Alton Brown is undoubtedly a legendary figure and he did a lot of good for the modern state of culinary entertainment. His scientific, experimental approach was authoritative. He came up with what was scientifically the best way to do a thing, demonstrated why, and did it in a very entertaining way.
But with that, came scores of fans who saw “this is the best way to do a thing” and interpreted that as “this is the only way to do a thing, fuck you you’re doing it wrong.”
Alton wasn’t doing what other TV chefs were doing. Emeril and Julia presented really good recipes, they’d add some flare and say hey, this is how we do it around here. Bourdain explored the world and showed off a lot of great ways to cook. He was reluctant to criticize and clearly just loved the food.
But Alton Brown, for all the good he did, opened up authority to fans who didn’t know shit about fuck. He spoke with confidence about how his method was the right method.
Right about the time the Internet was coming in to it’s own and arguing about nonsense online became a hobby a person could have.
Now, there’s a culture of being right about cooking online. People who log in every day just to bitch about how somebody else cooked something.
Obviously it’s not exclusively Alton’s fault, and Alton is as open to new and interesting ways to cook things as Bourdain was, a fact you’ll discover if he ever happens to visit your home town and read what he says about the food there on his Facebook page.
But there is a through line there, and it starts at Good Eats.
I still can’t get over the militant grilled cheese vs melt arguments that were common online a year ago.
If food tastes good, who cares what the hell it’s called or how “authentic” it is. No food is authentic from the get-go; someone tries something new one day, other people like it, and it catches on and becomes a thing. If it’s not your thing, or if you think it could be done better with x, y, and z, that’s fine, everyone has personal tastes and you don’t have to like everything.
I don’t know if I agree with that. I think Alton was vastly more New Guard, Question Tradition than many of the other notable celebrity chefs and cooks during his come up. If you want to talk about people enforcing tradition, let’s take a look at Giada DeLaurentis, or hell even Rachel Ray whenever it comes to anything with Sicilian origin.
I think the Old Guard mentality is vastly more rigid about these sort of traditions and giving people a critical understanding of the processes behind cooking doesn’t, at least to me, imply any kind of singular authoritarian approach to cuisine.
I blame Alton Brown.
Hear me out.
Alton Brown is undoubtedly a legendary figure and he did a lot of good for the modern state of culinary entertainment. His scientific, experimental approach was authoritative. He came up with what was scientifically the best way to do a thing, demonstrated why, and did it in a very entertaining way.
But with that, came scores of fans who saw “this is the best way to do a thing” and interpreted that as “this is the only way to do a thing, fuck you you’re doing it wrong.”
Alton wasn’t doing what other TV chefs were doing. Emeril and Julia presented really good recipes, they’d add some flare and say hey, this is how we do it around here. Bourdain explored the world and showed off a lot of great ways to cook. He was reluctant to criticize and clearly just loved the food.
But Alton Brown, for all the good he did, opened up authority to fans who didn’t know shit about fuck. He spoke with confidence about how his method was the right method.
Right about the time the Internet was coming in to it’s own and arguing about nonsense online became a hobby a person could have.
Now, there’s a culture of being right about cooking online. People who log in every day just to bitch about how somebody else cooked something.
Obviously it’s not exclusively Alton’s fault, and Alton is as open to new and interesting ways to cook things as Bourdain was, a fact you’ll discover if he ever happens to visit your home town and read what he says about the food there on his Facebook page.
But there is a through line there, and it starts at Good Eats.
9/11 also did a number on food shows
I still can’t get over the militant grilled cheese vs melt arguments that were common online a year ago.
If food tastes good, who cares what the hell it’s called or how “authentic” it is. No food is authentic from the get-go; someone tries something new one day, other people like it, and it catches on and becomes a thing. If it’s not your thing, or if you think it could be done better with x, y, and z, that’s fine, everyone has personal tastes and you don’t have to like everything.
I don’t know if I agree with that. I think Alton was vastly more New Guard, Question Tradition than many of the other notable celebrity chefs and cooks during his come up. If you want to talk about people enforcing tradition, let’s take a look at Giada DeLaurentis, or hell even Rachel Ray whenever it comes to anything with Sicilian origin.
I think the Old Guard mentality is vastly more rigid about these sort of traditions and giving people a critical understanding of the processes behind cooking doesn’t, at least to me, imply any kind of singular authoritarian approach to cuisine.
edit: typos and cleaning up for clarity