GetWiki

{{short description|American food show presenter, chef, author, cinematographer, and musician}}{{for|the baseball player|Alton Brown (baseball)}}{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}}

factoids

| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.| death_date =| death_place =

• {{marriage|DeAnna Brown|1994|2015|reason=div{edih}
• {{marriage|Elizabeth Ingram|2018}}

}} | children = 1Cuisine of the United States>Southern}}University of Georgia|New England Culinary Institute}}| restaurants =Good EatsIron Chef America>Feasting on WavesFeasting on Asphalt>The Next Food Network StarCutthroat Kitchen>Iron Chef GauntletWorst Cooks in America>(Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend)}}}}Alton Crawford Brown Jr.WEB, Alton Brown Interview, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences,weblinkweblink 2021-12-12, live, October 25, 2018, {{cbignore}} (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, food scientist, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats that ran for 16 seasons, host of the miniseries 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. A recap series titled Good Eats Reloaded aired on Cooking Channel, and a true sequel series, Good Eats: The Return, ran from 2019 to 2021 on Food Network.WEB,weblink Alton Brown on Facebook Watch, Facebook, NEWS,weblink Bristling with nerdy energy, Alton Brown's Good Eats is back — and not a moment too soon, September 1, 2019, VanDerWerff, Emily, July 5, 2020, Vox,

Early life

Alton Brown was born July 30, 1962, in Los Angeles, California.MAGAZINE, Alton Brown Celebrity, TV Guide,weblink January 5, 2015, September 8, 2015,weblink dead, JOURNAL, Virginia, Parker, Alton Brown Steaks His Claim, Atlanta,weblink January 5, 2013, April 2007, Atlanta Magazine, 80ff, 0004-6701, Brown's father, Alton Crawford Brown, was a media executive in Cleveland, Georgia; owner of radio station WRWH; and publisher of the newspaper White County News.NEWS, Parker, Virginia, Alton Brown Steaks His Claim,weblink October 16, 2013, Atlanta, April 2007, 96–97, BOOK, Grimes, Millard B., The Last Linotype: The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War II, 1985, Mercer University Press, 504,weblink 9780865541900, He died on Alton's last day of sixth grade from an apparent suicide.WEB,weblink Severson, Kim, September 26, 2016, Alton Brown, Showman of Food TV, Pulls Back the Curtain, The New York Times, November 18, 2019,

Career

Brown studied film at the University of Georgia in the early 1980s, and got his start in television as the cinematographer for music videos, including "The One I Love" by R.E.M.WEB, Melancon, Merritt,weblink Brown talks TV, food, R.E.M., Online Athens, May 12, 2010, 2012-01-23,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130815065337weblink">weblink August 15, 2013, dead, mdy-all, WEB, Alton Brown Biography,weblink biography.com, A&E Television Networks, LLC, August 3, 2016, Brown was 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.WEB,weblink Good Eats Music, Belden, Patrick, Belden Music, 2008-06-29,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080626033356weblink">weblink June 26, 2008, dead, WEB, Profile: Alton Brown, 2005,weblink 2007-07-16,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070928024458weblink">weblink September 28, 2007, dead, mdy, Brown saysWEB,weblink The Food Scientist: 20 Things Foodies Don't Know About Alton Brown, 2018-12-17, TheRecipe, en-US, 2019-04-03, 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 showsAV MEDIA,weblinkweblink 2021-12-12, live, Alton Brown reviews Amazon's dumbest kitchen gadgets, The Daily Dot, 2015-12-10, Youtube, en-US, 2019-08-24, {{cbignore}} about his dislike of single-purpose kitchen utensils and equipment such as garlic presses and margarita machines, although he adapts a few traditionally single-purpose devices, such as rice cookers and melon ballers, into multipurpose tools.WEB,weblink Alton Brown: Kitchen Gadget Judgment Calls – Yea or Nay?, Rothman, Wilson, August 27, 2009, Gizmodo, July 3, 2022,

