An oldie but a goodie is returning to the Food Network. Alton Brown’s Good Eats first aired in July of 1999 and lasted all the way until 2012 before it was taken off television, which was a dark, dark day indeed. Fans of the show have been begging the Food Network to release new Good Eats content and they (and Alton Brown) finally decided to deliver.
Good Eats was a one of a kind cooking show, somewhere between good old fashioned Baking with Julia and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Alton Brown took the time to not only explain how to prepare the dish he was demonstrating, but to also explain some of the science behind what happened to food when it was cooked in a fun and easy to understand way. This might seem boring, but they way he explains it makes it easy to understand and apply what you learned to many different types of dishes. Man shows you how to make a veggie soup? Look at what you got in the fridge, use the same logic, and make whatever soup you want! He makes an apple pie? Well babe, now you know how to make almost any fruit pie.
In my opinion, Good Eats was the best cooking show on TV for the simple fact that it didn’t teach you how to cook one meal, it taught you how to cook any meal. This show was how my partner learned to cook and after they showed it to me, it’s how I have been learning to cook, too. Cooking is a super useful skill to have and unfortunately it’s kind of hard. Lots of people never learn how to cook. They hope their partner will be able to or they just eat out all the time, which is expensive and also unfair to your life partner. That’s your best friend! Don’t you want to help your boo cook your meals? Good Eats is honestly perfect for any skill set and it’s incredibly entertaining to boot. This is why I was so excited to learn that a reboot was on its way!
Good Eats: The Return aired at the end of August and it promises to live up to the original’s good name. It’s still got the same quirky energy Good Eats does while staying fresh and new. Now I had my doubts, particularly since Alton Brown has been a part of more… cutthroat… projects than his first show. I was worried that the show I love was going to take on a too serious tone and it wouldn’t be the same, but I’m glad to find out that I was totally wrong and am so excited to see how this series progresses!