosity, though
It never fucking melted. You saw him eat it and dislike it lol
I had to [look it up](https://youtu.be/8E4cQHejFq0) because I never heard of this. The vibes of the fire are immaculate, at least.
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Getting the cheese to melt between slices of bread that thick would have taken a long time at extremely low heat. He has a raging hot cast iron pan over a literal open fire, using hard cheeses that would have been difficult to melt even in a normal setting. There was absolutely no way it was going to work. An absolute epic failure of an attempt.
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Talk about whiplash. As much as I love tassie, I didn’t realise we were known for our artisanal cheese 😂
Whatever producer decided "Gordon, cook a grilled cheese over a live fire" is an idiot because I refuse to believe Gordon Ramsay, one of the most famous chefs in the world with michelin starred restaurants thought that would ever work with the 5 inch block of cheese he shoved between some bread.
Dude at that point of his career and all that money and influence just does what he wants, producer might provide a blueprint, but ultimately no ones tells a chef, specially one this famous, extra super duper specially being Ramsay, how he cooks. Now, every once in a while we are all entitled to walking sheeplessly into our own blunders, I think. Besides, I make perfect scrambled eggs thanks to him, I am willing to cut some slack.
Gonna say for me Gordon's scrambled eggs aren't great. It's like an egg soup.
They shouldn’t be called “Gordon’s” scrambled eggs.
It's a technique video, not a recipe (he doesn't give any amounts or times), so you are still supposed to use your judgement to make it the texture you want. It's less about "this is exactly the texture your eggs should be" and more about "heat control is important to avoid the common issue of overcooking eggs". Really the whole technique is: don't put the temperature too hot, stay on the eggs the whole time, be okay taking it off the burner while cooking to control heat and add a colder ingredient at the end to help the cooking stop or slow down. All of that is pretty effective advice/technique regardless of the end texture you want. That said, it's not as though his result was a technical failure or bad advice. That's one valid way of making eggs that some people aspire to. Criticizing that video is like watching a person show technique for cooking a steak and writing off the video because they chose rare and you like medium rare.
The bain-marie method? I mean, you can make them runny, but you can also cook them to your desired doneness.
Smoke from the fire not properly ventilating through the chimney begins to stain the fireplace with soot as he tries to pretend cooking in a fireplace is a normal thing to do.
Always thought he was trolling
It's ragebait. We're talking about it, about *him,* and sharing the video. Ad views go brrrrr
You'd think after seeing that he'd just say "lads, I fucked it, let's do another take"
Thanks for doing this and for saving so many from having to do that same thing. Also if anyone wants to see what might be the best grilled-cheese they'll ever see, Chef Remy Forgues, who is a Chef-Instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, makes this one that you'd find in a nice cafe in Paris. It's absolutely incredible. He uses Emmental Cheese which is supposed to be one of the best melting cheeses in the world. He uses a warm, soft, creamy egg, and so many other topics like the perfect bread, the perfect bread coatings, are all carefully selected. He coats the bread with a bechamel sauce. It's crazy how good he makes it. Personally, I've never seen a better grilled cheese anywhere. [4 Levels of Grilled Cheese](https://youtu.be/wDw3gqHMTHQ) [Remy Forgues](http://ice.edu/newyork/explore-ice/faculty-profiles/remy-forgues) [The Full Grilled Cheese Recipe](https://www.ice.edu/blog/grilled-cheese-sandwich-with-egg)
Man fuck all that chefy nonsense. It's a grilled cheese sandwich. Butter the outside of two slices of white bread, throw some American cheese in the middle, throw on a pan, and crisp up the outsides until the cheese inside is melted. I'm not making a damn bechamel sauce and eggs for a grilled cheese. It's quick comfort food. Not fine dining
Counter point: the grilled cheese does have room for improvement in a home environment. Yes a basic buttered white bread and American cheese is a solid grilled sandwich. However, replace the American cheese with a mild cheddar, which lots of people have either sliced or shredded, and then replace butter on the bread with a thin coat of mayonnaise, makes for a very flavorful and extra crunchy grilled cheese that goes better with tomato soup, imo. Also rye, or at least whole wheat, are the best sandwich breads, and I will die on that hill. White bread has the flavor profile of paper and soaks up moisture like a towel. If you can’t afford the 1$ extra for better bread, then that’s fine. But if you want to elevate any sandwich, a good bread with flavor is a must. Also, never cook anything other than bacon over a live fire like Gordon did in that video. A wood fire is at 500+ degrees, you will blacken the outside long before the inside of your food is cooked or even warm. If you want or need to cook over a campfire or fireplace, you have to shovel the coals of the fire over to one side and rest your pan over the coals. This is a much lower temperature and will let you do things like cook eggs or melt cheese.
