chef & television personality (1962- )
No matter how much creativity goes into it, cooking is an art. Or perhaps I should say a craft. It abides by absolute rules, physics, chemistry, etc. and that means that unless you understand the science you cannot reach the art. We're not talking about painting here. Cooking's more like engineering. I happen to think that there is great beauty in great engineering.
ALTON BROWN
interview, September 12, 2002
Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts. Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for one-pot ease and prewashed, pre-cut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention.
ALTON BROWN
I'm Just Here for the Food
The only reason I ever put on a chef's coat is because it's mandatory in a kitchen. I mean, why would anyone want to wear an uncomfortable double-breasted jacket when you could be in a T-shirt?
ALTON BROWN
Bon Appétit
Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.
ALTON BROWN
I'm Just Here for More Food
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
ALTON BROWN
Feasting on Asphalt
Standard everyday cooking is relatively forgiving. Baking is rarely so. In fact, baked goods are a great deal like cars: You can change the wheel covers, put in new mats, and change out the stereo, but if you're going to mess around under the hood, you'd better know what you're doing or you may wind up taking the bus.
ALTON BROWN
I'm Just Here for More Food
I approach cooking from a science angle because I need to understand how things work. If I understand the egg, I can scramble it better. It's as simple as that.
ALTON BROWN
interview, September 12, 2002
I think that everything you do helps you to write if you're a writer. Adversity and success both contribute largely to making you what you are. If you don't experience either one of those, you're being cheated.
ALTON BROWN
Serious Eats
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
ALTON BROWN
I'm Just Here for More Food
The kitchen is a laboratory, and everything that happens there has to do with science. It's biology, chemistry, physics. Yes, there's history. Yes, there's artistry. Yes, to all of that. But what happened there, what actually happens to the food is all science.
ALTON BROWN
Good Eats
There is nothing like a plate or a bowl of hot soup, its wisp of aromatic steam making the nostrils quiver with anticipation, to dispel the depressing effects of a grueling day at the office or the shop, rain or snow in the streets, or bad news in the papers.
ALTON BROWN
Good Eats
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
ALTON BROWN
Good Eats
The best tool for any task is the one that you'll actually use.
ALTON BROWN
Good Eats
Cooking is a language through which all cultures speak.
ALTON BROWN
Feasting on Asphalt