Alton Brown's Good Eats: The Early Years - A Review

It should come as no surprise to regular readers that I am a big fan of Alton Brown. Given that, it is a bit surprising (at least to me) that I didn't really know anything about Brown's new book, Good Eats: The Early Years, until my brother picked me up a copy for my birthday.

I'd heard of the book, of course. I hadn't read any reviews, though, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I think I half-suspected that it was a sort of historical retrospective that would include musings on the making of the television show. If so, it would be entertaining, but not very useful. I was half right. It is entertaining.

It is also incredibly useful.

Good Eats: The Early Years is a distillation of the first eighty episodes of the television show into book form. If that's not enough to perk your interest, then either you aren't a fan of Alton Brown or you've seen all the shows and have a perfect memory of them.

So... what's in the book?

Eighty short chapters. One for each episode. About four or five pages each. Each chapter includes

• Knowledge Concentrate: You know how Alton Brown likes to dump a ton of information on you in his shows? You know how you never remember half of it? Each of the chapters has a list of the important information - both scientific and practical - from that episode.
• Applications: The rest of us call these "recipes." We get not only the recipes included in the episodes, but some that weren't included due to time limitations... along with commentary and updates that Alton Brown has made since the episode aired.
• Excerpts and liner notes: The book has bits of scripts, production notes, stills, diagrams, trivia, and commentary on the episodes. These are mostly entertaining, but some of the diagrams are quite useful as well.

Good Eats: The Early Years is a hefty, pretty book. I haven't subjected it to stress tests, but it feels like it will hold up to being used in the kitchen. The book jacket folds out into a poster, which I suppose is nice for people who want an Alton Brown poster. I find it a bit gimmicky, but inoffensive.

The book does have one flaw. The table of contents lists episode names, which don't always indicate where a particular recipe (or even type of food) is likely to be found. For instance, Episode 56 is entitled "Deep Space Slime" - any guesses what that might be about? The book does have a good index, so this is a minor inconvenience at most. Still, a table of contents that included a list of recipes, or even the focus of each episode, would have been helpful.