Web-Exclusive Interview: Alton Brown

Film buff-turned-foodie Alton Brown is one of the best-known faces on food television. From his unique vantage point as host of three popular Food Network series, graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and James Beard Foundation Award-winning author of three books about food and cooking, Brown spoke with Senior Editor Allison Perlik about the pros and cons of the bright spotlight television has put on food, chefs and restaurants.

By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/27/2007

Film buff-turned-foodie Alton Brown is one of the best-known faces on food television. From his unique vantage point as host of three popular Food Network series, graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and James Beard Foundation Award-winning author of three books about food and cooking, Brown spoke with Senior Editor Allison Perlik about the pros and cons of the bright spotlight television has put on food, chefs and restaurants.

In your “Feasting on Asphalt” series on Food Network, you rode across America on a motorcycle in search of “honest road food.” What did you learn about the state of American cuisine?

That in the end, the rules of hospitality have not changed. In the end, you go into a restaurant or any place where the owner is there, and that is going to be a different kind of experience. You are going to be fed differently—better—by people who own the place, who have invested of themselves in a place. I have found that to be true absolutely across the board.

I can walk into just about any restaurant now in America and know “the owner is here” or “the owner is not here.” There is no way to replace that in a corporate restaurant in any way, fashion or form. And I don't care if it’s a hot dog stand or a three-Michelin-star restaurant. If the owner is there, it’s going to be a different experience, and I would say it’s going to be a better experience, and that’s what hospitality really is.

Is that to say there is a not a place for corporate-run, or chain, restaurants?

Sure there is. Of course there is. And that’s always going to be there. But it is a very different type of experience, and you are never going to get more than you pay for. I truly believe that in the owner-operated restaurant, you will sometimes receive more than you pay for.

Amid all the continuing hubbub surrounding celebrity chefs and the latest glitzy restaurant openings in Las Vegas, New York and everywhere else, do you see a return to the more down to earth, classic American dining like the kinds of places you visited for “Feasting on Asphalt”?

I’m vested in the answer. My answer is, I hope so. I do believe the destination-dining phenomenon we’re seeing, like in Vegas and Atlantic City, will always be there. And that’s good, because that means in the playgrounds of America, we’re expecting a level of entertainment from our food that is different than it used to be.

But I do think that we are going to see, and I hope that we see, that return you’re talking about. But I don’t think that’s going to necessarily mean that one side atrophies. I don’t think that we’re going to see the fall of the Caesars Palace [kind of] restaurant. There can be a whole mall of restaurants at Caesars Palace before the end of the decade, but I think that’s a very, very different issue.

In your upcoming series, “The Next Iron Chef,” you work with some pretty well-established chefs: Traci des Jardins, John Besh, Aarón Sanchez and five others. These aren’t a bunch of beginners or even sous-chefs from well-known restaurants; these are some of the top chefs around.

That is what makes this entire premise so different, and to my mind, just amazingly exciting. Actually, it was an honor to be involved because every one of these competitors, well, I can’t cook like them! They’d kick my butt. It’s going to be the first time on American television where were seeing competition between people of this caliber. We’re talking about people who are at the top of the game.

For a group of chefs who already are pretty well known, at least in culinary circles, what could appearing on a show like this—and especially winning the title of the next Iron Chef—do for their careers?

That remains to be seen. Having done multiple seasons of “Iron Chef America” now, we know that simply appearing on the show has tremendous cachet, that the numbers at the restaurants go way up. It’s a big deal. But I think the people that ended up competing [in this show], the eight that were chosen, there was something else going on with them. It was a personal quest to push themselves. They had all established themselves in their areas; they’re comfortable, and they wanted a new kind of challenge. So although I think that they all coveted the title of Iron Chef, really for them, the juice was in the confrontation, in pushing themselves, pushing the clock, the competition. You know, most chefs have that kind of ego; they’re very competitive.

Do you think that to be a really successful chef, to reach that level, you have to be the kind of person who wants that challenge?

