Celebrating Good Eats with Alton Brown

Combine a performing arts theatre, an off-beat cooking show and a milestone anniversary inside the mind of Alton Brown and what do you get? Quite possibly the best cooking show turned variety show performance, ever. And certainly something no other cooking show would ever present as an episode, special or otherwise. But as all of fans of Good Eats know, this is not a standard cooking show. So why would a celebration to mark ten years of being on the air deviate from the standard MO?

Exactly.

The show, referred to as "Good Eats Turns Ten" brought out the background of why AB created the show, show tidbits, GE cast members and AB's thoughts on the show over the years. Ted Allen served as emcee for the special because Alton said, "I wanted the smartest, best looking guy, with glasses who wasn't me" to host the special.

Creating his very own Inside the Actors Studio scenario, Alton sat on a sofa next to the paper mache chicken (AB arrived on stage carrying the ol' chicken) while Ted asked questions. AB tried to have Ted ask questions he wrote, but Ted brought his own.

Most of the questions revolved about the beginnings of the concept for Good Eats and how and why he created it.

Then Alton talked about some of his favorites from the years. One was his top 10 favorite recipes. FYI, the only thing I make on AB's list is the English Muffins. And I completely agree with him on that! His #1 favorite recipe from the show is the sweet potato waffles.

Next was AB's favorite scene. He picked a scene that wasn't a real cooking segment.



He also said the day this scene was filmed was extremely hot and he and prop guy Paul went "full-on Scot" and there was a yellow jacket nest under where the build the fire. So angry yellow jackets and kilts are not fun, everyone. Also, this scene was listed on some website, for several years, as having one of the worst accents on TV.

As I said in an earlier post, the "superfan" panel was complete different from what I thought it would be. Instead of having the panelists really challenge AB to knowledge, the group had problems answering questions. At one point the title superfan was knocked down to mediocre fans.

I'm still trying to figure out the superfan panel. I know it was all in fun, but I'm so relieved that I didn't have to play that way in front of a packed house and possibly on national TV.

Alton turned his unitasker fire extinguisher into a multitasker. He made a fruit smoothie by freezing fruits in a water cooler outfitted with the fire extingusher. In the freezing process, fruit flew everywhere on stage. Some juice and fruit pieces hit those of us in the first row.

Near the end of the show, the Good Eats players appeared. Lucky Yates, Widdi Turner, Daniel Pettrow and Bart Hansard all sat on the sofa and chatted up with Ted. Merrilyn Crouch (Marsha) and Vicky Eng (W) appeared in character. And Deb Duchon, Shirley Corriher and Carolyn O'Neil appeared in the trivia segment asking questions.

In the final act, Alton built a towering cake from pancakes. During the show, Marsha led Camp Pancake to cook said cakes outside of the auditorium. The completed cakes were assembled on a pole and and sprayed with green, glow in the dark icing.

Just like that it was over. The audience gave AB a standing ovation. He appeared again with crew members and they doused him in silly string. As we still clapped and shouted for him, AB left the stage once more. Coming back since the crowd still cheered and applauded, Alton told us to go home. But we still flavished our thanks on him.

He told us he loved us then left for the final time.

We love you too, Alton! Thank you for a great anniversary show, 10 years of quality episodes, for teaching us how to be better cooks, making us laugh and everything else. It has been a great ride and here's to 10 more years!