Introducing: Mr. Alton Brown

On Monday, October 24 2011, I had the great pleasure of seeing the Alton Brown of Good Eats. Meeting him has been a dream of mine for years, but i never thought it would ever come true. When he announced that Good Eats was ending all my hopes of ever seeing him in person were crushed. Then, one day at the end of september or the beginning of october my mom said she had something to tell me. "I have a surprise for you!" I thought the surprise was going to be that i got to clean the kitchen, or cut the grass or something, but that couldn't be any farther from the truth. My mom had saw that Alton Brown was coming to Kansas city in just a few weeks! I was practically at the point of tears. I couldn't control my excitement.
When the actual day came, I couldn't focus on much of anything. I was too anxious for that night to focus on anything else. The event was to start at 7pm, but we got there at 5 to make sure we got good seats. When Alton first came out I couldn't believe it-There was Alton Brown! Right in front of me!
If you have never seen him live, you really should. He is so funny! He would poke his head in and do silly stuff while announcements were being made. He is a great storyteller. He never lost my attention.
When we first got there they gave us a card that we could write questions to alton on.

Most of the night was taken up with answering these questions. One of the questions some one asked was, "Do you think that cooking shows, like Good Eats, have changed the way Americans cook and what they eat?" Alton turned the question back to us since, asking if it has changed us and we all shouted back "Yes!" Ok all minus one man in the second row. All heads turned towards him. What was this man doing here if he didn't really believe in all of this? He then expanded on his shout of no saying, "People in America are pretty lazy and don't actually want to do the work. They just want to watch others do the work and receive the comfort from that, then go out and eat not actually do the cooking." This was an interesting concept that i hadn't really thought of before. Alton agreed that some people (of course not any of us that were there but you know the people "out there")  don't actually want to cook, but like to watch others do it.
        "You know, there really isn't that much that we have in common with one another. Groups have become some specific, and we have become and crackled society, and we can thank technology for that. Anthropologist have said that there are two things that every civilization and every people group have in common though. They want to laugh with one another, and they want to eat. Those are the two things that every person no matter how young or old want. To laugh and to eat good food. And cooking is a very comforting process, to watch someone pour love and care and create something delicous. It is a very comforting process to watch. And yes there are many Americans who want that comfort but don't actually want to put in the work for themselves so they will watch a cooking show and then sadly eat a frozen meal."
I thought this was such a inspirational statement(s). It's so true. Think about the best moments in your life. The times where you were the absolute happiest. They usually will include laughter or family or food, or all of the above. And the one thing that he didn't say that i think unites us all is a hope of something bigger than us. We all have a desire for there to be something more to life. Which that idea ties in with Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." I think it is so cool to see how there are so many parallels between food and Go. It's so cool.

Anyways, after talking and reading off some questions people had written in he asked for questions form the floor. Obviously, i took this great chance to talk directly to Mr. Brown. I decided to ask him what my first meat meal should be, since this next week i am breaking my year fast of meat. The dialogue back and forth took more than five minutes and would require way too much typing on my part to pen it all down. Besides, i am currently making apple muffins at the moment and only have a little while to be able to type before i have to pull them from he oven. Anyways…

I asked if i should make his chicken and dumplings or chicken pot pie. He thought that it was a horrible decision to go with chicken for my first bite of meat but i want to make sure i don't get sick when i first eat meat. Anyways, after making an analogy of vegetarianism to terrorism and talking with me about my mission trip to Greece, and talking about how many pairs of glasses he owns, he made the decision. I am to eat Chicken Pot Pie for my first bite of meat. (check back next week for the recipe and reviews and pictures when i make this!)
So many things happened that night to write it all down, but there are a few more things that must be shared. We got in line for him to sign our cookbooks (and my planner), which only took about an hour and a half. While we were waiting, I was editing my letter that i had written him. In the letter, i thanked him for Good Eats. It has taught me so many things over the years. The great thing about Good eats is that it evolved from just a TV show to an idea. The idea that we do not need to be slave to a recipe. We can actually understand the food that we are working with. We can be in control of the food we are working with instead of it controlling us. Ideas never die, and by that Good Eats will live on through the inspiration that it has given us all.