Alton Brown Quotes:
A meringue is really nothing but a foam. And what is a foam after all, but a big collection of bubbles? And what’s a bubble? It’s basically a very flimsy little latticework of proteins draped with water. We add sugar to this structure, which strengthens it. But things can, and do, go wrong.
Alton Brown
I love to have battles of the wits with people that can dish fast and dirty – and it leads to problems occasionally, ’cause I can sound mean without attempting to be mean.
Alton Brown
I had kicked around the idea for Good Eats when I was directing commercials.
Alton Brown
I kept thinking, ‘Somebody has to make a food show that is actually educational and entertaining at the same time… a show that got down to the ‘why things happen.’ Plus, I hated my job – I didn’t think it was very worthwhile.
Alton Brown
My feeling has always been that ‘Good Eats’ would have never happened had it been left to a committee.
Alton Brown
Although I don’t take myself very seriously, I do take my work extraordinarily seriously.
Alton Brown
The problem is I am both a procrastinator and a power junkie, so I am very frustrating to work with.
Alton Brown
I’m going from doing all of the work to having to delegate the work – which is almost harder for me than doing the work myself. I’m a lousy delegator, but I’m learning.
Alton Brown
I looked for a very long time, knowing that it had to happen, but it took me a long time to find someone with the same background and whatnot and I finally found him.
Alton Brown
A lot of food shows need only to tempt. Some food shows only need to inspire, to empower. And there are a lot of shows that do that.
Alton Brown
So I quit my job and went to the New England Culinary Institute for the full two years and worked in the restaurant industry after that until finally I thought I had a grasp on what I needed to do what I do.
Alton Brown
For me, it was kind of like going into the military or something. And anybody – any male – who has ever worked in a French kitchen knows what I am talking about when I say that.
Alton Brown
My college degree was in theater. But the real reason, if I have any success in that milieu, so to speak, is because I spent a lot of years directing, I spent a lot of years behind the camera.
Alton Brown
I love poking fun at myself. I have a rather mean sense of humor.
Alton Brown
I like television. I still believe that television is the most powerful form of communication on Earth – I just hate what is being done with it.
Alton Brown
I have nothing but sympathy for the people who are forced to work with me. I’m better now at picking out those that want to play that game with me, and those that don’t.
Alton Brown
My mantra was to educate people – to actually give them the know-how they could use – and to do it in a very subversive kind of way. I would entertain them, and I was going to teach them whether they knew it or not.
Alton Brown
Gluttony is wrong. It’s wasteful.
Alton Brown
Very good cooks who are employed as ‘chefs’ rarely refer to themselves as ‘chefs.’ They refer to themselves as ‘cooks.’
Alton Brown
The worst food you’ll ever eat will probably be prepared by a ‘cook’ who calls himself a ‘chef.’ Mark my words.
Alton Brown
That’s the ultimate goal of most turkey recipes: to create a great skin and stuffing to hide the fact that turkey meat, in its cooked state, is dry and flavorless. Does it have to be that way? No. We just have to focus on what the turkey is and what the turkey needs.
Alton Brown
Stuffing is evil. Stuffing adds mass, so it slows the cooking. That’s evil because the longer the bird cooks, the drier it will be.
Alton Brown
If you really love stuffing, wait until the turkey comes out of the oven, add some of the pan drippings to the stuffing, and bake it in a dish. That’s called dressing, and that’s not evil – stuffing is, though.
Alton Brown
Basting is evil. Basting does nothing for the meat. Why? Skin. Skin is designed to keep stuff out of the bird, so basting just lets heat out of the oven. That means the turkey will take longer to cook… so don’t touch that door!
Alton Brown
Jeff Smith was the Julia Child of my generation. When his television show, ‘The Frugal Gourmet,’ made its debut on PBS in the 1980s, it conveyed such genuine enthusiasm for cooking that I was moved for the first time to slap down cold cash for a collection of recipes.
Alton Brown