I finally got to see Alton Brown, the Culinary Guru, live on stage!! I have always been in awe of him from all those Food Network television shows I have been watching over the years, and all I'll say is that I am now even more in awe of him!
I managed to get a couple tickets in the nick of time. That place was packed like crazy! Alton sure is one heck of a celebrity. And boy, are there thousands of fellow foodies out there! It was very exciting to see other excited foodies all waiting eagerly to see Alton.
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| The Tickets |
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| From the crowded 9th Ave-Pine St |
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| Before Alton arrived on stage |
The cool things:
1. Alton's entry: The hall went all dark, and as soon the lights came on again, he, no HE, was there on the stage!! It was almost like a hologram- so cool! We all just screamed out in excitement- and then there was this "I love you, Altoooooon," from somebody in the audience. And Alton spoke- "Why is it that whenever somebody says, "I love you," to me, it is a dude?!" (In my mind I was like, dang it, I should have been the one!)
2. Alton's look: OK, that man was dressed so cool! A pair of light denim skinny jeans, white oxford with a cotton sweater on top, and a pair of regular sneakers (looked like sneakers to me from where I sat). And he looked pretty fit. Oh, and of course, with his stubble, he just looked very cool overall.
3. Alton is so talented! Alton Brown plays the guitar and sings. And I'd say his singing is not bad at all. He sang a song that he said he wrote for his daughter way back when she was only 4, for a school presentation. The song was all about how easy cooking can be. He involved the audience too, and it was pretty enjoyable. His other song, "Airport Shrimp Cocktail," that he wrote after his bad experience with eating shrimp at LA airport was hilarious! He is funny, intelligent, an educator, and he is quite the scientist too! He and his crew ended the 2 hour show with his famous satirical punk-rock song, "I'm a TV Chef."
4. Inventor of super-powerful cooking contraptions: He demonstrated his very own invention, The Mega Bake Oven- a huge 12 foot long, 54,000 Watt Easy Bake Oven, that heats upto 650 degrees (or was it 800 degrees?)! He baked 2 pizzas in 3 and a half minutes! His other contraption that he demoed was this super-fast ice cream maker that he calls the Jet Cream Maker- again, a huge machine, that makes ice cream in a ridiculously small amount of time (I forget the exact time, but it was super-fast!).
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| Alton there somewhere in the center on stage |
The not-so cool things:
1. The burping and farting sock puppets representing yeast, that kept playing on the screen during the interval as well as at the beginning of the show was a bit much. I mean, I am all for imbecilic jokes, but really, they went overboard with that.
2. People he picked to go on stage: Somehow I feel that the people he picked- or at least the area in the theater from where he picked his 2 volunteers, was pre-decided. Maybe because those people had better seats, and had paid more money for them (obviously)..... who knows! A bit unfair, I think.
3. Bad seats: I should have bought the tickets well in advance..... oh well, lesson learnt.
My one takeaway from the show that I completely agree with:
Cook with NaCl: Yesss! Use proper amount of salt in your food!! The bad unnecessary salt is the salt found in canned soups and packaged dinners. Salt in home-cooked food is perfectly fine for the body, and in fact, you need it! Unless your doctor has absolutely forbidden you from ingesting any salt, go ahead and add salt to your food. I'd like to add to that- use not only salt, but spices too. Bland food is so boring!!
Now that I've seen Alton live on stage, am I all satisfied? Um, next I'd actually like to meet him personally and chat with him, and get a selfie with him! Which means, I'll have to get those VIP tickets! Oh Alton, you are THE coolest!!
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