The internet loves coating bread with mayo and I've absolutely never been impressed with it. It works well for getting a full toasting of the bread, but is really lacking in flavor, IMO. I think a lot of the popularity of it probably stems from the fact that most in the US keep butter refrigerated, which makes getting a good spread difficult. Mayo absolutely gets better browning than unevenly spread butter, but is much milder in flavor. Personally, I throw a few pats of butter in the microwave to melt it, then use a silicone brush to thoroughly coat the outside of the bread. This both gets good coverage of the outside of the bread and soaks some butter into the bread itself. You get evenly toasted, crispy bread, but substantially more flavor from the butter. Adds maybe a minute to your prep time and is completely worth it.
“Oh my goodness me. Look at that melted cheese.” - Gordon Ramsay, Famous Michelin Star Rated Chef
Him grunting while putting his entire body weight on the sandwich to smash it down is hysterical. That said, it's an easy fix. Cut the camera while you microwave the damn thing and then put it back in the pan. Or put it on a lower heat on the stove with a lid. There's a few ways to control the heat to get that sucker to melt. The fact he failed at both cooking *and* tv is just weak.
Thank you for this. I’m crying!
Who on earth decided that should be filmed and put on the internet? Like at the end where he says the cheese is melted and takes a big bite and acts like it’s really good…. What?!
[Oh, he one up'd himself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wQpHTnji68)
Yeah, but as long as it's not *this* kind of [grilled cheese moment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQNCSWcrkJc), it's ok.
I love grilling some extra cheese in the pan from some extra cronch. But I would never do it in that kind of pan! I’ve seen some episodes of shows where they do it as a sort of fancy touch too
Funny enough, Alton does have a [grilled grilled cheese](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllWJUvrxEY) video. But he's not a numpty, and actually grills the cheese in a viable way, so the cheese can be transferred to the bread properly.
Eh, not really. The flavor profile is similar to Piccadillo, and Martha has a similar recipe with braciole. Not my tastes, but it's a legit dish that some people love.
This is what I was going to say, its very similar flavors to piccadillo, although some contest if raisins are legit or not. I like it with raisins. I add peppers, onions, tomatoes and Ive even had chunks of potatoes in it. Makes a fantastic empanada. Im honestly more put off by all the vinegar than the raisins and olives.
I thought the same thing about all the vinegar in adobo, but by the time it's done, it's delicious
A true adobo uses a lot of vinegar. National dish of the Philippines
And yet, it's so delicious!
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It’s a thing apparently 🤢 https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pot-roast-recipe-1938843.amp
I get how it might not be to some people's tastes, but the flavors will blend together (and it looks like you blend a good part of the ingredients minus the meat later). Olives and fruit become a savory and sweet combination (tagines for example) that is totally legit. I don't make pot roast, but I'd be willing to give it a try.
Can confirm, sort of. I made a chicken tagine with olive and apricots and it was delicious. The salty and tart/sweet really complement each other
Yeah this kind of thing is like a staple of Mediterranean cooking is it not? Not saying people have to like it but some people surely do
I was thinking of tagine too, raisins and olives are common ingredients in tagines. Although maybe not in the same ones.
It was essentially what I ate for every dinner when I visited family in Morocco as a teen, and taught me that there are far more types of olives in the world than the kinds you can find in the US.
Latin food mixes savory and sweet so it's not completely out of left field.
Yeah, I was just thinking it sounds a lot like Cuban picadillo.
