Goodbye Good Eats

With the last few episodes of the Food Network’s Good Eats slated to air in the coming months, I thought I'd take a post to reflect on the show. For its first half dozen seasons it was one of my favorite cooking shows, Alton Brown’s ability to weave cooking, science, and entertainment together not only taught me about food history/science/etymology/lore but also inspired me to cook interesting recipes when I was just starting to fend for myself in the kitchen during college.

On top of that, the homebrewing episode (Amber Waves of Grain) was one of the things that first got me interested in homebrewing. However, that episode was also one of the causes of my eventual loss of interest in the show. During the course of the episode, while brewing an extract beer, Alton makes numerous mistakes in both technique and terminology: he boils the steeping grains, doesn't rinse the bleach sanitizer, calls flame-out hops “dry-hopping” etc… A few years ago I read an interview in which he stated that his goal for  the episode was not teach homebrewing, but to get people interested enough to visit a homebrew shop (I realize you can’t explain everything about making beer in 22 minutes, but that is no excuse for incorrect information). I understand that he isn’t an experienced homebrewer and that the episode succeeded in bringing attention to homebrewing, but it made me think that if he could make such elementary mistakes with beer, who’s to say he wasn’t doing the same thing with sushi, ravioli, or science?  I mean he isn't an experienced sushi chef, pasta maker, or scientist either.

This is one of the lessons I’ve tried to take for my blog, if I’m not sure of something I try to make that clear. I’ve always been hesitant to post on subjects that I’m not experienced with (that is to say pretty much anything besides beer). Most of you don't get to try what I make, you have to take my word for how good they are, so I’ve worked over the last few years to build trust, and I don’t want to blow it by writing something uninformed about a subject I don’t know well.

The other nail in the coffin was Alton's endorsement of Miller Lite. I know, I know, if Miller drove a dump truck of money up to my house and asked me to endorse their new sour beer I'd probably go for it… but it still reflects poorly on a man who often preaches the value of eating local, interesting foods.

I still watch Good Eats when I happen to flip by it (which is rare these days since I don’t have cable), but when I do it seems to have lost a step over the last few seasons. During that time Alton often rehashed the same 4-5 general scientific concepts that had been covered in previous seasons using new models/demos (e.g. emulsions, brining, starches, yeast, and coagulation) without exploring new more complex ideas. I’m not sure if that stagnation speaks more to Alton, or the current environment of the Food Network. It is a shame to see the network that once had real chefs making interesting food reduced to countless shows about cooking quick n’ easy (or just eating).