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
I know people that could serve me canned tuna and saltine crackers and have me feel more at home at their table than some people who can cook circles around me. The more you try to impress people, generally the less you do. – 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
Last year, I made a refrigerator in my basement. And I needed to because I needed to figure how – you know there is no such thing as ‘cold.’ There is only less heat. – Alton Brown
A pie dough comes together exactly like a biscuit only there is very, very little liquid and no leavening involved. Other than that, the same rules apply. My best advice: handle the dough as little as possible. – Alton Brown
Seriously. I’m not very bright, and it takes a lot for me to get a concept – to really get a concept. To get it enough that it becomes part of me. But when it happens I get real excited about it. – 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
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
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
‘Outlaw Cook’ was a revelation. Folks like Jeff Smith and Marcella Hazan got me interested in cooking, but John Thorne pushed me into the path that I follow to this day. This is the only cookbook I’ve ever read that understands how men really eat: over the sink, in the dark, greasy to the elbows. – 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 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
The worst food you’ll ever eat will probably be prepared by a ‘cook’ who calls himself a ‘chef.’ Mark my words. – Alton Brown
I can’t talk about anything or write about anything if I don’t understand it. So a lot of the stuff that I go through and a lot of the time that I spend is understanding. – 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
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
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