I don’t think that that’s necessary to be a great cook, but to be a chef—to establish yourself in the business, to survive in this environment, certainly in the restaurant environment—yeah, you’ve gotta have it. You do. Without it, you’re just a good cook. That probably sounds kind of trite, but it's absolutely true.

What is your take on the “chefs as brands” phenomenon that has developed, what people such as Mario Batali and Bobby Flay have done, and more recently, David Burke and Thomas Keller?

I have mixed feelings. Some chefs just decide to go for the gold, [saying] “I’m going to use my reputation to make as much coin as I possibly can.” Then there are others that don’t align themselves with ventures unless they really are part of who they are and part of their message.

I think the trend is toward the prior one. There are more chefs who have simply sold out because they could than chefs who are actually staying true to their craft. There are a few who have; Mario Batali is a good example. There’s a guy who could have sold out 10 times over but who has remained true to his mission statement. There are others who haven’t. And you know what, who’s to judge that on either side?

I read an article recently in which Tom Colicchio talked about how several visitors to his new Craft restaurant in Los Angeles told him they knew him from his role on Bravo’s “Top Chef” but hadn’t realized he had restaurants, too. What do you see as the biggest down side for chefs who are perhaps gaining more fame from being on television than for their work in restaurants, or is there necessarily a down side?

I’m not sure there is a down side. In that particular case, they still came into the restaurant, didn’t they? Here’s the thing. A lot of chefs believe that TV means immediately making a lot of money. It doesn’t. Television is extremely competitive, and it’s hard to make a lot of money in television, quite frankly, so I think there is a lot of disconnect between chefs’ expectations and what really happens. Now in [Colicchio’s] case, there’s someone who came into the restaurant anyway, so as far as I’m concerned, he has it pretty good.

Do food- and chef-driven TV shows, on Food Network and otherwise, actually help restaurants do more business?

My instinct would be no. I don’t think so. I think you could definitely draw a correlation between food shows and changes in buying habits of groceries and things, but for some reason the idea that it’s changing our habits in that arena strikes me as not true. Of course, I reserve the right to be wrong.

Many chefs I talk to mention how The Food Network and other food-focused television programs have played such a big role in the spike we’ve seen in Americans’ fascination with all things related to food, chefs and restaurants in recent years. What to you is the most interesting thing about how this whole phenomenon has affected the food people are buying and serving?

It’s made people way more aware of what they’re putting in their mouths, what they’re putting on their plates, and I think that’s a good thing. People are talking about sustainability, people are talking about the bigger issues, about the food systems that get us fed.

The media, and not just the Food Network—although certainly the Food Network is at forefront—but the food media in general has brought that into a sharper focus than it has ever been. And I think it has also shown some very specific places in our social fabric where certain things are missing. Let's face it, part of the reason that Food Network is as popular as it is, is because it’s making up for things people aren’t getting at home. Food Network has certainly profited from that, but is that necessarily right? I don’t know.

When you say things people aren’t getting at home, are you talking about the home-cooked meals, people cooking at home?

I’m talking about family. I’m talking about family structure. You know, there are people that will complain the food at McDonald's isn’t a well-balanced meal. Well, no, it's not supposed to be a finely balanced meal. You're supposed to get that at home. There's no food on earth that’s better than the food prepared by people who love you. I really believe that, and I think part of the reason that Food Network has filled this gap is that we do have a big social gap in our food system, and that starts at the family table.

Why might food TV affect what people buy at the grocery store more than their decisions to go to restaurants?

We are more aware of food in general. Our interest in food, our awareness of food, our demands for what we get from our food have gone up across the board. Yes, that certainly involves restaurants, certainly in some regions. People who live and work in New York City forget that the rest of the country is not like New York City. They’ve got more square feet of restaurants than closet, or maybe even living room. The rest of us don’t. For the rest of us, going out to a restaurant is still a special event. So although we may be more demanding of what we get when we go to a restaurant, I don’t necessarily think it’s increased restaurant going.