TV series

Good Eats

The pilot for Good Eats first aired in July 1998 on the PBS member TV station WTTW in Chicago. Food Network picked up the show in July 1999. Many of the Good Eats episodes{{Citation |title=Good Eats |url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats|access-date=2019-04-03}} 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 TV Food Journalism Award by the James Beard Foundation in 2000.NEWS, 2000, Broadcast Awards, James Beard Foundation,weblink 2008-06-29, The show was also awarded a 2006 Peabody Award.WEB, 2007, Complete List of 2006 Peabody Award Winners,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070606143746weblink">weblink June 6, 2007, March 15, 2008, In May 2011, Alton Brown announced an end to Good Eats after 14 seasons.NEWS,weblink Chicago Tribune, Steve, Cavendish, Alton Brown calls an end to 'Good Eats', May 10, 2011, July 3, 2022, The final episode, "Turn on the Dark", aired February 10, 2012.On Alton's 2017 book tour, he stated that Good Eats would have a sequelWEB, Ferst, Devra, Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' Will Make a Triumphant Return: Get ready to be schooled in the kitchen,weblink Tasting Table, November 2, 2016, April 10, 2017, and that it would be released to the internet in 2018. This was changed in late 2018 when Brown made arrangements with The Cooking Channel to air "revised" versions of several episodes with new recipes entitled Good Eats Reloaded, in which he stated new episodes of Good Eats are also in the works. Thirteen episodes of Good Eats Reloaded aired in late winter and early spring 2019, and were added to the Good Eats reruns on The Cooking Channel. It was announced on June 5, 2019, that the new show would be called Good Eats Returns; it premiered on the Food Network with the slightly revised title Good Eats: The Return on Sunday, August 25.WEB,weblink Alton Brown's Series Good Eats Is Finally Returning to the Food Network, PEOPLE.com, June 5, 2019,

Good Eats Reloaded and Good Eats: The Return

Brown relaunched the show in two versions: as Good Eats Reloaded on Cooking Channel (which updates, reworks and adds to original Good Eats episodes), and on Food Network as Good Eats: The Return in August 2019 (all-new episodes). New episodes of Reloaded premiered in April 2020. New Return episodes were in the writing process and planned to be filming over the summer of 2020, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.WEB, VanDerWeff, Emily Todd, Bristling with nerdy energy, Alton Brown's Good Eats is back - and not a moment too soon,weblink Vox, September 2019, 16 November 2019, {{failed verification|date=April 2020}} These episodes eventually saw release, initially as an exclusive on the new Discovery+ streaming service. In June 2021, the episodes premiered on Food Network as a companion to the Chopped: Alton's Maniacal Baskets tournament.WEB, Alton Brown's Groundbreaking Series Good Eats Joins discovery+,weblink Discovery+ Press Release, February 18, 2021, April 7, 2021, On July 13, 2021, Brown announced that Good Eats: The Return would not be returning for a third season.WEB, limited,weblink 2022-04-27,weblink Alton Brown on Facebook, Facebook, {{cbignore}}{{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}

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). 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 traveled around 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 miniseries was picked up for a second run, Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run, in 2007. Six episodes were filmed between 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 by boat in search of local cuisine.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}}

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 their unspent money as the day's prize. The series premiered on August 11, 2013.WEB,weblink No-Mercy Culinary Antics to Take Over Alton Brown's Cutthroat Kitchen, Food Network,

Worst Cooks in America

In 2018, Brown hosted Season 18 of Worst Cooks in America as the blue team mentor. The season debuted on January 5, 2020.

Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend

In 2022, Netflix rebooted Iron Chef America as (Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend), signing Brown as co-host with Kristen Kish.WEB, Maas, Jennifer, Netflix's Iron Chef Reboot to Reunite Host Alton Brown, 'The Chairman' Mark Dacascos,weblink May 2, 2022,

Tours

The Edible Inevitable Tour

In October 2013, Brown launched Alton Brown Live: The Edible Inevitable Tour, his first national tour visiting 46 cities through March 2014. The show included stand-up comedy, talk show antics, a multimedia lecture, live music, and "extreme" food experimentation.Debbi Snook (September 18, 2013). "Food Network star Alton Brown coming to Akron for first national tour", The Plain Dealer, Retrieved October 22, 2013. 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.WEB,weblink Client Alton Brown's Live Tour Extends Route, Adds 16 Cities,

Eat Your Science

Brown mounted a second tour show, Alton Brown Live: Eat Your Science, in 2016. The show toured through the fall of 2017. All totaled, Brown's shows have played over 225 dates including Broadway. Both his tours have included "large, unusual and probably dangerous" food demonstrations, audience participation, and even food songs performed by Brown and his combo. Brown has been quoted as saying his final tour will launch in the fall of 2020.WEB, Filloon, Whitney, Alton Brown Slayed Broadway with 'Eat Your Science',weblink Eater, November 28, 2016, 20 November 2019,

Beyond the Eats

Brown's third tour titled Alton Brown Live: Beyond the Eats was announced on his Twitter page in March 2021.WEB,weblink Alton Brown on Twitter, Twitter, March 5, 2021, The tour began in October 2021 and is ongoing.