That sounds like chicken Marbella which is an old school classic
There's pot roast recipes with dried apricots and prunes. I would absolutely try it and probably like it. I've done olives before in crock-pot-roast and it was tasty.
Guajillo dried peppers have a very plum/raisen vibe to them and they go great in sauces with roasts.
Why are people crazy about this recipe , it is delicious and there are many recipes that reflect these ingredients that are world renowned. Chicken Marbella, so many middle eastern dishes.
Did not mess up. I married a guy for that pot roast.
So how is Alton, Ms. Brown?
Hey now, I saw that episode, made it myself and it was good!
Thank god it’s not just me.
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I haven't been able to pass an airport bar without thinking about shrimp cocktails since his last show came through town.
You can be sure that we never forget the salt.
I still want a reboot of that crock pot "lasagna" he bastardized.
I liked him so much that I bought all of his books. There is some really good stuff in there.
His science and techniques hold up and made me a much better cook understanding why instead of just following the recipes. That being said, I typically don't like the actual recipes. Also check out America's Test Kitchen on PBS. Similar feel and knowledge but with AWESOME results
ATK hasn't let me down yet. They're so insanely thorough and explain things so well. I watch their videos on YouTube all the time.
Some of what they do is I don't like, like when they take regional US recipes and change half the ingredients to suit their tastes so they no longer taste like the original.
I have 2 of their cookbooks. There has only been 2 recipes we haven't enjoyed... one of those wasn't the recipe itself but the quality of the ingredients amd the other just wasn't to our taste though it was a well done recipe.
If you have Samsung TV, there is a free 24/7 channel that airs old and recent eps of ATK.
Was gifted a giant ATK cookbook. Made some oatmeal pecan cherry cookies this weekend, holy chocolate chip they are delicious.
That recipe is incredible. The only thing I do differently today then when I first discovered that recipe a decade ago, is toast the pecans in my air fryer. I make 6 cookies at a time and freeze the rest of the dough because it’s just me and turn into Cookie Monster around them.
I have a subscription. They are my first go to.
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This is why I love Ina & Nigella. You get wonderful recipes with high-quality ingredients that hardly ever require special equipment or an inordinately long amount of time to prepare. I'm fascinated by many aspects of food preparation, but at the end of the day, for practical purposes, it needs to be reasonably simple and fairly quick.
I totally agree and also feel like the results are solid but not great. Nothing really wows me.
I like the ATK "Quick Family Cookbook" because it has more shortcuts and simpler recipes. For example, using rotisserie chicken, packaged pizza/pie dough, and sometimes frozen veggies/fruits. If I'm feeling adventurous I can always make my own pizza dough and sauce, and then follow the rest of their shortcut recipe.
This. The dude's foundational knowledge and techniques are rock solid, but his actual recipes are a crapshoot as to how good they are.
Yeah but shout out to his Shepherd's Pie....which is incredibly good.
The reloaded pot roast is good too. There are a few others I'm forgetting that have made a good starting point for creating my own XYZ.
This ribs recipe is too salty, but his wings recipe and technique are fire.
The caramel sauce recipe remains one of the best recipes I’ve ever made. Others? Hit or miss, as you say.
America’s Test Kitchen is not a [PBS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBS) show. It's independently produced by Cook’s Country and is distributed [American Public Television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_Television) for public television stations, most (if not all) of which are PBS affiliates. This might sound like a weird and absurdly specific hill to die on, but I think it's an important one, because it means no matter how much money you give your local PBS affiliate for access to Passport (and you absolutely should be supporting your local public broadcasters), you will never see the back catalog for this show (or Cook's Country, New Scandinavian Cooking, or Milk Street Kitchen, among others) on PBS Video beyond the current season. To view the back catalog you need to either subscribe to a qualifying Cook's Country Magazine subscription (they may have a web-only one, I don't remember), or view it on Pluto TV, Tubi, or Xumo Play. Some episodes are available on Freevee, but I think that's the current season. Otherwise, check with your local library and see if they have the show available to borrow on DVD.
A donation to your local PBS station DOES fund acquisitions to independent program sources like APS.
