Good Eats: Juicy Meats (2002)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Starring Alton Brown

Features:

• 3 episodes from the Food TV series
• "Ask Alton" reader mail Q&A
• Recipes (on-screen and DVD insert)

Rating: NR, suitable for all audiences

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Cooks should buy it. Or buy it for your cook.

If you've been living on Mars, you may not be aware of Food Network. If this is the case then you also aren't aware of Alton Brown, former filmmaker and host of the blend of comedy, science, and cooking that is the show Good Eats. Presented in an unusual and quirky, but highly effective style, Good Eats is more like a trip through some surreal chef's brain than a demonstration-style cooking show.

In Juicy Meats, we have three episodes from Good Eats, each focusing on a different kind of meat meal. "Pork Fiction" focuses upon baby back ribs, "Steak Your Claim" tells us all about chopping cattle up into pan-seared steak, and "A Bird in the Pan" covers roasting chickens.

The instructional level is excellent. Brown makes you feel that you can do anything in the kitchen, including those dishes often seen as difficult, such as cooking the perfect steak. Using a host of visual aides from mysteriously-materializing chalkboards to stuffed chickens, Brown never pulls his comic punches.

The sound and image quality are fine. Camera angles are chosen to show what Brown is doing without being boring or too "classroom-y." Brown's own background as a film-maker shows in the cinematography and skits--there's never a dull moment, and the show is as visually stimulating and active as it is interesting and useful. No dull PBS shots or even duller colors.

The features are slim, but good, and let's face it, what features can you add to a cooking show? Out-takes where he drops the chicken on the floor? Ok, that would be funny... There's an "Ask Alton" feature where Brown answers fan questions relating to the theme; the questions are the kinds of questions viewers (obviously) really might have, and Brown answers them quickly and usefully. The disc itself comes with a fold-out containing each of the recipes discussed on the show. Juicy Meats provides the recipes for "Who Loves Ya Baby Back," "Pan-Seared Rib Eye," and "Broiled Butterflied Chicken." You have the instruction, you have the recipes...all you need now is the raw stuff.

But what's in this disk for a vegetarian, you ask? Well, assuming you don't have ethical qualms about cooking meat, who else needs the instruction more for those days when your carnivore husband just refuses to eat one more sprig of broccoli? And which of us isn't used to converting meat ingredients to veggie-friendly substitutes? Besides, there's lots of real information on these shows, not just the cooking segment itself. The sheer chemistry lessons alone are mind-bending. The information you learn here about pans, heat transfer, etc. can easily be transferred to other foods. In the end, Brown is just plain fun to watch.

Blending pop culture with yeast culture, Good Eats is everything a cooking show should be: funny, educational, very witty, and just plain odd at times. If even a vegetarian enjoys watching the meat-related shows, then you know you've got something special. Check this out and expand your repertoire; your dinner partners will thank you.