I, unabashedly, am a self proclaimed Alton Brown fan girl. Honestly, if not for him, I would never have found the love of cooking I have today. Growing up in my family cooking "outside the box" was really discouraged, so any time I experimented with a new recipe I got the "culinary smack down" and eventually gave up trying. When I got married, however, it turned out my husband LIKED my cooking and kept encouraging me to TRY new things. So, I started tuning into Food Network. And that's how I got introduced to "Good Eats". I followed "Good Eats" religiously for years and learned a lot, so when "Good Eats: The Early Years" came out in print it was the ONLY thing I asked my husband for for Christmas. When I opened the gift at Christmas I was a giddly as a little kid who was tearing open that first gift from Santa Claus. I LOVE this book and not just because it is recipes written from my favorite show. The book covers all of the recipes from the first 6 Seasons, but it does differ in some ways from the show. For one, Alton Brown came to realize that not everyone had every kitchen gadget or things like oven safe and stove top safe bake ware (not easy to find and pretty expensive), so in some recipes he redoes some recipes to use more commonly found kitchen equipment. He also shares little bits of trivia from the show as the book goes along and shares recipes that got cut from the show (due to time constraints) or even new versions of recipes that he likes better after experimenting more as the years have passed. The book is VERY easy to understand. Even basic culinary terms are explained in detail and there are pictures to show the uneducated cook where to go. There's reason why Alton Brown has won Culinary Teacher Awards in the past. He deserves them. Now, do I LIKE every recipe that Alton Brown comes up with? Of course not. But, the METHODS you learn from the recipes in this book will do you wonders in cooking good meals for your family and it's a very entertaining book to read. Even my husband reads it and he can't do more than boil water in the kitchen. Alton Brown is just that entertaining to read. Some of my absolute favorite Alton Brown recipes/methods are: 1) His Thanksgiving Turkey brine makes the BEST turkey in the universe...least in my family's opinion. I have made it every Thanksgiving for the past 5 years and we never get tired of that turkey. 2) His method for cooking steak in a cast iron skillet. Once you do it once, you'll never go back to just "regular" methods for cooking steak again. I've made steak that way for numerous guests and they all agree it makes the best steak they've ever had. 3) His baked apple recipe. I come from PA and the Amish baked apples were a good excuse to go to Amish functions for me. Alton Brown does a darn good re-creation of those apples as I remember them. 4) The list goes on. If you want to expand your culinary knowledge or are just a beginning cook that doesn't know where to start, I'd start with this book hands down. It's a staple in my kitchen and is not going anywhere anytime soon.

This book is way to awesome everyone should have one of these in there kitchen :)

awesome cookbook!

I totally love Alton Brown. He make cooking simple to do. He makes it fun. I love his quirky science mixed in with humor and fun recipes. He is a favorite mentor! I have my kids watch him several times a week to learn life skills (cooking) and kitchen science. He is my kitchen hero! I hope to meet him someday and thank him for making it fun to learn about the science and preparation of food. Give him a few minutes of your time and I bet you will love cooking too.