March 05, 2025

Alton Brown: A Culinary Legend Offers Food for Thought

58 minutes

Our guest today is Alton Brown, who for years hosted Good Eats on the Food Network and brought his interest in science to the making of dinner. He's currently touring the country, and he has also just published Food for Thought, a great collection of essays about food, culture, and his life on and off the screen. In this episode, Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about how food transcends politics, why fusion cooking isn't cultural appropriation, and why there's always room for Jell-O salad on his menu.

0:43— Brown's Last Bite tour

1:55— Brown's new book: Food for Thought

6:40— Curiosity and surprise are essential to life

12:03— The pizza that made Alton Brown

16:21— When Indian immigrants made kadhi that blew Brown's mind

18:57— The positive case for 'cultural appropriation'

26:53— Food media's impact on cooking skills

30:40— How Martha Stewart's perfectionism ruined dinner parties

32:07— Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python

39:56— Good Eats motivated food exploration

48:19— Ozempic & the moral value of restraint

51:01— USDA & FDA were created to support industry, not consumers

55:28— Southern cuisine and Jello salads

57:00— On being from the South and embracing its full history

Today's sponsor:

The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. It doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. Go here to buy tickets and go here to sign up for Reason's NYC Events newsletter.