Alton Brown: The USDA & FDA Support Industry, Not People | The Reason Interview

The 'Good Eats' host talks about the virtues of Cap'n Crunch, why fusion cooking isn't cultural appropriation, and how Martha Stewart's perfectionism ruined dinner parties.

https://reason.com/podcast/2025/03/05/alton-brown-a-tv-chef-offers-food-for-thought/

0:00— Introduction
0:43— Brown's Last Bite tour
1:55— Brown's new book: Food for Thought
6:40— Curiosity and surprise are essential to life
12:03— The pizza that made Alton Brown
16:21— When Indian immigrants made kadhi that blew Brown's mind
18:57— The positive case for 'cultural appropriation'
26:53— Food media's impact on cooking skills
30:40— How Martha Stewart's perfectionism ruined dinner parties
32:07— Julia Child, Mr. Wizard, and Monty Python
39:56— Good Eats motivated food exploration
48:19— Ozempic & the moral value of restraint
51:01— USDA & FDA were created to support industry, not consumers
55:28— Southern cuisine and Jello salads
57:00— On being from the South and embracing its full history

Our guest today is Alton Brown, who for years hosted Good Eats on the Food Network and brought his interest in science to the making of dinner. He's currently touring the country, and he has also just published Food for Thought, a great collection of essays about food, culture, and his life on and off the screen. In this episode, Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Brown about how food transcends politics, why fusion cooking isn't cultural appropriation, and why there's always room for Jell-O salad on his menu.

#altonbrown #food #foodnetwork #interview