Before Alton Brown and his show Good Eats, I could cook only by rote and recipe. My fudge, forgotten cookies, and other sweets were excellent, but only from the quality and simplicity of the recipes handed down in my family. Everything else that I tried to learn failed to "stick" in my head, from lack of fundamental understanding; I am a Geek, therefore what I do not Grok, I trouble to Remember.

Bake at 350 (Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes. Why not 400 for 37 minutes? Why 3 eggs instead of 4? Why never mix the brownies more than 50 stirs? By answering these types of questions, and by the general focus on *never* boring the audience, the show has succeeded in penetrating my brain where all else had failed. Also, a few of the recipes have become staples here; when we run low on Good Eats Tomato Sauce, someone in the family blocks out 2 hours to make a triple batch!

The Public TV show America's Test Kitchen and it's publication "Cook's Illustrated" have also been helpful, they focus on perfecting recipes, and give you the details of the 20-50 variations they tried and what their tasting panels thought of each one. Alton is a *much* more entertaining writer and performer, though, and the production values of his show are higher.

Coincidently, our local PerlMongers group met for a while on Means Street, near the original Good Eats production company.

Alton's success on Food Network has been considerable; while not as recognizable a name as some stars, he has over 130 episodes of Good Eats published on DVD, and is now also writing and hosting Iron Chef America.