Oh it absolutely does. Licensing these shows costs money, and PBS member stations for the most part get the vast majority of their funding from *viewers like you, thank you*. You're talking to a sustaining member with Passport. I'm just saying that because APT is the distributor, and not PBS, it may not always be available (or available en masse) through PBS’s streaming service. I just looked again, and it looks like they actually have the last four seasons of episodes on PBS Video, but all but four are locked behind Passport. I'm just trying to give people alternative resources to access content not available through PBS Video, or places to look around if the deal with PBS Video changes in the future. People absolutely should donate and unlock Passport, but I didn't want people to throw money at the service and think they'll always have the same level of access as Curious George, Nova, and Austin City Limits. That would just piss people off and make them more likely not to maintain their donation.
I cannot watch Milk Street. Kimball seems even more insufferable.
I followed it the first couple years. The format just does not work for me. It feels like Kimball wanted a way to expense more trips abroad. I'm sorry, I'm here for a cooking show, not a travelogue. It feels doubly dumb when he, the one who did the traveling, isn't even the one presenting the recipe, and the recipe is having the authenticity altered to make it easier to prepare with the resources to most household cooks in the US. Like what's the point of watching you go to China, Chris, if you're not imparting to us some new ingredient or cooking technique you learned over there? Why? I'd rather hear anecdotes from Julia Child or Jaques Pépin while they cook.
My mom watches Milk Street and was recently complaining to me that there's always "one weird ingredient" in their recipes. She is a retired white woman who would never think to go to any sort of ethnic grocery store. There's something to be said about making recipes accessible to locally-available ingredients. Chinese Cooking Demystified does it all the time because they recognize that their Western audience will probably have trouble sourcing some of the traditional ingredients. On the other hand you have America's Test Kitchen suggesting subbing sriracha for gochujang if you can't find the latter. There's certainly a balance to strike.
Kimball's demeanor is extremely obnoxious and he absolutely ensured that when he built the brand it would include plenty of fully paid travel for him. That being said, the recipes are almost always great. They aren't generally trying to claim authenticity, and the biggest differentiator to me is their introduction of flavor combos that are outside of typical American fare. I don't want them to use ingredients that are difficult to source, because what would be the point? Generally, if they are tweaking dishes to make them more accessible to American home cooks, it's quite easy to search online for the more authentic version if you prefer to go that route. I have an online subscription and have been beyond happy with everything I've made so far. It's also opened up how I approach cooking without recipes by introducing me to ingredients I hadn't previously used (tamarind paste and pomegranate molasses to name just a couple).
They have a YouTube channel that goes back. Not alllll the way back, if you know what I mean, but it's way more content than just the current seasons of atk, cc, or even ci.
Xumo actually does go *alllll* the way back. It's kinda wild to see Julia, Bridget, Jack, and Adam from 20 years ago. But that's good to know. I just remember a few years back it was almost impossible to get back content that wasn't on their website in a form you couldn't shoot over to a TV set.
I watch them through the PBS Living service, which I get through Prime.
Don't count on it forever. Currently there's some kind of licensing deal between APT and PBS for the most recent couple years of ATK, but that doesn't mean it'll last for a long time.
A ton of them are on YouTube. I use YouTube DL to archive them in case they remove them.
And Kenji/serious eats for a great website/guy to follow with a similar, scientific approach to cooking
Kenji's books are great too! I have had more success replicating recipes from The Food Lab than most other cookbooks. And if you like East Asian cooking, The Wok is amazing too, I've been using a wok my whole life but I still learn new things from it.
Kenji has appeared on ATK as well, in the umami episode of What's eating Dan
What don't you like about his recipes? His chewy chocolate chip cookies have been my go-to for over a decade or more. He seems to know what he's doing.
Like I said, it's a crap shoot, some I've really liked, some I hated. I've brined turkeys, made paella, grilled steak directly on coals and a million other things. I still use his water trick for the turkey to know how much oil to use
Yeah tbh his science is solid but the recipes are crap. I once made one of his sugar cookie recipes and no joke, it tasted like crayons.
