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Good Eats - Super Sweets
Other // Unrated // August 26, 2002
List Price: $19.95 [Buy now and save at Foodtv]
As statistics will show, food and eating are a popular pastime in America. From that fact, FoodTV sprang on to the cable television scene years ago and proceeded to make household names out of several chefs and television shows.
One of FoodTV's rising stars, who has not received the attention or praise that he deserves, is Alton Brown and his show Good Eats. His is not just your ordinary cooking show and Brown definitely is not your ordinary host. Like a good recipe, Good Eats blends equal parts of many elements (cooking, science and pop culture) to offer up a show that is entertaining and educational. With a background in cinematography, as well as food, the spiky-haired Brown is a mix of Quentin Tarantino film trivia and the scientific experimentation of Mr. Wizard applied to food.
Each episode takes a basic theme or ingredient (like chocolate, strawberries, or ham) and using the basic principles of food science, Brown creates several dishes from the ingredient. Aside from the many film and pop culture references, Brown has a personality and dry wit that makes him a likeable guy. He also seems down to earth. For the most part, the episodes take place in a set that is supposed to be his house and you feel at home with him. He seems like to slightly strange neighbor that's always doing strange things to his grill-like attaching a hair-dryer to turbo-charge it. Always interesting and often education, Good Eats is the perfect cooking show that shows you they why, along with the how.
With that introduction out of the way, let's take a look a one of the Good Eats DVDs:
Super Sweets is the DVD for anyone with a sweet tooth looking to make the most of their recipes. There are three episodes of the show on the disc, as well as a few extras.
Episode 1 - Three Chips for Sister Marsha: This episode takes the time honor Nestle Chocolate Chip cookie recipe and modifies it in three ways. It seems someone has stolen the cookies his sister had made for a brunch. In a panic, she reluctantly calls her brother to save her by making her a new batch of cookies. Along with his co-host for this episode-the neon green Cookie Captain-Brown takes you through modifying any similar recipe to make thin, puffy and chewy cookies. By explaining the way fat and baking soda, along with other ingredients, can be changed to make these variations he shows the chemistry behind the cooking and makes it entertaining.
Episode 2 - The Art of Darkness: In this take on Apocalypse Now, Brown is determined to find the origins of chocolate and just how it is made. Arriving in San Francisco, Brown meets with a chocolate maker and learns how to roast cocoa beans and grind it into chocolate. Back home he begins melting the chocolate in a double boiler (made with a stainless steel bowl and pot). When the chocolate has melted, the resident food scientist (Shirley Corriher) arrives to explain how to save you melted chocolate if it comes in contact with a drop of water, which can cause to seize into a solid block. Adding more liquid, in this case espresso and rum, liquefies the chocolate again and is easily finished into a rich chocolate mousse. With the basics explained, he then makes a batch of chocolate muffins to finish off the show.
Episode 3 - Churn Baby Churn: From the title you'd think this early episode of the series would be about making butter. Actually it's all about making ice cream and other frozen desserts. After discussing the difference between New York and Philadelphia style ice cream (it's eggs), Brown goes on to make three separate frozen desserts. First up is a frozen lime sorbet recipe in which you'll learn that you can substitute preserves (a thick jam) cup for cup for sugar in sorbet recipes. This concentration of flavor enhances the sorbet better than any artificial flavoring can. During the process the thermodynamics of an ice cream maker are explained and you'll learn the reason ice and salt are mixed together on the outside of the mixing barrel. He follows up with coffee granita which is an Italian frozen espresso dessert. Lastly, Brown finishes off the episode with "Serious" vanilla ice cream. The differences between creams, milk and half-and-half are explained and the different results each can yield. When all is said and done, you'll be ready to freeze up your own homemade concoctions.
More than just a recital of recipes, Good Eats presents you with all the information that you'll need to create not just the recipes you've seen but the knowledge to make your own. Combined with the witty and likeable presence of Brown, the numerous pop culture and film references will keep any viewer on their toes and laughing in their seat.
The Video: The video on this disc is a full frame transfer from the original episode. Sharpness, contrast, and coloring are all perfectly done but all is not well in video land. On this disc at least, there seems to have been a sync problem with the sound and transfer. At several moments in all three episodes the video speeds up and down while the audio stays the same. It's doesn't affect the viewing of the episodes in any way, but it is quite annoying.
The Audio: The stereo mix is a capable one with the title and episode music sounding good. Apart from the audio / video sync problem mentioned above, at certain times the vocals sound muted. It's not difficult to hear them, but it is slightly annoying.
Extras: What kind of extras can you have on a DVD for a cooking show? The recipes are included, of course. All the recipes for the shows are on the DVD and included in a foldout booklet in the case. The best extra is the Q&A with Brown that is included. Filmed on location of a special episode (parodying the Tom Hanks film Cast Away) Brown sits at a table and talks into a camera answering viewer's questions. For approximately 15 minutes he answers questions that have been written on note cards. His wry wit and knowledge shine again in this short section and you'll learn as much about him personally as you will about the science behind the episodes. Also included are commercials for the other FoodTV shows.
