Image from AskMen.com

Host of Food Network’s “Good Eats” and the author of several best-selling cookbooks, the first of which, “I’m Just Here For the Food,” won the James Beard award, given once per year to the author of the finest cookbook published that year.

Everything I learned from cooking has either come from my mother, my father, or this man. Some of the stuff (well, most of it) is pretty unorthodox, but his superb blend of the how of cooking along with the why is something rare. It’s certainly not anywhere else on TV, but books from the likes of Shirley Corriher (a frequent guest on Good Eats) and Harold McGee also reiterate this stuff.

Alton’s able to mix just enough pop-culture and really funny gags into his show to hold even my five year old’s attention, and enough cooking + science to hold mine and my older childrens’. Quite a feat, I can assure you.

Alton also is the main commentator of the Food Network’s import of Iron Chef, called “Iron Chef America.” He’s basically perfectly suited to the task: he knows the ingredients, knows the equipment, knows the techniques, has witty banter (with both the unseen audience and the chefs like Mario Batali), and is as much a fan of the food as anyone.

Resources

• Alton Brown’s official site
• Jacki Garfinkel interview from Jack Myers Media Village
• The AskMen Interview
• The Slashdot Interview
• A blogger gets to meet Alton Brown
• An interview with Channel Guide Magazine, focusing on his miniseries “Feasting on Asphalt.”