Edgecraft with Alton Brown

What part of that title didn't you understand?

Edgecraft is a Seth Godin term for taking competitive advantages and pushing them to their limits. Understanding the whole Free Prize mantra from Seth is essential to this post, so go read my recent summary if you need to.

Alton Brown is the host of Food Network's "Good Eats". If I could actually link you to an episode or two, I would, as it would help you understand this post as well. If it helps, Alton describes himself as a 'groovy home-ec teacher'.

So let me define Alton in terms of Free Prize:

Free Prize: Good Eats, literally. Making learning fun has always been a great Free Prize (think Bill Nye). Getting enough information to get off the couch and actually cook makes it truly interactive and special.
Long-term Prize: Learning enough (and actually cooking) to be a kitchen 'hack'.
Edgecraft: Making his shows focus on the WHYS of cooking. Why a souffle will collapse when you open the oven, for example. Making the show emphasize only one topic/recipe is important, too. Alton's often-tossed "but that's another show" is testament to this focus.
Champion: The interesting thing I recently learned is that Alton went to cooking school expressly to create Good Eats. He saw the edge, and knew he had the skills to create a show, he just didn't have the food knowledge. His original intention wasn't even to be the star.

Having the champion as the star is what makes the show so addictive--obviously I've become a big fan. But now that I understand more about him (thanks Wired), I am raising him to hero-status. That isn't a casual statement to make. He saw the edge, and made it happen.

Part of my respect is his obvious willingness to push the limits and experiment with what resources he has available. Attaching a battery-powered drill to a pepper grinder is hilarious, but also smart when you need a lot of fresh pepper. More subtle is doing a split screen so you can see him talk and watch him mix a bowl of ingredients.

Making the connection between Seth Godin's Free Prize mantra and a living example is quite inspiring. It will affect what I do in my life, and not just my kitchen. Perhaps for me, that IS the free prize!

Links:
The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking at Wired
Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Alton Brown at Brian's Belly
Rants & Raves, Alton's poorly posted blog
My first Good Eats experience (I actually cooked it): Fish & Chips