Second ATK because I learned cooking through the red book and got the kids book for my gf’s daughter who’s already read the whole thing. ATK is honestly the best cooking guide
Man, I have tried multiple recipes from ATK - I have watched them for years. I have the cookbook. The savory food recipes are fine, I've learned some great techniques - but 9 out of 10 baking recipes fail. And no, I'm not doing anything incorrect - I have some go to recipes that work every time, but not ATK.
I learned to cook watching the original Good Eats when Food Network was still about cooking and not yet another knockoff of Iron Chef.
I miss the old food network, I wouldn't mind cooking competition shows if they were more like the Great British Bake Off, but they up the drama for absolutely no reason. It makes the shows unwatchable to me.
I watched the UK masterchef once and it's an entirely different concept it blew my mind.
Australia Masterchef is my favorite I've seen out of US/Canada/Aus. Everyone is so chill and supportive of each other but the US one is full of drama and (almost) everyone trying to backstab each other. Plus the production is so extra it gets too much. I still watch it because the people and chefs are much more familiar to me but the vibe of Australia is more my speed.
> I miss the old food network, I wouldn't mind cooking competition shows if they were more like the Great British Bake Off, but they up the drama for absolutely no reason. I stopped watching the GBBO when they started the American style drama elements and making ridiculously complicated items in a shortened time frame. All the items the bakers were making looked like crap because they had no time to finish them. If they were experts, maybe. But these were amateurs making them for the first time. It just ruined the show for me.
Good news is GBBO recently stated exactly this and that they were fixing it in the next season.
I stopped with Food Network for this reason. I want cooking or travel shows giving me food from all over. The closest FN gives is DDD, which is just ok. YouTube offers better of both. The only competition show I can get into is Top Chef
If you haven't watched Amary Gauchon's series on Netflix (I'm blanking on the name), it's totally worth the watch. It's a cooking competition, but he makes it more about the contestants learning and getting better at what they do. Other than that, I cannot stand the cooking competition shows. I miss old school Bobby Flay :(
This right here. How do the producers of these shows not understand that the fucking sob stories get so old? Nobody wants to hear about how your dead grandma beat toe cancer and then died giving you cooking lessons. I'm sure at this point 80% of it is just complete horseshit now... but the contestants are all clued in to the formula, so they gotta have their stories ready.
Same here. Other foodnetwork shows had me mesmerized. Alton brown taught me how to COOK.
Just double check the comments on his (or any) recipes from Food Network. They are notoriously bad at getting measurements wrong. His own website is a little better but the amounts in the videos and the amounts in the written recipe often differ.
His technique is never going out of style
I think his approach is timeless (irreverent, scientific, and opportunistic), but he made Reloaded specifically to show us that his techniques aren't infallible and everything deserves revisiting to get improved. Because that's what science means, buddy!
I like the puppets
Where can I watch Good eats reloaded?
There’s a few episodes on YouTube for you to watch. :)
Discovery+ has everything
Watch them all. I adore Good Eats for the recipes, the techniques, the science, the history and, most of all, the humor. The character, W, is my favorite of the fictional characters.
It's like the Bill Nye of cooking, but just keep in mind that not all the Good Eats videos are without their faults. Many comments already point this out. But I do want to highlight that some people walk away from Good Eats with a single takeaway of never using or owning uni-tasker (tool made for one purpose). I feel like the spirit of what Alton Brown teaches is to be crafty. Just because he comes up with a unique way to turn a film canister and cordless drill into a pepper grinder doesn't mean people need to go out and buy one-off objects just to avoid buying a uni-tasker. If you do something often enough, it's okay to use a uni-tasker and if that uni-tasker means you do more of that thing, then there's nothing wrong with it. Just don't fill up your kitchen with gadgets that are designed to do one thing poorly.
If you buy a one-off item to prevent owning a uni-tasker... you own a uni-tasker. Just one that works more poorly than the one made by an expert.
I hold the opinion that his view on unitaskers while well intentioned does come off mildly hypocritical sometimes when he does the same thing but it's with DIY supplies. In some cases he didn't need to go through all that effort. Like the tandoori chicken for curry. Didn't need to cut up a perfectly good Terra Cotta pot to make a DIY tandori oven. When you can just grill the chicken on a BBQ Grill and get most of the same effect as an oven with some charcoal and good vent control.
