Celebrity Chefs

Smart Cooking With Alton Brown

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When I first saw Alton Brown‘s show, “Good Eats” some years ago, he didn’t strike me as a chef, and had as much “celeb” in him as that fish you see on the picture above. Bespectacled and always clad in those Florida-esque loose short-sleeved shirts, Alton may not have the silkiness of Wolfgang or the pukka charm of Jamie, but his shows are by far the most interesting and well-informed.

In fact, Alton Brown won’t just give you the recipes to the typical yummy-looking dishes, you’ll learn about the ingredients, the alchemy and the cookware used too. Top that off with a little history, more trivia and Alton’s dry sense of humour, and you’ve got one great show, uniquely Alton Brown’s.

Alton started off as a cinematographer and video director (which you can see through the unique way his shows are shot and edited), but decided to pursue his real passion (food!), when he saw the lack of “good” cooking shows on television at the time. Remember the video of REM‘s “The One I Love“? Alton was the director of photography.

He enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute to learn the fundamentals of cooking, finishing in 1997. In July of 1998, the pilot of Good Eats made its debut, and has been going steadily strong to this day, most popularly known for its quirky references to pop culture, where Alton dresses up and makes us giggle, while making some very good points on food and cookware too.
[tags]Alton Brown,Chef,Good Eats,Recipes[/tags]

Originally posted on March 30, 2011 @ 7:06 pm

Celebrity Chefs And Weight Loss

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alton_brown_e1If you’re a chef, do you have an excuse to gain a few pounds here and there? The argument has been going on forever – “How can you be a chef who’s skinny?” While I certainly can see the point of that argument, anyone can also see that it has so many holes in it that if it were a person, it would die within the hour. Perhaps that is why the trend seems to be celebrity chefs losing weight.

Let’s start with Alton Brown, who has become quite popular courtesy of The Food Network. He said that his weight loss program all started due to him seeing himself on TV. The saying that TV adds 10 pounds has never been truer in this case, and he also noticed that his audience tended to be on the heavy side as well. This combination brought him to his senses and he has lost 50 pounds since March of this year – a remarkable feat considering his line of work.

Then there’s Mario Batali and Michael Psilakis. They’ve both shed unnecessary weight in the past year. The bottom line is that these people have realized that while they work with delectable concoctions day in and day out, they do not have to eat as much as they used to.

For some, like Brown, it was not that bad. For others, it is taking more effort. At the end of the day, their regimens have this in common: they stayed off fatty food and ate less. I think exercise was factored into the equation as well.

Yes, dietitians, nutritionists, and doctors – you were right all along. Less food intake plus some exercise equals weight loss. Do we need celebrity chefs to convince us?

Originally posted on November 15, 2010 @ 3:13 pm

Behind the scenes of your favorite TV chef shows

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If you love TV chefs, then you probably love the Food Network. Now, you can go behind the scenes to see how your favorite food shows are filmed, plus get the “director’s cut” of interviews with celebrity chefs like Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, The Neelys, and Rachael Ray. Check out the The FN Dish with the Amateur Gourmet.

Originally posted on February 19, 2008 @ 1:57 am

Alton Brown’s Pudding Recipe

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The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the taste. And Alton Brown — known for his kitchen lab experiments and scientific approach to cooking, gives a great (and simple) recipe for chocolate pudding. Get his other pudding recipes from Food Network

Pudding Ingredients
1 3/4 cups Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix (Recipe Follows)
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place 1 3/4 cups of dry pudding mix into a medium saucepan. Add milk and heavy cream and whisk to combine. Over medium heat, bring mixture to a boil, continuously whisking gently. Reduce heat to low and cook for 4 minutes while continuing to whisk. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour the mixture through a sieve and into individual dishes or a 1 1/2-quart serving dish. Cover the surface of the pudding with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to chill completely before serving, approximately 4 hours.

Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
3 ounces Dutch-processed cocoa, approximately 1 cup
2 ounces cornstarch, approximately 1/2 cup
6 ounces confectioners’ sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 ounces instant non-fat dry milk, approximately 1/2 cup
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl or plastic container with a lid, combine the cocoa, cornstarch, sugar, instant non-fat dry milk, and salt. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Yield: 3 1/2 cups dry mix

Originally posted on January 31, 2008 @ 11:46 am

Alton Brown on kitchen hazards

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Words of wisdom from Alton Brown:

“Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are,
somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Don’t you just love this man?

Originally posted on January 21, 2008 @ 8:44 pm