In this space, I have already waxed rhapsodic about Nigella Lawson. In counterpoint, I will invoke the name of Alton Brown, supreme foodie geek extraordinaire.
Alton Brown’s show Good Eats is a half hour dose of campy nerdiness that instructs while it entertains. There is no rolling about in the food or sexual innuendo about licking the carving juices off a cutting board. Where Nigella makes eggs look like perky breasts in her manicured hands, Alton Brown has a knack for both sight gags and precision instruction. He demonstrates in exquisite detail how to make everything from a perfect steak to a bleeding brain gelatin mold.
His first book I’m Just Here for the Food plays off all the elements of the show — equipment necessary for a recipe is listed as hardware, ingredients as software. As it’s an exercise in print medium, the visual elements are ramped up a few notches. It also sports a retro feel with its vaguely Howard Johnson color scheme and vintage-appliance-cookbook-meets-web-graphics illustrations and layout.
His new book is all about the hardware. Gear for Your Kitchen is a more compact volume than IJHftF, which overhangs my shelving just a bit, but it delivers big on all things gadgetry. Well, as far as I can tell from my furtive gloss of GfYK at Barnes & Noble over the weekend as my cookbook budget is approximately $0 these days. Plus, I’m holding out for AB’s baking book due out next year.
Come to think of it, I’m not so sure Alton Brown is Nigella’s opposite… maybe in cooking style, but not in the sexy foodie department. I find geeks terribly sexy… therefore AB can be mantled with the sexy foodie moniker as well. It’s all about the brain, gelatin or otherwise.