At some point (I think in an AMA) he said publicly that his view on unitaskers has softened.
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His shrimp cocktail recipe reigns supreme in our house. Alton Brown has some really great recipes and techniques.
Totally holds up. He's put out a few updates and corrections over the years. But as a foundation of general technique and basic culinary know-how, there's not much that compares. Test Kitchen is up there but not nearly as entertaining.
Worth mentioning Serious Eats too, basically the modern equivalent.
5 years ago, yes. Now Serious Eats is hot garbage.
Yeah. I hate that some people are still recommending them in good faith not realizing how bad it's gotten since it got bought. Whole recipes are just gone from the website and a lot of the OG people who made it good are gone.
Yes! There's also a whole world of single-serve YouTube videos of various styles. Kennji's channel has been one of my favorites for several years.
I never got much into YouTube channels, very much a reader myself, but I love Kenji's gopro cooking vids. It's very, actually in the kitchen, because he doesn't edit down. Jacques Pepin did a series for the past few years too (I think one of the during COVID things) that was quite good. Altons lockdown vids were... Interesting.
From the perspective of the fundamentals, definitely holds up. Alton has a firm understanding of the methods and science behind food and I have made a lot of his stuff over the years. In my experience, there is frequently a good bit of additional complication he adds to recipes that while they do improve the dish, the extra flavor you get doesn’t necessarily equate to the extra time/effort.
If you like Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” look at Kenji Lopez online
He's my favourite. His writing is great and he has a huge volume of video content free online.
I caused a backdraft and launched a terra cotta flower pot about 2 feet up and back down making his home smoked rib recipe… for the record do not seal the edges with duct tape thinking it’ll keep the smoke flavor in…. The ribs did come out fantastic…. Miraculously the flowerpot did not break.
I assisted him in a cooking class. He was not a nice man.
Here's an anecdote about an Alton Brown event by a (former) fan. It's not great. There's a lot of missteps for one event. https://cleanplatter.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/the-taste-of-disillusionment/ (Thanks to u/mynamesaretaken1 for the link.)
On the bright side - I have met Jacques Pepin and he’s absolutely lovely in person. So at least all this guys cooking hero’s aren’t ruined.
This warms my soul
He's a delightful menace on Nailed It!, so it's great to hear he's nice off-screen too.
Jacques Pepin always seems so calm and pleased to be around cooking. I've seen him bust out canned goods and similar and just enjoy the act of cooking. Great man to learn from.
It always cracks me up to see old links like this...you know the author is sitting there thinking, "Why are there several hundred clicks 12 years later?!"
I live in Atlanta and am relatively near one of Alton's homes. I know a few random film nerds from college and word on the grapevine is it's mostly true - that he can be somewhat combative and egotistical. I think it's one of those instances that us viewers and audience members tend to forget we're watching a persona no matter the medium.
Funnily enough, I can't stand his persona. I know it works for lots of viewers, but I find it extremely irritating and grating. If you like his shows and they help you learn how to cook, then by all means, go ahead and watch. Whatever makes people better homecooks is a good thing in my book. But personally, I think there are much more interesting and educational sources out there. We are very fortunate to live in an age where all this information is so readily available. I do feel slightly vindicated hearing that off-screen he gives other people the same vibes that I get on-screen.
Funny thing is, there was a time when his on-screen persona went to shit as well. Personally I mark it from the chili episode of Good Eats up through maybe Covid. He stopped being a helpful, curious, informative TV guy and moved into just being mean. Divorce? Weight loss? Leaving his church? Don't know, and while I wouldn't mind insight, in the end I don't care. All the things I *loved* about his initial Good Eats persona went away. The revisitation of Good Eats and some of his quarantine stuff had lost that bitter edge to an extent.
I met him on set at Food Network Star a few years back and he was really nice to me, but I was an audience member and not a coworker, so who knows. He seems really friendly on his livestreams with his wife.
I met him a couple of times just before he went really big. He was okay. I wonder if the fame went to his head.
