Alton Brown VIP Foodie Experience

So Saturday night, we had the occasion to attend the 2nd Annual Foodie Experience at the Hippodrome. Being the huge Alton Brown fans that we are, we opted to get the VIP experience tickets, which basically turned the event into two shows. The first part was the VIP event, which was an intimate little cooking demonstration by Alton, and a Q and A session. This was particularly nice because there were only around 150 people in the room, so he was able to answer a good number of our questions. The second part was a larger presentation by Alton, which had about 1000 people attending. Still, he managed to take some questions in his presentation as he had an email account setup so people could email him from their phones while he was talking. I took a ton of notes at the event, so I'm just going to cover the VIP event here.

I have to say this right off the bat: Alton's humor on Good Eats and Iron Chef isn't clever editing, or numerous takes. Alton is absurdly witty, to the point where I could honestly see him being a tremendously successful food comedian if the whole "Cooking Show" angle doesn't work out for him. He was quick with a joke for absolutely every question that was asked of him, and by the end of the night I almost wished he'd give us a breather because my sides hurt from laughing so much. As we were standing in line, getting our drinks before the demonstration, Alton came out. Everyone still in line gave him a guilty look, fearing that we were intruding on "his" time. But he reassured everyone that he had come out early because he was bored back stage and was excited to meet us. As he explained, he normally doesn't get to speak to such a small, intimate audience, and he was really thrilled for the opportunity.

That really set the theme for the entire event. He wanted to be there just as much as we did. The questions asked by the audience varied in topic, but regardless of what was asked, Alton had a clever retort, often at the asker's expense. When discussing with a man whether his wife cooked for him or not, the husband replied, "No, she's watching the baby," to which Alton promptly responded, "Watching the baby? All babies do is sleep. She's sitting there playing Angry Birds!" Now one thing that Alton's discussions make clear is that he's very technology savvy. Macbooks, iPads, and iPhones are all over the place. But there was just something about knowing that Alton knew about Angry Birds (and how time consuming it could be) that cracked me up.

He was also asked about shows regarding allergies and intolerances, and had a good reason for why it wasn't something that he explored. Obviously, much of it is because of legal liability, but also because many allergies and sensitivities aren't well known by doctors either. He then explained an example of a woman who smacked a sandwich out of a child's hand at Chick-fil-A (and then said "I love that place"). His point was that few people realize that peanut allergies generally are to the protein, which isn't found in the oil.

Of course, questions about Iron Chef were coming as well. He was asked if it was true that he never tasted the food, and regaled us with the following tale. When they were working on the original Iron Chef America (the mini series deal, not the Food Network series), Alton ate everything that he could get his hands on. This included food from Iron Chef Sakai, who had (unbeknown to Alton) included Oyster in his dish. Alton is highly sensitive to oyster, and got very ill. Because Iron Chef America is filmed over such a short time period, at two episodes per day, he can't afford to be ill and generally does not eat it. He also mentioned that a very limited amount of each dish is served, and that as he is not a judge, it's not right for him to try it. When he sits in for the Chairman, he does eat for the purpose of keeping the judges on track.

After the initial few questions, Alton began a demo of Baked Alaska. There was something incredibly surreal about watching "Good Eats" in person. At one point, Alton opened therefrigerator, looked and the cameraman and scowled. He then walked over to the cameraman, and tried to take the camera from him, saying, "Don't worry, I'm a professional." He then attempted to fit the camera in the refrigerator, to do his trademark "address the audience in the refrigerator" shot, but unfortunately the camera was too large to fit. He asked the audience what ingredients were in Baked Alaska, and a lady in the front row answered. Since she included "liquor" in her description, Alton teased her about alcoholism, but then incorporated liquor into his recipe. When the bartender brought over a large bottle of Bourbon, the audience tried to encourage Alton to drink it. He refused however, noting that he had a plane to fly at the end of the night, and "Being a pilot cuts into your drinking.... unless you're a commercial pilot."

The audience would later be able to see an Alton "blooper" when the Baked Alaska refused to come out of it's mold properly. The look on Alton's face was absolutely priceless as he rushed to get the one that was already made out of the fridge before his assistant noticed he'd messed it up. As the audience laughed, Alton said, "Martha Stewart is laughing right now. Heck, Rachael Ray is laughing. Not Paula Deen though. Not enough butter. Or ham. Or tooth whitener." He then went on to explain that he had no hard feelings regarding Paula, as since she was a fellow Georgian he had a lot of respect for her.

As he was beating the meringue for the Baked Alaska, he took more questions. There was another one about Iron Chef, this one in relation to whether or not the Iron Chefs and Contestants knew what the ingredients were upfront. It has often been said online that they get the option of anywhere from 3-6 potential secret ingredients, although Alton guesses that the list is probably closer in number to 10. He explained that 6 comes from the Japanese version of the show, but he thinks that it worked something like this: Today's secret ingredient will either be, Bicycle tire, Sweat Sock, SALMON....etc." He says that the reason we don't see the debate at the beginning over what to make is because they have to cut something out, and chopping things is more interesting. They have been making more effort recently to show some of the discussion between the chefs and their sous chefs though. He also pointed out that when you have 60 minutes, you need to get started immediately, and that there are some things you always know that you'll need, so you grab your Secret Ingredient, get the common ingredients from the pantry, etc.

Another Iron Chef related question that was asked revolved around the plating, since on the American show the chefs are only required to plate one dish. Alton explained that they are required to prepare enough for all 4 portions, but the rest of the plating can be done during a period called "Reposition Time," when they move all 13 of the cameras to the judging area. The challenger gets the ability to reheat his dishes during the judging of the Iron Chef, as sometimes judging can take up to two hours.

Then came the time to put the meringue on the Baked Alaska, which Alton did using one of his quick methods - sitting the whole thing on a turntable, and turning it on so it would spin as he piped out the meringue. It was humorous as he futzed with the speed of the turntable and the audience shouted out "45!" since he had said that was the best speed on at least one previous interview. Once finished, Alton produced a butane torch, and asked the audience if we remembered them from Iron Chef. He acted like he was going to use it to carmellize the cake, as he explained that he had a device called "Red Dragon" at home that ran off a propane tank and could generate a 6 foot flame. Unfortunately, the MD code didn't allow that device, so he had to leave it at home. However, bake spray often uses propane as a propellant... so he used the little butane torch to light the bake spray, and the Baked Alaska was quickly baked.

After this, they gave away a mixer, and the VIP event was over. But he came back out to sign the mixer, and a group of his fans (myself included) had stuck around, so he began to sign autographs. Unfortunately, he didn't have a Sharpie, and he turned down the pens that were offered as not good for autographing. Fortunately, I had stuffed one (and my copy of Feasting on Asphalt) in my purse. I offered to let him use it if he posed for a picture (which he did), and then he signed my book. He said that "Feasting on Asphalt" was a good choice as he really liked it. I do as well, and I figured it doesn't stray into the kitchen as much as his other books, so it was probably the best bet to take with.

I sat around for a while while Alton signed autographs and posed for pictures with everyone, got my pen back, and then headed over to the second event.