Alton Brown

Alton Brown
Brown speaking at a Hopelink fundraiser event in 2015
Born Alton Crawford Brown
(1962-07-30) July 30, 1962
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Ingram (2018-)
DeAnna Brown (div, 2015)
Children 1
Culinary career
Cooking style

Alton Crawford Brown (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, author, actor, cinematographer, and musician. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats, host of the mini-series Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Waves, and host and main commentator on Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen. Brown is a best-selling author of several books on food and cooking. On Alton's 2017 book tour, he stated Good Eats will have a "sequel", and it will be released in 2018 on the internet. He is the songwriter and lead performer for his CD Bitter Like Me.

Early life

A. Brown was born July 30, 1962, in Los Angeles and spent his youth in Georgia.[1][2] Brown's father, Alton Brown, Sr., was a media executive in Cleveland, Georgia, owner of radio station WRWH and publisher of the newspaper White County News.[3][4]

After studying film in the University of Georgia drama department, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Brown was the cinematographer for several music videos, including "The One I Love" by R.E.M.[5][6]

Career

Brown notes that he was very dissatisfied with the quality of cooking shows airing on American television, so he set out to produce his own show. In preparation, he enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, graduating in 1997.[7][8] Brown says that he was a poor science student in high school and college, but he focused on the subject to understand the underlying processes of cooking. He is outspoken in his shows about his dislike of single-purpose kitchen utensils and equipment ("unitaskers"), such as garlic presses and margarita machines, although he adapts a few traditionally single-purpose devices, such as rice cookers and melon ballers, into multi-purpose tools.[9]

TV series

Good Eats

The pilot for Good Eats first aired in July 1998 on the PBS member TV station WTTW in Chicago, Illinois. Food Network picked up the show in July 1999. In May 2011, Alton Brown announced an end to Good Eats after 14 seasons.[10] The final episode, "Turn on the Dark", aired February 10, 2012.

Many of the Good Eats episodes feature Brown building makeshift cooking devices in order to point out that many of the devices sold at conventional "cooking" stores are simply fancified hardware store items.

Good Eats was nominated for the Best T.V. Food Journalism Award by the James Beard Foundation in 2000.[11] The show was also awarded a 2006 Peabody Award.[12]

On Alton's 2017 book tour he stated Good Eats will have a "sequel", and it will be released in 2018, on the internet.

Iron Chef America

In 2004 Brown appeared on Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters. This was the second attempt to adapt the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef to American television (the first being UPN's Iron Chef USA, which featured William Shatner, and was not well received). Brown served as the expert commentator, a modified version of the role played by Dr. Yukio Hattori in the original show. When the show became a series, Brown began serving as the play-by-play announcer, with Kevin Brauch as kitchen reporter. Brown also served as the host for all five seasons of the spin-off The Next Iron Chef.

Feasting on Asphalt

Brown's third series, Feasting on Asphalt, explores the history of eating on the move. Brown and his crew crossed the United States via motorcycle in a four-part miniseries about the history of road food. Brown samples food all along his travel route. He includes a "history of food" segment documenting famous road trips and interviews many of the foodies he meets en route.

The series premiered on Food Network on July 29, 2006. The mini-series was picked up for a second run, entitled Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run, in 2007. Six episodes were filmed during April and May 2007. The episodes trace the majority of the length of the Mississippi River through Brown's travels. The second run of episodes began airing on Food Network on August 4, 2007.

The third season uses the title Feasting on Waves and has Brown traveling the Caribbean Sea by boat in search of local cuisine.