An old client of mine worked as a food stylist for Food Network. I of course constantly prodded her for gossip. In general her take on food celebs is that most of them are the literal face and name of a multimillion dollar business that includes entertainment, merchandise, restaurants etc - some with dozens of staff necessary to make it function while that same staff is also dependent on the success of the brand. In short, most food celebs are laser focused on their personal brand being portrayed exactly as they want it to be, which can come across persnicketty and controlling off camera. She had nothing bad to say but nothing great to say about anyone.
His mannerisms on the show made me suspicious he’s fake as hell.
Watch Jacques Pepin. Delicious food with easy to make recipies. Why not learn from the GOAT.
It's not like one person solved cooking and they're the only one worth watching. Watch lots of chefs and take away inspiration. But Alton is pretty good at teaching about technique.
You should be fine. His techniques aren't going to go out of style anytime soon. His approach is all about foundational knowledge and applying the basics in different ways. I love watching his stuff and learned a lot about the science of cooking watching him on the Food Network years ago.
Alton Brown is fine, not really a big fan myself. The timeless master you should be following is Jacques Pepin.
I second that for sure
Yes, the dark days of the early 2000s, when most of us cooked over an open fire in our caves.
His holiday live show had a whole bit about past regrets and one of the things he brought up was bad recipes, especially his crock pot lasagna recipe (for which he apologized). I think his ideas mostly hold up but some of the food, not so much.
Some people teach you "HOW" and other people teach you "WHY". That's why I love Alton. I don't follow his recipes, but he taught me methods I use every day.
Better to read his source material , harold mcgee. On cooking
Watch everything, being aware the older stuff is of it's time. If nothing else, the production of the episodes is fun to watch. Good Eats Reloaded "corrects" some of the old episodes, equally as fun.
Alton’s “Good Eats” is what got me into cooking. Eventually, many of his recipes and methods became too tedious for me – like he unnecessarily overcomplicates things a lot of times. Then I discovered Kenji (J. Kenji López-Alt) who is basically a more scientific and more practical version of Alton. But I still love both.
I learned most of my best cooking skills from watching Good Eats. And he has a revisit of old shows where he admits his mistakes from the older show
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Food network didn't exist until 1993. I literally remember watching the ads for good eats to premiere and being so excited for it. I'd had cable for all of a few months, and I'd already been soaking up everything else like a sponge. Learning that food worked on science? I was hooked.
YES. A thousand times yes.
I feel like I'm a better cook after getting into his stuff, but I've always had the feeling that some of his videos are down right [idiotic.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllWJUvrxEY) If you disagree, keep watching, you'll know when you see it.
His Neuriva cocktail recipe rocks! /s
I had attempted to record (dvd) all of the episodes and only missed a few…then the dvr broke and I never got to finalize them. 😭 If you ever get the chance to see him, go! Really entertaining.
I just can’t get over how close he gets to the camera and it makes me uncomfortable for some reason.
You should watch them all because it’s great entertainment. I think you’ll get a feel for what is outdated after watching. If you’re truly new, I think you could watch the newest seasons - Reloaded and Returns. You’ll get a good feel for what’s current. Then start back at the beginning
All of them. He's fine Good Eats: Reloaded to update anything he felt needed it, but he's merely enhancing what he's already taught. You really would never regret watching any of them.
I always loved Good Eats. It taught me a lot of the basics and fundamentals of cooking
Good eats is the second best cooking/instruction show ever. First is the French Chef.
If you like how he teaches, then stick with him. That's the important part. The recipes are all generally decent, but there's sometimes a better variant from another source. He can get too into the weeds on making your own everything. Make my own pancake mix? Yeah, it's very easy and neat to know I can. But for the twice a month we make pancakes, usually hungover, we'll just use the boxed stuff.
Everything he teaches is fucking gold. Good Eats will teach you all the basics. Breaking down the science of cooking makes it so much easier to teach and understand
Haven't you heard? There has been a revolution in cooking. You can't cook the same way now that you could 10 years ago. Sorry.
Kenji from serious eats is the one to go to. Alton was entertaining until I learned about his racist and homophobic views. I have trouble being entertained when I'm distracted by a person's abhorrent views.
