Alton Brown, Talking From the Can
Food with Mark Bittman
Sweetness and Light
4.8 • 981 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this revisiting of a 2025 episode, writer, chef, and TV star Alton Brown talks to Mark and Kate about fame, "then" and now; the problem with memory—and memoir; falling up the stairs; his farewell tour; and eating on the road, monastically.
Head to the Bittman Project for a special excerpt from Alton's collection of essays, Food for Thought: https://bittmanproject.com/alton-brown-meals-that-made-me-part-i/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Food with Mark Bitman. I'm Kate Bitman. Thanks for being here. We know how many of you are loyal listeners and we appreciate that so much. If you'd like to hear more from Mark and me and our small but mighty team, check us out on bitmanproject.com. When you subscribe there, you'll get access to our recipe database, which now has |
| 0:24.4 | thousands of recipes, with more added weekly. |
| 0:27.5 | If you prefer a substack experience, we're on there, too, bitmanproject. |
| 0:32.5 | Substack.com. |
| 0:34.5 | Reach out to us with any questions, comments, or stuff you think should be featured on the podcast or on our site, food at markbitman.com. People loved this episode when we originally ran it a year ago, and I get it because Mark and I both loved doing the actual interview. |
| 1:07.2 | Today we are revisiting our conversation with Alton Brown. This chat was recorded around the publication |
| 1:13.7 | of Alton's 10th book, Food for Thought, which is a collection of essays, one of which, by the way, |
| 1:20.2 | we have on the Bitman Project. The link to that is in today's show notes. But the book, as funny and |
| 1:26.3 | nostalgic as it is, was just an excuse to have |
| 1:29.0 | Alton on, and to chat about what's been such a successful and interesting career. |
| 1:35.2 | Alton started out directing TV commercials. Fun fact, he was also the director of photography |
| 1:40.8 | on REM's The One I Love music video. But you know him best for Good Eats, |
| 1:46.8 | a science forward program that turned the culinary TV show on his head. He also hosted Iron |
| 1:52.8 | Chef America, Food Network Star, and Cutthroat Kitchen. Alton was also the first, and so far only, |
| 2:00.6 | guests we've had on who did the interview from the toilet. |
| 2:04.0 | Not in the way you're thinking, no. He was on his tour bus. This was when he was going around the country for Alton Brown Live. I swear, here we are. |
| 2:14.5 | Thank you for reaching out and thank you for doing this and congratulations on the new book. |
| 2:19.6 | Thank you. Thank you. We're very informal here. |
| 2:23.4 | Oh, I didn't put a suit on for you. I just woke up in it. In the bathroom. |
| 2:28.3 | In the bathroom. I'm sitting in a bathroom in a tour bus parked out of the side of theater in Melbourne, Florida. |
| 2:37.2 | But it's nice. I get my own room. I do have a state room in my own bathroom, which I'm sitting |
| 2:41.3 | in now because it has the best light. And yes, that means I'm actually sitting on the toilet right now. |
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