Cutthroat Kitchen

In 2013, Brown began hosting the cooking competition series Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network. In each episode, four chefs are each given $25,000 with which to bid on items that can be used to hinder their opponents' cooking, such as confiscating ingredients or forcing them to use unorthodox tools and equipment. Three chefs are eliminated one by one, and the winner keeps his/her unspent money as the day's prize. The series premiered on August 11, 2013.[13]

Other appearances

Brown served as a mentor on Season 8 of The Next Food Network Star alongside Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis. During season 8, each mentor selected and mentored a team of five finalists. Team Alton's finalist, Justin Warner, was the season 8 winner; however, Brown will not be producing Warner's show.[14]

Brown appeared on the Travel Channel show The Layover with Anthony Bourdain which focused on the city of Atlanta in 2013. In the episode Bourdain takes Brown to the Clermont Lounge.[15]

Brown guest-starred as the "Guest Bailiff" and "Expert Witness" in John Hodgman's comedy/court show podcast Judge John Hodgman.[16][17]

In October 2013, Brown launched "Alton Brown Live: The Edible Inevitable Tour," his first national tour visiting 46 cities through March 2014. The show includes stand-up comedy, talk show antics, a multimedia lecture, live music and "extreme" food experimentation [18] After a hiatus of several months while Brown worked on his Food Network shows, the tour resumed in October 2014 and concluded on April 4, 2015, in Houston, Texas, after visiting more than 60 cities.[19]

In October 2017, Brown was featured on the Food Network television show Chopped in a five-part series called "Alton Brown's Challenge."

Brown voices Yum Labouché in Big Hero 6: The Series. The character is a judge for an underground cooking competition.[20]

Commercials

Brown has done commercial work for General Electric (GE) products,[21] including five infomercials touting the benefits of GE refrigerators, washers and dryers, water purifiers, Trivection ovens, and dishwashers.[22] The infomercials are produced in the Good Eats style, employing the use of unusual camera angles, informational text, props, visual aids, scientific explanations, and the same method of delivery. These infomercials are distributed to wholesale distributors of appliances/plumbing devices.

Brown has also aided GE in developing a new type of oven. He was initially called by GE to help their engineers learn more about the effects of heat on food;[23] that grew into an active cooperation to develop GE's Trivection oven.[24]

Brown has also done promotion for Dannon yogurt, Welch's, Shun knives Colgate toothpaste, and for Heifer International.

In 2010, he endorsed salt use in a campaign for Cargill.[25]

Twitter

In 2012, Brown gained popularity by pioneering the use of humorous "Analog Tweets," wherein he posts pictures of hand-drawn Twitter responses on Post-it notes which he has stuck to his computer monitor.[26]

The Alton Browncast

On June 28, 2013, Alton Brown joined the Nerdist Podcast Network with his podcast The Alton Browncast. In this podcast, Brown reviews recent food news, takes calls and questions from listeners, and interviews celebrities and other guests. Food is often a focal point of the podcast, but several episodes have branched off into other areas of Brown's interest, including men's style, production and recording of music, and various aspects of acting and cinematography. So far, it has featured chats with food luminaries such as Justin Warner, Hugh Acheson, Alex Guarnaschelli, Bobby Flay, and Keith Schroder. Guests have also included men's style maven Sid Mashburn and clothing manufacturing team Adam Schoenberg and Cory Rosenberg; producer Jim Milan and soundman Patrick Beldin from "The Edible Inevitable Tour" and actor Bart Hansard, who played multiple characters on Good Eats.[27]

Bitter like Me

Brown announced his music album, Bitter like Me, on November 2, 2016. The album contains nine food-themed songs from his live stage shows and a new Thanksgiving-themed song. Physical CDs of the album were made available at Brown's live stage shows and through the stage show's website. Streaming versions were released in March 2018 via Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play, and Apple Music.

Awards

Bon Appétit magazine named him "Cooking Teacher of the Year" in 2004, and he won a Peabody Award in 2007 for Good Eats (as part of the cast). He was named "Best Food Guru" by Atlanta magazine in 2005,[28] was awarded the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions 2009 "Educator of the Year" and, in 2011, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best TV Food Personality.[29]

Personal life

Brown lives in Marietta, Georgia. He and his ex-wife DeAnna, an executive producer on Good Eats, divorced in 2015.[30] DeAnna and Alton have one daughter, Zoey (born in 1999).[31] A few members of his extended family appeared on Good Eats (such as his late grandmother, Ma Mae, his mother, and daughter, Zoey, who is known on the show as "Alton's Spawn"), but most of his "family" portrayed on the series were actors or members of the show's production crew.[32][33]

