A packed house showed up to the Fabulous Fox Theatre last Friday to send a beloved culinary personality out in style. Claiming this likely be his last tour, Alton Brown—the American television personality, food show presenter, food scientist, author, and self-styled troubadour—took the stage (in his pajamas, no less) to perform an autobiographical one man show he’s entitled the “Last Bite.” Over the course of the evening, he took the audience through a journey of genuinely personal but relatable experiences through the prism of food, cooking, our relationship to both, and, eventually, a deep dive into the science that makes it all possible.
Known to most through his first successful food program Good Eats, Brown delighted audiences for 14 seasons with his flair for both cinematic presentation and in-depth explanations of not just how to cook, but why cooking certain ways provides certain outcomes, and this tour expands on these concepts. Starting small, the show opens on a mock kitchen at night. Alton (in PJs) enters to thunderous applause. He then begins to tell relatable tales of his childhood through the shared experience of Saturday morning cartoons and breakfast cereals (and the best way to make a proper bowl), and continues through to an examination of different kinds of milk, including a horrifying hilarious anecdote on the accidental discovery of buttermilk.
From childhood, we jump to his early adulthood as a 20-something virgin out of school with a crush on a coworker. He decides the best way to win her heart (and defeat her evil boyfriend) is to host a dinner party: the Mark of Adulthood. Only problem is, he doesn’t know how to cook at this point. We follow him through the process of finding a recipe at the library and photocopying it, taking it home and starting his cooking journey. Unfortunately, the night becomes a disaster as the food turns out worse than terrible and everyone leaves abruptly, including his big crush. He’s so angry he writes a letter to the gourmet magazine he got the recipe from. Astonishingly they write back and include the recipe in their response. In his haste and inexperience, Alton realizes in horror he didn’t photocopy the last few lines of the recipe, which was essential and changed the entire meal.
This humiliating experience set him a course to want to learn more and from there, we switch from personal stories to a Mr. Wizard-style dive into the science of cooking and thermodynamics. Now, if you’re not familiar with safety standards at live indoor show, there can be no open flames—this means Brown needed to be creative, which he was. He wheeled out a three-foot slab of iron carbon, which was cool enough to touch but had enough preserved heat to cook a three-foot omelet perfectly in a few minutes as we watched via a thermal camera. I’ve never seen such a thing and the crowd went wild.
Next up, we had the audience participation event, wherein guests who found a golden ticket under their seat were called up to help man a steam-powered hotdog conveyor belt contraption his great grandfather designed but never had the funds to build. Hilarious shenanigans ensued as the hometown crowd were timed as they rushed to add condiments and box the dogs, leading to judging competition where St. Louis scored first place among the other cities timed. Through a twist of fate, a young woman sitting in front of us was actually one of the winning tickets; when the show was over she brought back the box of hotdogs they cooked and I can say it was the best steam cooked hotdog I’ve ever had, along with one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve ever seen at the Fox. | Joseph C Roussin
After the St. Louis show, Alton Brown took to Instagram Live for the very first time to compare Imo’s vs. Elicia’s in a St. Louis-style pizza showdown. Check out the video below!
