Most people would think that Food Network TV shows are boring. And they’re right, many of them are. But Good Eats manages to peak my nerd interest in more than one way.

First, Alton approaches every dish or food item with a DIY attitude. He usually starts recipes off with how ‘normal people’ cook something and diverges quickly with his preferred method. This also pertains to his kitchen utensils. He’s very specific on what to use and why. It’s a very nerd-like tendency to behave in this way.

Second, Alton is also very specific on cooking times and temperatures. Every recipe that involves heat (which is nearly all of them) also involves a temperature. He always has an instant-read thermometer handy and isn’t afraid to use it.

Third, there’s a lot of chemistry and even some physics on how and why a food cooks or behaves in a particular way. It’s very common for a whiteboard to roll out with chemical diagrams of molecules or a flowchart of a cooking/preparing process. Paying attention in chemistry class actually paid off!

Fourth, every show has dozens of pop culture or history references, and you have to be quick to get them all. Every show has a great title like “The Alton Crown Affair”, “The Man Food Show” or “Carrots: A Taproot Orange”. Alton makes frequent innuendos and many historical figures make appearances, usually as caricatures of themselves (Louis Pasteur, the inventor of pasteurization, uses a flamethrower to destroy men dressed as bacteria.)

Good Eats is a great blend of tech, science and pop culture, which is perfect for geeks. If you’re afraid of the kitchen but are a fan of chemistry, tech or history, it’s definitely worth taking a look. Bon appetit!

Update: Wikipedia’s bio of Alton Brown sums up Good Eats much better than I did .