According to a June 2018 article by Atlanta magazine, Brown became engaged to Atlanta restaurant designer Elizabeth Ingram.[34] According to Brown's Instagram account, as of September 2018, he and Ingram had married, on a boat in Charleston SC.[35]

Brown is an avid gun enthusiast. He owns a SCAR, a Browning Hi-Power, various Kimbers, and an H&K P30 and shoots them regularly.[36]

Brown is a motorcycling enthusiast, owning a BMW R1150RT.[24] He gave up motorcycling by 2012, citing slowing reflexes and safety.[37] Brown is an airplane pilot, and was featured in the aviation magazine AOPA Flight Training.[38] He completed his first solo flight on June 25, 2007, and earned his private pilot certificate on June 5, 2008. He owned two planes, a Cessna 206 and a Cessna 414.[39]

Another one of Brown's hobbies is a deep appreciation for vintage watches. Brown wore a different watch for every season of Good Eats, which was used in production to quickly identify which season a clip is from. When his watch broke down mid-season, he continued to wear the broken timepiece to maintain this system. Twenty years after the Omega Seamaster watch his father left for him was stolen, Brown found that exact watch on eBay and had it restored.[40]

Brown changed his eating habits in 2009 in order to lose weight and become healthier, losing 50 pounds (23 kg) over the course of nine months.[41]

Brown is a Christian. He says,

I'm not a spooky snake handler because I live in Georgia and I'm Christian, that I believe in the Bible, that I travel with the Bible, that I read the Bible every day. I'm still me. I'm still a guy doing a job. I find, actually, that people ask me a lot about it. I don't hit people over the head with the Bible ... I still feel a funny little tinge in my stomach when I'm out to dinner with my wife and daughter in New York. We'll go to dinner and we'll be sitting around the table and we'll say Grace. You know what? People are going to stare at you. I used to feel really self-conscious. But I've gotten to a point where I think, nah, I'm not going to feel bad about that. I'm not going to apologize about that.[42]

Brown said in a December 2014 interview in Time that he "could no longer abide the Southern Baptist Convention's indoctrination of children and its anti-gay stance" adding that he is now "searching for a new belief system."[43]

Bibliography

  • I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking ( ISBN 1-58479-083-0, 2002)
  • Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen ( ISBN 1-58479-296-5, 2003)
  • I'm Just Here for the Food: Kitchen User's Manual ( ISBN 1-58479-298-1, 2003)
  • I'm Just Here for the Food: Cook's Notes ( ISBN 1-58479-299-X, 2003)
  • I'm Just Here for More Food: Food × Mixing + Heat = Baking ( ISBN 1-58479-341-4, 2004)
  • I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 ( ISBN 1-58479-559-X, 2006)
  • Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run ( ISBN 1-58479-681-2, 2008)
  • Good Eats: The Early Years ( ISBN 1-58479-795-9, 2009)
  • Good Eats 2: The Middle Years ( ISBN 1-58479-857-2, 2010)
  • Good Eats 3: The Later Years ( ISBN 1-58479-903-X, 2011)
  • EveryDayCook ( ISBN 978-1-101-88571-0, 2016)

