Food - Drink
Alton Brown's Favorite Cookbook Out Of The 2,000 He Owns
By AUTUMN SWIERS
Since Alton Brown’s show, “Good Eats,” first aired in 1999, the celebrity chef has spent his career teaching foodies reliable tips and tricks in the kitchen. However, behind the scenes, there are a few things fans might be surprised to learn about Brown like why he prefers to be called a foodist rather than a chef, and which cookbook is his favorite out of the 2,000 that he owns.
Brown revealed that his favorite cookbook is none other than "The Fireside Cook Book" by the legendary chef and America’s first foodie, James Beard. Originally published in 1949, “Fireside” is the fourth of Beard's more than 20 cookbooks, and contains 1,217 recipes with playful titles like "Dinner for a Gloomy Day When All the Leftovers Are Gone."
Beard wrote the book in hopes of defining a unique "American" food style, and this simplicity is what draws Brown to the book time and again. The celebrity chef remarked that the book is "a clear portrait of American cuisine at its post-World War II height, before the rise of California or fusion cuisine, or any cuisine for that matter.”