A Tour of Alton Brown’s Mind

I heard that you will be having some “extreme food experimentation” during your Edible Inevitable Tour. Could you tell me a little bit about that?
There are two food demos that are large and outrageous that have never been seem by human eyes. One involves extreme cold and one involves extreme heat. You could never do this at home unless you had an extremely large garage and a little madness in you. The whole show is stuff I could never do on TV. We do give out ponchos to the first two rows.

During your 14-season run of Good Eats, you seamlessly bridged the gap between food and science. How were you able to make science so interesting and understandable to the everyday viewer?
Honestly, I looked at everything as story material. I didn’t teach any science that didn't make a good story or wasn’t entertaining. I didn’t focus on small details. I focused on a greater concept. I need to get your brain sparked and going in that general direction. I had one show about home brewing and a lot of home brewers didn’t like the show. My job was to get more people to try home brewing, not get every detail perfect. When it comes to science I prefer hand grenades, not rifles.

I’m very inspired to see a person who continues to combine their passions. It takes guts to veer from the ordinary. At first you combined culinary and science. Now you’ve incorporated comedy, live music, talk show antics (poncho antics) and a multi-media lecture into your passion project. You just go for it. Where does all of this inspiration come from and how do you channel it?

I find that sometimes when you reach for the most unorthodox connections you get the most authentic connection. When you stretch the fiber, that’s when you come up with something authentic. I play music in the show and it felt somewhat within my skill set. I played a lot of music when I was younger. I just have to practice a lot to play in front of large groups of audiences.

With Good Eats, every time we filmed we had to shoot something we had never shot before. The goal was not to be complacent and comfortable. I do my best work when I’m uncomfortable. You think about what you should be doing and you find a way.

I have to ask about your music. “Airport Shrimp Cocktail”? Does this come from any personal experiences?
It’s about a very specific personal event of making the mistake of eating a shrimp cocktail on an airplane before a five-hour flight and it was the worst experience of my existence.

You really crack me up with your Analog Tweets. Again, you think outside of the box and really capitalize on your creativity. Is the drawing of yourself Kilroy-inspired?
No. I like the comparison.

How would you describe the creative process behind the show?
I don’t think there’s anything else like it. It’s different. My wife and I designed Good Eats and it had never been done before. I would rather be original than good. If I could be original and good than that is spectacular. I like letting them see things that people have never seen before. And people don’t expect to see me on guitar.

I didn’t want this to be Good Eats on tour. If you are going to be doing something on the road, do something unique, do something thrilling –that’s the fun part.

This show is designed for my pleasure. I love this, every minute of it. I adore it. If I can make people laugh, that’s the biggest rush I know. When you are doing that theatrically you don’t have the separation that you have with TV. I ask you what performer wouldn’t want that – to interact with the audience.

Alton Brown is performing at PPAC on February 21 at 8pm. 220 Weybosset Street. 421-ARTS (2787).

Editor’s Note: Grace Lentini gave Alton Brown a culinary tour of Providence on February 20. Stay tuned for a blog on their day long adventure.