Customer Reviews

Good Eats: The Early Years

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Finally! No more having to dig through the search engine of the food network website or dreading that I wrote the wrong measurement or ingredient while watching the show and frantically trying to copy all the juicy "tidbits"! No more looking at the DvD collection and sighing at the price, knowing I could never afford it! It's Good Eats, concise, compact and affordable.

This volume contains the first 6 seasons and covers all 80 shows, covering: steak, spuds, eggs, baking, grilling, jams, frying, apples, mushrooms, and many more Good Eats.

All of the tidbits are here and I dare say if not all, most of them, including updates on some of the tips and hints since the episodes were made (such as the recent teflon scare and how teflon isn't bad below 550F). The recipes from each episode are listed with procedures, diagrams, pictures and notations. It takes the fear away from the complexity of cooking and gives you fun history tips that you can pass on during dinner chat or use in a friendly game of trivial pursuit. Having seen other works of Alton's and considering him the best of the best for telling you how, when and why with science to back it up, I rate this the #1 must have.

BTW, it's printed in a durable binder and the dustjacket folds out into a pulp-fiction type poster (cover art) that I'm seriously considering hanging in the game room due to its fun nature.

Ok, I didn't give this five stars...which really kind of hurts to do because I am a huge Alton Brown fan. (My DVR is set to record every episode of Good Eats as it airs, I have autographed copies of all his other books and I've cooked just about everything on the show so far.) Anyway, the book is great, the "knowledge concentrate" is great in that it gets to the point of each topic/show, the recipes that are there are great and well written and the book is very well put together in general.

So why didn't I give it five stars...well mainly because I find myself wishing it had a better way of organizing it and making the information and the related recipes easier to get to when you are cooking and don't really want to improvise and want to try his recipes out. Case in point, I had a bunch of friends coming over for dinner and I had very short notice to throw something together so I was following Alton's recipes for meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Finding the recipes was kind of challenging because i first tried to use the table of contents but that is sorted by the order of the episodes so it isn't really that helpful. next I turned to the index which actually worked very well. I think I am just spoiled by the ease of use of some good eats fan pages websites as easier ways to find recipes by searching by things like food and find myself wishing that was included in the book. I am also hoping (Wishing) that future editions will include some sort of master index (hopefully by food too) so that I can just look up something like "Pork, tenderloin" and see that it was used in his schweinbrauten recipe in episode x, and the recipe is contained in book y on page z kind of thing. Otherwise it is going to be messy to find something since the reader will have to remember which season/book the recipe is in. Other minor complaints involve the recipes. I got very excited to see in the first episode that he included an additional recipe that wasn't in the show but was kind of let down by the scarcity of more of these recipes throughout the book. Also, some of the recipes seem to be missing. Case-in-point, the chapter about pickling is missing some of the recipes he went over on the show such as for "firecrackers" and I had hoped that this book would become my one-stop source for all Good Eats recipes but some of them are missing and must be found on the internet.

The above complaints may be things that are specific to me and not something other general readers would find as a problem. Me, personally, I'm a bit spoiled by how easy Alton makes it to explain and understand some of the complex things about cooking so I wish they took some extra steps to make the book easier to use. Overall though I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book...especially for people that are new to cooking or shy about cooking since it does contain a treasure trove of information that can be unbelievably helpful to people whether they watch the show or not.

I hate to give this book a THREE STARS.
My hope is that the editor will correct the problems
before the next edition of the MIDDLE YEARS.

The book is better than expected.
Organized greatly ... how else could you do it except
by Episode. There is an index for looking up by
specific items.

Well thought out.
But if you are buying this book as a gift for someone,
then make sure that someone is YOUNG with young eyes

The MAIN text is okay ... as least it is black text on a white background.

Other texts like tidbits is like white font on very light colored background.
I have to hold the book just right ... light over my left shoulder with the
book on an angle AWAY from the light source. This helps to get rid of the glare.

Tomorow I will try some COLOR GLASS to look thru.
Hopefully there is a color combination out there that will increase the contrast.

The publisher must have been worried about people copying the pages.

The pages are probably larger than what a scanner would read and some of the fonts
appear to be less than size 6.

I took my bifocals off and replaced them with just reading glasses.

Book is great ... info is great ...Alton is great ... I would buy again even with the poorly designed fonts.