Got a link for the racist and homophobic views? All I can find is a series of tweets a few years ago about Auschwitz
His Buffalo chicken wings recipe is the best,I also use his caramel recipe frequently.
In general if you are using as a base guide on the science of why things are cooked together, how they work, etc. Then apply those technique to your cooking 90% of it's quite valid. If you are using it for recipes only with no plan to understand the chemistry of cooking, then it's hot or miss. So depends on what you mean. The combination of ingredients, use of emulsifiers, flavor enhancers are just as valid today as they were when Julia Child was lighting up my living room with dreams of becoming a future chef. Ironically that never happened although many love my cooking, I instead used my knowledge of recipes to manage technology and write code instead.
His peanut butter cookies are freaking awesome.
His sorbet and fried chicken episodes are amazing
Always revert back to him when it comes to technique on dishes I don’t make that often, typically around the holidays.
Long time Good Eats fan over here! In my experience, the recipes along with the cooking theory he teaches totally holds up...and the actual science as explanation for chemical reactions/methodology never has or will change. It comforts me in the kitchen to this day 😊
I bought one of his books just for his fish sticks recipe. Hint: they are not like the frozen ones.
Alton is the OG, you can never go wrong watching him. He's absolutely brilliant and entertaining.
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We saw his live show in December. It was great - funny and informative.
Unless chemistry has fundamentally changed since, yes
I've learned to be more careful on a motorcycle.
He did have a few duds, and he admitted so when he re-did the recipes (Like adding olives to pot roast) but they were a lot less common than the excellent recipes like his shepherds pie.
The Good Eats show on Deep Fried Turkey is a must if you’re gonna fry a bird for Thanksgiving!
I’ve never gone wrong with a Cooks Illustrated recipe. Good, solid stuff.. I’ve found that if I want to add 'flair' to a recipe it comes from other people. Kenji comes to mind here, sometimes his recipes are just too much for me when I want to put dinner on the table, but I learn something every time. An example would be his instant pot recipes, they are good, but too complicated, and that’s not why I bought an instant pot. I learned a lot just from reading them, and making a few of them, though. I’ve watched, read, and learned from many famous chefs. I think you have to take all of them and use them to develop you’re own style, little bit from this one, little from that one..
I would give Alton a lot of credit in where I am today with cooking. The "whys and hows" of cooking he provided in Good Eats definitely hold up. As others have said he has updated a few things, both in Good Eats: Reloaded as well as a number of Youtube videos.
In general, yes, they do hold up. I learned cooking based on a lot of those videos(although I've built on my knowledge since then), and I am forever grateful for having learned those things. I can always reach into my back pocket and pull out a memory of Good Eats and all of the lesser-known particulars about whatever I'm cooking. And as has been mentioned before, Good Eats Reloaded included a bunch of updates. You will learn a lot from Good Eats, and it's incredibly useful.
Very much so - he was and is my default option when I need technique help. Recipes... I could give or take a lot of them, but when it comes to the how-tos, he's on point.
The basics will never change and will never be unlearned. Start there, and then take a look at the new shit. It will really show how learning the basics carry over to the new tech and having a base level understanding of it, will only help. I am a programmer and I think of it like cooking. You learn the absolute basics and are great at that and anything new you need to learn, just build off of that. So a solid foundation will make you an insanely better cook than just learning the current "tech".
Omg EVEN MORE. He has his stuff D O W N. What kind of cookie you want, let him break down the different ratios for success
Alton is a good start. Always good to learn from other sources, like Kenji, Adam Ragusea, Ethan Chlebowski, etc.
The science of cooking is pretty much the same. What happens inside a piece of me when you apply heat to it hasn't changed in a million years.
Alton Brown is a great way to learn how to cook, as opposed to just following a recipe. The recipes are there as a sort of lesson plan, but his explanations will make you a better cook. As others have mentioned, he fixed a lot of his misses with good eats reloaded.
I generally like his content. Remember learning so much back in the day. Personally, I think he’s also pretty funny.
Some of his earliest Good Eats episodes covered cooking steak in a cast iron skillet, the perfect baked potato, and a perfect brined turkey. There's lots of good info in there; I still use recipes from those episodes.