Awards

Brown is the recipient of two James Beard Awards. He won the Best Book award in 2003 for his first book, I'm Just Here for the Food, and the Broadcast Media Award in 2011 for TV Food Personality/Host. He has also been nominated four additional times.WEB, Alton Brown,weblink James Beard Foundation,

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. Alton's finalist, Justin Warner, was the Season 8 winner; however, Brown will not be producing Warner's show.WEB,weblink Alton Brown | Mediaite, Brown guest-starred in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants titled "House Fancy" where he provides the voice of Nicholas Withers, the host of the titular show.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.NEWS, Clermont Lounge featured on Jan. 14's 'The Layover' with Anthony Bourdain on Travel Channel, Rodney Ho,weblink Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 14, 2013, July 3, 2022, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130116213042weblink">weblink January 16, 2013, mdy, Brown guest starred as the "Guest Bailiff" and "Expert Witness" in John Hodgman's comedy/court show podcast Judge John Hodgman.WEB, Justin Morissette,weblink Judge John Hodgman Episode 53: Cannery Row, Maximum Fun, March 28, 2012, 2013-02-20, WEB, MaxFun Intern,weblink Judge John Hodgman Episode 105: To the Victor Goes the Spoiled, Maximum Fun, April 10, 2013, 2013-04-10, In October 2017, Brown was featured on the Food Network television show Chopped in a five-part series called "Alton Brown's Challenge".Brown voiced Yum Labouché in (Big Hero 6: The Series). The character is a judge for an underground cooking competition.WEB,weblink Big Hero 6: The Series Launching June 9 on Disney Channel!, Comingsoon.net, Hmmert, Kylie, April 24, 2018, April 24, 2018, Brown appeared on episode 196 of MythBusters titled "Food Fables".In June 2022, he appeared on the web series Good Mythical Morning episode "Match the Flavor to the Doritos".WEB, Good Mythical Morning, Match The Flavor To The Doritos (Game),weblink YouTube, July 2, 2022, June 24, 2022, He was originally scheduled to appear in a summer 2020 episode, as he revealed in a livestream in March 2020,WEB, Brown, Alton, Let's Chat about the Worst Cooks Finale, Or Not...,weblink YouTube, July 2, 2022, March 8, 2020, however did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commercials

Brown has done commercial work for General Electric products,WEB,weblink AltonBrown.com, AltonBrown.com, July 29, 2006, 2012-01-23, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120119093244weblink">weblink January 19, 2012, mdy, including five infomercials touting the benefits of GE refrigerators, washers and dryers, water purifiers, Trivection ovens, and dishwashers.WEB,weblink GE Innovations with Alton Brown,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071024143438weblink">weblink October 24, 2007, 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;WEB, Lauterbach, David,weblink Brian's Belly: Alton Brown, May 28, 2010, Briansbelly.com, 2012-01-23, that grew into an active cooperation to develop GE's Trivection oven.Brown has promoted Colgate toothpaste,AV MEDIA,weblink dead, September 9, 2019, Colgate Optic White Whitening Toothpaste with Alton Brown, Commercial, YouTube, November 16, 2019, February 22, 2020,weblink Dannon yogurt, Welch's, Shun knives, and Heifer International.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} In 2010, he endorsed kosher salt use in a campaign for Cargill.WEB,weblink Moss, Michael, May 29, 2010, The Hard Sell on Salt, The New York Times, November 16, 2019, In 2020, he began doing commercials for Healthy Choice's line of low-fat, low-calorie, vegetable-based "Power Dressings",Alton's initial commercial for HEALTHY CHOICE Power Dressings.In 2022, he began appearing in commercials for the supplement Neuriva.PRESS RELEASE, Neuriva partners with Alton Brown to inspire consumers to think bigger,weblink PRNewswire, 18 November 2022, 15 September 2022,

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.MAGAZINE, Craig, Elise,weblink Saucy or Stale? Alton Brown Defies Twitter With Weird Post-it Notes, Wired (magazine), Wired, September 19, 2012, 2013-03-11,

The Alton Browncast

On June 28, 2013, Alton Brown joined the Nerdist Podcast Network with his podcast The Alton Browncast, covering food news, men's style, music and other topics.WEB,weblink The Alton Browncast « Nerdist, 2013-08-09, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130821022739weblink">weblink August 21, 2013, mdy, Through February 15, 2017, 68 episodes have been produced.The Alton Browncast Episode 68.

