Food for Thought

Brown, Alton. Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations. New York: Gallery Books 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

 

I am sitting in front of a bowl, a spoon a box,and a bottle, and I'mbeginning to break out in just a wee bit of a cold sweat 

Description:

I been a long-time fan of Alton Brown and his goofy, informative cooking shows such as Good Eats (16 seasons) and Iron Chef America (13 seasons). These television entertainments provided even non-cooks like me an entertaining introduction to the wonders and science behind preparing delicious food.

Now Brown had created a book, Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations, chock full of his memories and wide-ranging thougts about his career with food. These short essays cover such diverse topics as "Biscuiteering," "Bad Day at the Bakeshop," "Luau from Hell,""The Turkey Man Cometh," "The Sip of the Civilized" and "Cooking: The final (Marriage) Frontier." In other words, Brown shares everything running through his mind, from making the perfect martini to cooking hacks, and his disasterous introductions to Cap'n Crunch cereal and s'mores.

It is not a book of recipe, although he does share his Horcrux meal (something that contains a part of him), the perfect martini (stirred, not shaken), and a few other tips on meal preparation and tools. And believe me, he has strong opinions. It is not a How-To book, but more of a collection of his rambling thoughts

Here's a sample from inside his brain:

• The Son of Blob story about the discarded bread dough Brown had put into the restaurant dumptster that expanded to gigantic size and oozed out of the metal container;

• The first bite of a Cortona, Italy pizza which was so delicious that he used it to define his life "before the bite and life after the bite....To say it was just six simple ingredients would be like saying Pollock's Autumn Rhythym is just four colors of paint";

• He self-taught himself to cook in college to "lure" a woman first with a simple, cheap meal (spaghetti and meatballs), then, if all went well, a second invitation to a slightly more costly one (coq au van), and finally the third meal to close the deal with an expensive serving (sole florentine au gratin. His date cancelled at the last minute and he thoroughly enjoyed the meal by himself;

• [Note: About that seduction-through-meals-plan] - Brown states, "I harbored no illusions of actually beeing anyone; a bit of hand-holding on the sofa or a good-night kiss would have ranked as a major victory." He only cooked one more meal to win a woman's affection and burned the spaghetti, but won her heart and they eventually were married]; 

• "The word chef when preceded by the adverb yes becomes a subtle yet effective form of "f**k you." 

• He conceived of a new type of cooking show to be "a juxtaposition of unrelated forms" based on the style of Julia Child (practical), Mr. Wizard (science), and Monty Python ("laughing brains are more absorbant');

• The theme song for Good Eats was, at Brown's insistance, was catchy and only 10 notes in order to be used in the new 1997 cell phones and their customizable ring tones;

• Eating with chopsticks helped him lose weight;

• To get youngsters to eat food they refuse, just tell them they can't have any of it anyways because it is adult food;

• Once after sampling a soup on Iron Chef America" that contained oysters (which he is allergic to) he threw up repeatedly on the set and ended up in the ER.

I could go on and on with engaging tidbits from Brown, but I'll leave the rest of the discovery to those who read his book in full. Haven't laughed out loud at a book in a long time, so as you can tell I really enjoyed his behind-the-scenes stories, quips about life, and of course, cooking advice/failures/triumphs. Read it even if you don't know anything about food or its preparation, but love delightful writing about stories that will definite make you at least smile alot.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Pepim Jacques. The Apprentice.   

The autobiography of the chef who popularized French cooking in the United States, Includes his French training, apprenticeships, and first restaurants, alltold in clear, personal writing style. Highly enjoyable, even for non-foodies. (Previously reviewed here.)

 

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The Apprentice

Pepin, Jacques. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. New York: Houghton Mifflin 2003. Print.

First Sentences:

My mother made it sound like a great adventure.

Description:

Although I know next to nothing about food and its preparation, I still can appreciate quality writing and interesting, real-life stories from someone at the very top of this profession. Therefore, I highly recommend Jacques Pepin's autobiography, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen for a glimpse into the world of kitchens, training, restaurants, and innovation by a renowned chef.

Pepin's mother opened a simple restaurant, Le Pelican, in rural France with a few recipes, no business experience, and certainly no restaurant training. Here Pepin and his brother Roland learned how to cook, clean, wait tables, and all other roles necessary to a professional enterprise. And where he learned to love cooking and restaurante, although his brother hated that life.

Pepin left school at 13 for Paris, boldly getting a position at Le Grand Hotel de l'Europe. More on-the-job training, growth, and then moving on to other restaurants. He climbs from being a gopher called "P'tit" [Kid] to tending a stove, an honor recognized when the chef finally drops the nickname and calls him by his real name, "Jacques." He moves up to be the commis [chef assistant] and finally head chef. Pepin brings readers into each kitchen and their head chefs, carefully describing the environment of a first-class restaurant and the tasks necessary to produce the highest quality food. 

There are humorous stories as well, as when the very young Pepin was sent by the head chef to several restaurants to pick up their "machine a dessosser les poulets [chicken-boning machine] from another restaurant. Each location had an excuse for not having that machine and sent him along to another location, over and over until Pepin returned sadly empty-handed to his chef. Only then did he realize there was no such machine and he had passed an initiation into the restaurant family. In another story, Pepin's love of juicy pears is tested as he sneaks one of the chef's "des poires avocat" [avocado pears], biting into the leathery skin and hard seed of an avocado for the first time.

Later, Pepin travels to New York and contrasts the restaurant standards and chefs with those from France. His experiences lead him in the 1960s to, of all places, Howard Johnson's restaurants to help them upgrade the quality of their food and make it consistent in all their one thousand restaurants, a unique concept at the time. Instead of cooking for only a few restaurant patrons, Pepin now learned how to prepare clam chowder, a HoJo specialty, in stockpots of 500 or 1000 gallons.

Story after story are simply told as if Pepin is sitting next to you recalling his life. He has a charming writing style that fully reveal the picture he is painting:

Then there was [the chef's] look, a look that will recur in my nightmares as long as I live, not so much a look of anger as one of disdain, a gaze that lasted but a fraction of a second, yet made it clear that your pathetic little error was far beneath the level of his contempt. 

From cooking for Charles de Gaulle to working with Julia Child and every other great chef, from writing the classic book on the exacting techniques of preparing and cooking to traveling the world conducting cooking workshops and television shows, Pepin shows he is a giant in the kitchen and the world of cooking. Highly recommended for lovers of food, kitchen life,and fine writing.

Happy reading. 

Fred

(See more recommended books)
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Fechtor, Jessica. Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home. 

After a chef suffers an unexpected aneurysm, she rediscovers her love of cooking and eating. The book is filled with beautiful writing, recipes, and stories of the joy and struggles in her life. (previously reviewed here) 

Gaffingan, Jim. Food: A Love Story

The opposite end of the food spectrum. Stand-up comedian Gaffigan is a self-proclaimed "Eatie," who will eat and enjoy simple items like hamburgers. He reviews food choices in the United State and some international cuisines, as well as comments on several restaurants both ordinary and pretentious. Very funny. (previously reviewed here)