Overall: The perfect mix of pop culture and cooking-if there could be such a thing-Good Eats is the most entertaining and educational cooking show you'll ever watch. Brown has a perfect personality that lets him explain all the information and science needed to make a batch of ice cream, chocolate, or cookies that are definitely Good Eats.
One of FoodTV's rising stars, who has not received the attention or praise that he deserves, is Alton Brown and his show Good Eats. His is not just your ordinary cooking show and Brown definitely is not your ordinary host. Like a good recipe, Good Eats blends equal parts of many elements (cooking, science and pop culture) to offer up a show that is entertaining and educational. With a background in cinematography, as well as food, the spiky-haired Brown is a mix of Quentin Tarantino film trivia and the scientific experimentation of Mr. Wizard applied to food.
Each episode takes a basic theme or ingredient (like chocolate, strawberries, or ham) and using the basic principles of food science, Brown creates several dishes from the ingredient. Aside from the many film and pop culture references, Brown has a personality and dry wit that makes him a likeable guy. He also seems down to earth. For the most part, the episodes take place in a set that is supposed to be his house and you feel at home with him. He seems like to slightly strange neighbor that's always doing strange things to his grill-like attaching a hair-dryer to turbo-charge it. Always interesting and often education, Good Eats is the perfect cooking show that shows you they why, along with the how.
With that introduction out of the way, let's take a look a one of the Good Eats DVDs:
Super Sweets is the DVD for anyone with a sweet tooth looking to make the most of their recipes. There are three episodes of the show on the disc, as well as a few extras.
Episode 1 - Three Chips for Sister Marsha: This episode takes the time honor Nestle Chocolate Chip cookie recipe and modifies it in three ways. It seems someone has stolen the cookies his sister had made for a brunch. In a panic, she reluctantly calls her brother to save her by making her a new batch of cookies. Along with his co-host for this episode-the neon green Cookie Captain-Brown takes you through modifying any similar recipe to make thin, puffy and chewy cookies. By explaining the way fat and baking soda, along with other ingredients, can be changed to make these variations he shows the chemistry behind the cooking and makes it entertaining.
Episode 2 - The Art of Darkness: In this take on Apocalypse Now, Brown is determined to find the origins of chocolate and just how it is made. Arriving in San Francisco, Brown meets with a chocolate maker and learns how to roast cocoa beans and grind it into chocolate. Back home he begins melting the chocolate in a double boiler (made with a stainless steel bowl and pot). When the chocolate has melted, the resident food scientist (Shirley Corriher) arrives to explain how to save you melted chocolate if it comes in contact with a drop of water, which can cause to seize into a solid block. Adding more liquid, in this case espresso and rum, liquefies the chocolate again and is easily finished into a rich chocolate mousse. With the basics explained, he then makes a batch of chocolate muffins to finish off the show.
Episode 3 - Churn Baby Churn: From the title you'd think this early episode of the series would be about making butter. Actually it's all about making ice cream and other frozen desserts. After discussing the difference between New York and Philadelphia style ice cream (it's eggs), Brown goes on to make three separate frozen desserts. First up is a frozen lime sorbet recipe in which you'll learn that you can substitute preserves (a thick jam) cup for cup for sugar in sorbet recipes. This concentration of flavor enhances the sorbet better than any artificial flavoring can. During the process the thermodynamics of an ice cream maker are explained and you'll learn the reason ice and salt are mixed together on the outside of the mixing barrel. He follows up with coffee granita which is an Italian frozen espresso dessert. Lastly, Brown finishes off the episode with "Serious" vanilla ice cream. The differences between creams, milk and half-and-half are explained and the different results each can yield. When all is said and done, you'll be ready to freeze up your own homemade concoctions.
More than just a recital of recipes, Good Eats presents you with all the information that you'll need to create not just the recipes you've seen but the knowledge to make your own. Combined with the witty and likeable presence of Brown, the numerous pop culture and film references will keep any viewer on their toes and laughing in their seat.
The Video: The video on this disc is a full frame transfer from the original episode. Sharpness, contrast, and coloring are all perfectly done but all is not well in video land. On this disc at least, there seems to have been a sync problem with the sound and transfer. At several moments in all three episodes the video speeds up and down while the audio stays the same. It's doesn't affect the viewing of the episodes in any way, but it is quite annoying.
The Audio: The stereo mix is a capable one with the title and episode music sounding good. Apart from the audio / video sync problem mentioned above, at certain times the vocals sound muted. It's not difficult to hear them, but it is slightly annoying.
Extras: What kind of extras can you have on a DVD for a cooking show? The recipes are included, of course. All the recipes for the shows are on the DVD and included in a foldout booklet in the case. The best extra is the Q&A with Brown that is included. Filmed on location of a special episode (parodying the Tom Hanks film Cast Away) Brown sits at a table and talks into a camera answering viewer's questions. For approximately 15 minutes he answers questions that have been written on note cards. His wry wit and knowledge shine again in this short section and you'll learn as much about him personally as you will about the science behind the episodes. Also included are commercials for the other FoodTV shows.
Overall: The perfect mix of pop culture and cooking-if there could be such a thing-Good Eats is the most entertaining and educational cooking show you'll ever watch. Brown has a perfect personality that lets him explain all the information and science needed to make a batch of ice cream, chocolate, or cookies that are definitely Good Eats.
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