Brown was also a contributor to the 2005 cookbook Food Network Favorites: Recipes from Our All-Star Chefs ( ISBN 0696230216). He selected the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International to receive a portion of the royalties.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Alton Brown Celebrity". TV Guide. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ Parker, Virginia (April 2007). Alton Brown Steaks His Claim. Atlanta Magazine. p. 80ff. ISSN 0004-6701. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  3. ↑ Parker, Virginia (April 2007). "Alton Brown Steaks His Claim". Atlanta. pp. 96–97. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ Grimes, Millard B. (1985). The Last Linotype: The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War II. Mercer University Press. p. 504.
  5. ↑ Melancon, Merritt (May 12, 2010). "Brown talks TV, food, R.E.M." Online Athens. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Alton Brown Biography". biography.com. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ Belden, Patrick. "Good Eats Music". Archived from the original on June 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  8. ↑ "Profile: Alton Brown". 2005. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
  9. ↑ Rothman, Wilson (August 27, 2009). "Alton Brown: Kitchen Gadget Judgment Calls – Yea or Nay?". Gizmodo. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  10. ↑ Cavendish, Steve. "Alton Brown calls an end to 'Good Eats'". Chicago Tribune.
  11. ↑ "Broadcast Awards". James Beard Foundation. 2000. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  12. ↑ "Complete List of 2006 Peabody Award Winners". 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2007. Retrieved March 15, 2008.
  13. ↑ "No-Mercy Culinary Antics to Take Over Alton Brown’s Cutthroat Kitchen" Blog entry on FoodNetwork.com
  14. ↑ Alton Brown Pulls Out Of Justin Warner Show | Mediaite
  15. ↑ Rodney Ho (January 14, 2013). "Clermont Lounge featured on Jan. 14's 'The Layover' with Anthony Bourdain on Travel Channel". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  16. ↑ Justin Morissette (March 28, 2012). "Judge John Hodgman Episode 53: Cannery Row". Maximum Fun. Retrieved 2013-02-20.
  17. ↑ MaxFun Intern (April 10, 2013). "Judge John Hodgman Episode 105: To the Victor Goes the Spoiled". Maximum Fun. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  18. ↑ Debbi Snook (September 18, 2013). "Food Network star Alton Brown coming to Akron for first national tour", The Plain Dealer, Retrieved October 22, 2013.
  19. ↑ Tellum Grody Public Relations (November 10, 2014)
  20. ↑ Hmmert, Kylie (April 24, 2018). "Big Hero 6: The Series Launching June 9 on Disney Channel!". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  21. ↑ "AltonBrown.com". AltonBrown.com. July 29, 2006. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  22. ↑ "GE Innovations with Alton Brown". Archived from the original on October 24, 2007.
  23. ↑ Lauterbach, David. "Brian's Belly: Alton Brown". Briansbelly.com. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  24. 1 2 Alton Brown at Roadfly magazine
  25. ↑ Moss, Michael. "The Hard Sell on Salt", The New York Times, May 29, 2010.
  26. ↑ Craig, Elise (September 19, 2012). "Saucy or Stale? Alton Brown Defies Twitter With Weird Post-it Notes". Wired. Retrieved 2013-03-11.
  27. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 21, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  28. ↑ "Best of Atlanta". Atlanta Magazine. 2005. Archived from the original on January 11, 2009. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  29. ↑ "Alton Brown Wins James Beard Award for Best TV Food Personality". Food Network's FN Dish Blog. May 9, 2011.
  30. ↑ "Report: Alton Brown finalizes divorce". AJC.
  31. ↑ "Alton Brown Biography". Tv.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  32. ↑ "The Family Tree". Goodeatsfanpage.com. August 27, 2010. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  33. ↑ "Alton Brown". MutantNation. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007.
  34. ↑ "The scabs-to-riches tale of Alton Brown's new rescue dog, "Scabigail"". atlantamagazine.com. June 13, 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  35. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BoZ5rnGlEVM/?utm_source=ig_embed. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  36. ↑ "Food Network's Alton Brown is a Gunnie!". Guns.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  37. ↑
  38. ↑ "AltonBrown.com". AltonBrown.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  39. ↑ Murphy, Kate (July 4, 2011). "iPads Replacing Pilots' Paper Manuals". The New York Times.
  40. ↑ "Alton Brown's Other Obsession: Vintage Watches". Men's Journal. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
  41. ↑ Brown, Alton (January 4, 2010). "Live and Let Diet". Good Eats. Food Network. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
  42. ↑ Joshua David Stein (September 28, 2010). "Alton Brown on Being a Vessel, Next Iron Chef, and His Faith – Eaterrogation – Eater National". Eater.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2012. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
  43. ↑ Jack Dickey (December 15, 2014). "Existential Stew Touring TV chef Alton Brown hunts down the recipe for joy". Time Magazine. p. 64.
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