Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2008 > May > 09 > Entry
5/9: Alton Brown’s Variety Playhouse appearance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Good Eats” host and “Iron Chef America” commentator Alton Brown was worried he’d not get much of a crowd for his book signing because past signings in Atlanta have been underwhelming.
But not to worry: more than 600 people showed up at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points Thursday evening to ask him questions, meet the Marietta resident, buy his book “Feasting On Asphalt” and prove him wrong.
Here are photos I took during the signing:
ABOVE: Puppeteer and entertainer Lucky Yates, who helps out Brown on “Good Eats” on occasion, goofs around with Savannah and Fred Woodruff of Southern Pines, N.C. The family drove down six hours to see Brown for Savannah’s 13th birthday.
During the Q&A, Brown was his typical droll self, using his quick wit and faux exasperation to mine laughs. Many of his answers were self deprecating.
“What’s your take on Food Network?” “I don’t really watch,” he answered. “I don’t know anything about the television business. [That’s not true!] I make the gosh darn thing, I see a check. End of story. I make ‘Iron Chef.’ There’s lots of smoke, I got home. They make shows people want to see. I’m not going to second guess them, especially with a microphone in my hand!”
Someone asked him if her father adding salt to coffee was something worth doing. “Your father was doing drugs, clearly!” he said, noting he had never done it. Then several others in the crowd backed her up, vouching a pinch of salt improved coffee, saying it was a Southern thing.
“I’ve heard that if people from the North add salt,” Yates joked, “they’ll explode!”
On audience member noted, “Didn’t you say salt makes everything better?”
“So does butter!” Brown noted.
*ABOVE: “Good Eats” contributor Bart Hansard gabs with Brown fan Danny Woodruff
One person in the audience noted her eight year old was obsessed with the Food Network and was wondering how to get her on the network.
“She should open her own restaurant,” he said, in his usual tart way. “She sounds like she already has the skills. She can do better than the Food Network.” Pause. “At least Oxygen.”
His tongue-in-cheek advice? “If she can complete your family’s Thanksgiving dinner al by herself by the time she’s 10, she’ll get her own food show. A child’s place is in the kitchen. Children give us heartache until we die. I say they should be cooking our food!”
ABOVE: Brown hands a book back to Daniel Irvin, a roofer from Valley, Alabama.
At one point, he spied a guy yawning. “You’re yawning!” he said sternly but without anger. “Get him an expresso!”
When someone asked what he would do if he competed on “Iron Chef America” instead of providing color commentary, he rationalized why he shouldn’t: “Riddle me this. Who would get my job? I got to tell you. I don’t want anybody to have a shot at that job. It’s a sweet gig! So long as I don’t compete, no one will have that shot.”
ABOVE: Brown hands Danny Woodruff a souvenir.
One person asked why couldn’t the show be added to an education curriculum. “Good Eats is better for you than homework,” he deadpanned. “Pull your kids out of school, get them the full DVD set!”
Another wondered what his background was: “I’m a Nobel-winning chemist,” he joked.
“How much chemistry background do you have?” she followed up.
“I failed chemistry twice in high school. I dropped it twice in college,” Brown said. “I used to blame myself. But now I blame the teachers. It was their fault for not making the information more compelling.”
A young gal asked him if he liked the Scottish dish haggis, something he made on an episode of “Good Eats.”
“If there’s no other food anywhere,” he said dryly, “and it hasn’t been for some number of days, it’s very good indeed… I’d eat the haggis before chitlins.”
Comments
By Jim B. Morris
May 9, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this
Alton Brown was worried he’d not get much of a crowd for his book signing…<<<
Alton — If you are reading this please consider posting your book signings on LocalWineEvents.com, the world’s largest calendar of food, wine, beer and spirits events: tastings, dinners, classes, festivals and more. That includes TV shows and book signings, assuming they have a food or drink connection.
End of blatant self promotion. Thanks for reading.
Jim B. Morris Communications Director LocalWineEvents.com
#By The Mayor
May 9, 2008 5:47 PM | Link to this
It’s espresso, not expresso.
By Pourbohloul
May 9, 2008 11:01 PM | Link to this
I attended the 5/8 event as my birthday gift and I enjoyed it very much. However AB’s “Good Eats” is a superior cooking show in my opinion. The only cooking show that could hook me on. Not even Feastg. on Asph. could do that. The only other show that was as attractive to me was Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”.
Is there going to be a similar show for “Good Eats”?
By Janice
May 11, 2008 2:39 PM | Link to this
Put an old man hat on Alton and he’ll look just like that retard from the Regular Guys.