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Quirky cooking show entertains and teaches
The 10th anniversary show of "Good Eats" airs at 9 p.m. Saturday on the Food Network, cable channel 58.
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By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Published: 10/10/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/10/2009 5:36 AM
Many people go to culinary school with dreams of becoming a chef, of opening an acclaimed restaurant that grows into an empire of eateries, and then maybe moving to greater fame on television.
Then there's Alton Brown. The only reason he spent three years studying cooking at the New England Culinary Institute was to gain the sort of knowledge he knew he would need for the food show he wanted to create.
"Yeah, kind of crazy, that," Brown said, laughing. "Quit my job, sell the house, move north — just turn your whole life over for a show people might not want."
But Brown knew what he wanted from the show. He envisioned a program that would be a mix of "Julia Child, 'Mr. Wizard' and Monty Python," he said, during a telephone conversation.
That would be "Good Eats," the quirky cookery-science program that has become a staple of the Food Network, having made its debut on the network on July 7, 1999. More than 200 episodes later, the network will celebrate the series' 10th anniversary with a special program that will air Saturday.
The anniversary is also being marked by the release of Brown's latest book, "Good Eats: The Early Years."
"It covers the first 80 episodes of the show," Brown said of the 507-page tome ($37.50, Stewart Tabori & Chang). "Each episode gets its own chapter, with all the science lessons, lots of trivia about the episode and all the applications (Brown's word for "recipes") reworked. It's really 'Good Eats' the show in book form."
In addition, some chapters have sections Brown calls the "If I Had 10 More Minutes" boxes, which deal with topics and recipes that would have been included if the show were longer.
As for reworking the recipes, Brown said, "In the early years, I was doing everything myself — it was just me and the dog, and the dog didn't offer a whole lot in the way of critical feedback when it came to food. No one who develops recipes should be trusted to test them, so I had a lot of culinary sins I need to atone for."
'Plop and stir' shows
Brown was already doing quite well in his chosen career as a director and cinematographer, working a wide variety of projects in the Atlanta area. His work on the R.E.M. music video "The One I Love" got him noticed, and he spent the better part of the next decade filming and directing TV commercials.
He started watching cooking shows during breaks in his schedule. Brown had always been interested in cooking — learning the basics from his mother and grandmother, and using those skills, he said, "to impress the women I wanted to date."
But the shows he saw on TV didn't do much for him on an entertainment level.
"Most cooking shows were what we call 'plop and stir' programs — someone at a stove top putting together a recipe," Brown said. "And I thought there had to be more to this subject — that you could have a show that was entertaining as well as educational."
Thus, the sojourn north for three years of study and an apprenticeship in a restaurant run by an autocratic French chef. But when Brown and his wife returned to their native Georgia, he had a solid concept of the show he wanted to do.
"I wanted it to be science-centric, to be relatively simple and straightforward, and that there be some comedy," he said. "Well, maybe not comedy — some of my jokes aren't all that funny — but definitely it would have a humorous, light-hearted approach to storytelling."
That is evident in the foodstuff puns that serve as episode titles — "Squid Pro Quo," "Crust Never Sleeps," "Casserole Over" — the myriad pop culture references that pop up in Brown's monologues and the characters who appear in certain shows, from the faux-superhero the Waffler to the culinary gadget whiz W.
Brown spent six months writing the pilot episodes, which were shown on Chicago's WTTW public television station in 1998. The show was seen by Food Network executives, who then bought the rights to show.
Unlike many Food Network shows, which are filmed in New York, "Good Eats" is filmed at Brown's own facilities in Georgia.
"It takes three days for us to shoot one episode, whereas some other shows could film three shows in one day," Brown said. "Everything is handmade, from the script (all of which Brown writes himself) to the props. That's why we only do 20 shows a season."
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
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