I will be getting the follow up book also and was hoping this review would help in getting others to also suggest
changing the font color in the next book. Could be the smaller font is there in order to fit in all the good info

Alton Brown is, quite simply, the best talent the Food Network has, and this book is a great review of the first few years of Good Eats. Brown manages to cram all the important stuff in each episode into less than a page in each chapter, as well as bringing *most* of the best recipes from each show into the book and giving much background and trivia on the production and cast of each show. It's a very worthy addition to anyone's cooking science shelf.

That said, I wish they hadn't left out a lot of the second-string recipes -- there's only one chocolate chip cookie recipe out of a show that featured three (though there's presumably enough information in the "knowledge concentrate" to recreate them), and the recipe for stovetop mac and cheese (a huge favorite of mine, and one I've recommended to others) simply isn't here. That's rather a shame -- it's not like they're hard to find on the Food Network website, but in focusing only on the marquee recipes Brown left out a lot of hidden gems.

Still, nothing that is in here is the least bit disappointing, and most of it is flat out awesome; it's not the bible of kitchen geekery by a long shot, but it definitely belongs on the same shelf with Shirley Corriher, Harold McGee, and Hervé This.

If you are a fan of Alton Brown and his detailed food information and trivia, you will love this book. It is organized by episode with all the great information he provides in each of his shows. It is a huge book with volumes and volumes of information. My husband sat down and read it like a book, not a cookbook when I gave it to him. This is a great companion to the episodes and a superb reminder of all those facts and details you wish you could remember when you watch the show. My only complaint is that I wish there were a list of the recipes in the book you could quickly scan when you are looking for something. A great gift for all Alton Brown addicts and foodies.Good Eats: The Early Years

The only food book you will ever need. It's not only informative, but entertaining and easy to read. This book has lots of good information in it, and isn't just another "recipe book." I love his style because he shows you how to
do things from start to finish, instead of just making a recipe. I have learned so much from Alton Brown that I
rarely use any of my other cook books. I can't wait for the next volume. If there were six star ratings, I would
give it six stars.

I am a big Alton Brown fan and this book exceeded my expectations. I am a cook for whom information is a catalyst to go cook something. Alton's approach arms me with the information I need to be successful in the kitchen. Yahoo!

That said, what I love about this book is all the great information presented in an excellent format. There are 'knowledge concentrates' which give you the fabulous (and very 'Alton') core data about a particular item. There are additional blurbs (in green boxes) which give you explanations for things like clarified butter and flan vs. creme, etc. which don't turn up in the recipe searches online. There are tips called out and background stories about episode ideas, etc. All this is presented episode by episode. When I have something to prepare, I turn first to Alton. This is a great resource!!

The book is a substantial tome (almost 400 pages) and I think well worth the money. The poster is just a bonus (ok, not something I'd ever hang!). A must have for my fellow foodies-in-the-making. I can't wait for the next installment.

I have gotten myself addicted to watching his shows. This allows me to bring them into the kitchen with me without having to endanger my laptop. I was disappointed to find a few of his recipes from the shows are missing here, but there are bonus ones that aren't covered so it evens out, I guess. This book is for the people who want to try everything they see on the show, but don't want to bring their televisions or laptops into the kitchen.

My dad is one of those guys who is completely impossible to shop for, ha has no preferences and no true hobbies.

One thing that he does do, however, is watch Good Eats and try frantically to write down the recipes and tips that flash around on the screen.
He wore down the buttons on the remote trying to rewind and pause on all the spots where the measures showed up onscreen.

This book, amazingly enough removes the need for him to do that, and potentially redo it if he loses the notecard/TV guide/napkin that he wrote it down on or having to find the episode on TV if he hasn't already got it recorded.

So great gift for a Good Eats fan that likes to apply what they learn from the show, needless to say he was thrilled and had no complaints.

I however had complaints because while the diagrams and things are certainly useful, there's also tons of squiggles and doodads thrown in that distract and clutter up the page. Also some diagrams were drawn in a similar color to the background, like a dark lime green on a spring green for example so once again my aesthetics were offended.

Anyway, colorful book, cool poster, great recipes, and the sticker on the back that looks like you spent something like $40 dollars makes it a great gift, or a great buy if you're a fan!

This book is a fun compilation of the early seasons of "Good Eats". Alton Brown adds some behind the scenes tidbits, adds a few recipes that didn't fit in the original broadcasts, and tweaks a few other recipes that needed changing. A person unfamiliar with "Good Eats" might be lost in trying to use this as a cookbook reference. I think of it as more of an entertainment retrospective than a cookbook.