Pantry Raid and Quarantine Quitchen

With the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020 and the subsequent delays in production on Season 16 of Good Eats (Season 2 of "The Return"), Alton took to YouTube to make two new online cooking series.Pantry Raid was a series of once-weekly shorts (usually released on Fridays or Saturdays) for making palatable foods while staying safe at home. The episodes were filmed in the Good Eats test kitchens at Brain Food Productions and consisted of Alton and a cameraman as the only personnel onsite.PANTRY RAID series on YouTubeQuarantine Quitchen [aka "QQ"] started as a single livestream titled "The Browns Make Dinner", referring to Alton and his wife Elizabeth making dinner at their loft apartment in Georgia. After the success of the first such "episode", the once-weekly series was released live every Tuesday. The series continued off and on while the Browns went on tour in 2022, and now only appear sporadically in 2023.Quarantine Quitchen series on YouTube

Personal life

Brown lives in Marietta, Georgia. He and his former wife DeAnna, an executive producer on Good Eats, divorced in 2015.NEWS, Report: Alton Brown finalizes divorce,weblink AJC, They have one daughter born in 1999.WEB,weblink Alton Brown Biography, Tv.com, 2012-01-23, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120304031632weblink">weblink March 4, 2012, mdy, A few members of his extended family appeared on Good Eats (such as his late grandmother, his mother, and daughter, 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.WEB,weblink The Family Tree, Goodeatsfanpage.com, August 27, 2010, 2012-01-23, WEB,weblink Alton Brown, MutantNation,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071016064733weblink">weblink October 16, 2007, Brown and Atlanta restaurant designer Elizabeth Ingram became engaged in 2018.WEB,weblink The scabs-to-riches tale of Alton Brown's new rescue dog, "Scabigail", atlantamagazine.com, June 13, 2018, 2018-06-14, According to Brown's Instagram account, as of September 2018, he and Ingram had married, on a boat in Charleston, South Carolina.WEB,weblinkweblink 2021-12-23, subscription, Alton Brown on Instagram: "Yeah, we wore sneakers. #mybouquetwasabloodymary", Instagram, {{cbignore}}In the fifth episode of Season 18 of Worst Cooks in America, Brown referred to his current wife as his third wife.Brown was once a motorcycling enthusiast,Alton Brown {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327015336weblink |date=March 27, 2006 }} at Roadfly magazine although he no longer owns one. Additionally, Brown is an airplane pilot, and was featured in the aviation magazine AOPA Flight Training.WEB,weblink AltonBrown.com, AltonBrown.com, 2012-01-23, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120302143654weblink">weblink March 2, 2012, mdy, He owned two planes, a Cessna 206 and a Cessna 414.NEWS,weblink The New York Times, Kate, Murphy, iPads Replacing Pilots' Paper Manuals, July 4, 2011, Brown enjoys vintage watches and wore a different watch for every season of Good Eats; this was used in production to quickly identify which season a clip is from. When his watch broke down midseason,{{which|date=October 2018}} he continued to wear the broken timepiece to maintain this system. Twenty years after the Omega Seamaster watch his father left him was stolen, Brown bought it from an eBay seller and had it restored.NEWS,weblink Alton Brown's Other Obsession: Vintage Watches, Men's Journal, 2016-12-04, Brown changed his eating habits in 2009 in order to lose weight and become healthier, losing {{convert|50|lb}} over the course of nine months.WEB,weblink Live and Let Diet, 2010-01-05, Brown, Alton, January 4, 2010, Good Eats, Food Network,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100107213337weblink">weblink January 7, 2010, dead, mdy-all, Brown discussed his Christian beliefs in a 2010 interview with Eater. He said at the time: 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.WEB, Joshua David Stein,weblink Alton Brown on Being a Vessel, Next Iron Chef, and His Faith – Eaterrogation – Eater National, Eater.com, September 28, 2010, 2018-04-14, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120513165515weblink">weblink May 13, 2012, mdy, 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."MAGAZINE, Existential Stew Touring TV chef Alton Brown hunts down the recipe for joy, Time (magazine), Time, December 15, 2014, 64, Jack Dickey,weblink In November 2020, Brown declared on Twitter that he has almost always voted Republican, but that the 2016 United States Presidential Election was the first time he considered voting for a Democrat since Michael Dukakis in 1988. He supported Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, as well as Democrats running in U.S. Senate races in Georgia.TWEET, 1325947007064809476, altonbrown, I have voted Republican most of my life., Alton Brown, 2020-11-09, 2020-05-03,weblinkweblink 2020-11-09, dead,

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: Food + Heat = Cooking 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)
• Good Eats: Two-Volume Set - Episodes 1 Through 164 ({{ISBN|978-0-81-099822-3}}, 2011)
• Good Eats: Three-Volume Set - The Complete Episodes ({{ISBN|978-1-61-769105-8}}, 2013)
• EveryDayCook ({{ISBN|978-1-101-88571-0}}, 2016)
• Good Eats 4: The Final Years ({{ISBN|978-1-41-975352-7}}, 2022)

See also

• Shirley Corriher

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

{{Commons category}}

• {{Official websiteweblink}}
• {{IMDb name|0113002}}
• Official YouTube Channel
• {{emmytvlegends name|alton-brown}}
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20030326020715weblink">His James Beard Foundation Award, including a weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20060519132117weblink">video of his acceptance speech
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050506131928weblink">Interview, Macworld

{{Authority control}}