Good Eats 2: The Middle Years

Alton Brown has long been one of my favorite celebrity chefs, and Good Eats was also a fun show to watch for it whimsy, education and great recipes. I was super excited to see the 4 books covering the series and eagerly purchased all of them. So glad that I did! They are just as fun as the show was. Highly, highly recommend!

There are three places I turn to offline for culinary knowledge. I have tried and enjoyed dozens of AB recipes and I love the show Good Eats. In this book (as well as Volume 1, Good Eats: The Early Years) you will find recipes as well as instructions for preparation (and blueprints if you will of AB's most famous or notorious multi-tasking gadgets) sorted by episode. There's a good ol' fashioned index do-hickey included if you don't have the episode names and order memorized. Kids, you might have to get help from your parents to use it but don't worry, it won't hurt your eyes or anything. It's the perfect source for recipes and procedures I'm too lazy to write down and I can use it when the darn carpal tunnel is acting up. All the best recipes plus a few extras are included. Some of the recipes and procedures have been tweaked from their on air format. Often this has to do with feedback from the shows. Recipes are made easier, procedures are made more convenient, and sometimes they are even made tastier if AB has changed his way of thinking in the years since the original air date. Don't worry, these are improvements. It's nothing like the whole George Lucas, Star Wars Special Edition debacle. The other sources you ask? Well, there's the previously mentioned Good Eats Volume 1 and another AB book, Gear for Your Kitchen which I always consult before shopping.

Great book

This is fantastic!!!

This book is great! I love how Alton uses science to explain the cooking process because it helps me to be a better cook. I can understand why you have to do things in a certain order, which I feel not many books are able to do. The information is presented in an entertaining manner as well, which helps me retain it better. All in all, this is a great book for anyone just starting to cook and trying to learn to cook!

Alton Brown and his merry band of studio accomplices have created the best dual medium cooking product since Julia Child launched Mastering the Art of French Cooking and PBS' The French Chef. On his televised series (I also bought the DVD set), Alton demonstrates a gift for clearly presenting dishes I want to cook while increasing my understanding of cooking techniques and equipment and how things all come together. As in Good Eats 1: The Early Years (which I also own), the text closely tracks the televised episodes. For fans, the book has sidebars with inside tidbits about filming, which of the merry band did what and a written version of the DVD "Ask Alton" section. Buy the package and you won't regret it. Plus, you get the whole teaching-training program of tell 'em what you'll teach, show 'em how and finally, remind 'em what they've learned. With this book, Alton even gives you the notes! Alton organizes each recipe using "GeekSpeak" titles: 'knowledge concentrate', 'application', 'software' and 'procedure'. "Hardware" items are discussed in sidebars about, say 'pots and pans.' I find this presentation to be very well organized but the titles seem a little 'precious' with repeated cooking from the book. I do like Alton's commentary on running changes he has made to recipes and techniques based on his own experiences with food preparation. The overall effect is one of having a personal tutorial by Alton in your home, complete with conversational 'asides.' Unlike the "Iron Chef" series Alton hosts, there is nothing 'foodie' about ingredients and there is nothing elaborate about procedures. This is 'straight ahead' cooking for all of us but with really good recipes and techniques so things come out better than expected and better than the recipes do from the 'average' cookbook.

Yippie! Now I have all 3 in the series. I am really happy with the book. Alton Brown is the best chef and food authority on TV and in books. He gets a little silly sometimes, but if you can get past that, he makes cooking make sense. I have learned so much and been able to fix the problems I've had with some recipes over the years of listening to his advice. He breaks down the reasons why certain ingredients and methods work so that it's easy to understand. I would highly recommend watching his shows and buying his books. Since I'm originally from the town next door to where he lives, it's particularly helpful to me when he reviews southern recipes, but when he focuses on food from other regions, I learn something new. He's the best!

My memory for anything important is shot (filled up with useless pop culture trivia). When I watch a cooking show, I don't want to have to take notes. Alton Brown cares. He collected all of his recipes from all of his episodes of Good Eats into a few tomes of culinary knowledge. Full of pictures, tidbits of knowledge, and more. This book definitely helps you make good eats. (Sorry couldn't resist.)